56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. (John 6)
I was told in preparation for the AP Literature exam, “if you don’t know what to write, argue that the central figure is intended to be read as a Christ-symbol.” Milking one’s religious heritage to score points on a test is not necessarily the best advice, apart from the fact that this strategy would work better for some characters than others. Tom Robinson: sure; Hamlet: stretching it. However, for centuries artists have incorporated central elements of the Christian narrative—atonement, resurrection, eternal life—
in narratives about redemption. One part of pop culture that explicitly appropriates, and interrogates, narrative elements from the Gospels is the HBO Vampire series True Blood. The show is based on the novels of Charlaine Harris, a senior warden at her town’s Episcopal Church.
One of the most interesting aspects of what one might call the Christian narrative thread in True Blood is its interrogation of revenge. While the show follows basic vampire genre conventions in showing lots of fangs and gore, in addition to hand-to-hand combat and chase scenes, the show’s major source of tension lately has not been “Will she escape?” or “What’s behind that door?” but, “Should one return violence with violence?”
In the world of the show, the production of synthetic blood has allowed vampires to come out of the closet, so to speak, living openly with humans. There is a thinly veiled extended metaphor between vampires and homosexuals. For example, at one point the characters see on television news that Vermont has just starting recognizing marriages between vampires and humans. In another instance, a young man introduces his vampire girlfriend to his mother; although the girlfriend is eager for acceptance, the young man’s mother announces that she will never condone her son’s relationship with a partner “who can’t have children.”
The last shows focus on rising tension between a self-identified Christian community called The Fellowship of the Sun and the vampires of Dallas, Texas, who are attempting to integrate into society or mainstream. The head pastor of the Fellowship, Steve Newlin, claims that his father was killed by a vampire, and sets the eradication of vampires as the goal of his church. “We are fighting for God’s green earth, and daytime, and Christmas, and Easter eggs, and all that is sacred and good! We are fighting for…human rights, human rights,” the pastor and his wife claim on national TV—when asked to justify why their church armed a suicide bomber who killed both vampires and humans.
The character who my former colleague would identify as the “Christ-symbol” is a 2000-year old vampire named Godric, the Sheriff of the Dallas vampire community. Godric does not purport to be divine, or to assist humans in building a relationship with God. What he does do is explicitly take a stance against the use of violence to end violence, or returning evil with evil. When the Fellowship attempts to kidnap a vampire to be killed in a gruesome ceremony, Godric reasons that they will not stop until they succeed, and accordingly allows himself to be captured.
Two vampire characters that embody different ways of responding to violence are Godric and Stan. Dressed in a black cowboy hat and rippling with muscle, Stan demands that vampires respond to the Fellowship simply by killing them—after all, the vampires are immeasurably stronger—and organizes a vampire squad to attack the church. Godric however appears in time to do what one might call conflict mediation. He asks the humans whether they are prepared to die for their leader, and in response they calm down and slowly exit. Losing respect among vampires who long to take revenge through violence does not deter Godric.
While I will not give away the final plot turn, the most recent show entitled “I Will Rise Up” brings the Christian narrative thread in True Blood to a resolution. In so doing, the show offers a modern interpretation of questions at the core of the crucifixion narratives: what does it mean for a single individual to atone for the wrongdoing of a group? What are plausible motivations to not demand eye for an eye and return violence with violence? In presenting scenarios in which wronged groups and individuals decline to take revenge, and in explicitly integrating Christian imagery into its plotlines, True Blood illustrates the practice of mercy and the great personal cost that can accompany it.
The complete lectionary readings for this week are John 6:56-69; Ephesians 6:10-20; 1 Kings 8:(1,6,10-11), 22-30, 41-43; and Psalm 84.
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