Churches and Vampires

It is amusing to note that as you drive through most towns there will be one church and two taverns located towards the center. Now, which would you expect to find the local undead human hanging out in? Which brings us to the next question, is a Church a location (yes), or a symbol (yes)? If it is a symbol, and most things that have been around for any length of time acquire symbolic meanings, what does it represent and what is it about the idea/reality represented. And what is it about a Church that makes the vampire unable to enter? And it is arguably more than the threshold (a different section here) that keeps it out.

A Church is the home of the body of Christ. No, I don’t mean literally; well, sort of. After they accept Christ into their hearts through Communion and repentance (to turn away from sin), the combined bodies become one entity, the body of Christ, the Church. This creates a combined repository of souled humans who are opposed to unsoiled – and thus evil – vampires. Vampires don’t like the things of Christ, perhaps because of the symbology attached to him and his objects. This presumes that Christ = good, which makes anything not-Christ = not good. But at the least the Church has acquired a patina of faith from the faithful occupants. (I used to clean house for a smoker, and his walls became a sickly yellow color from the left-over smoke. I don’t see why faith can’t leave just as great a patina / imprint over time.) This faith and the freewill choices towards giving up the physical body made by the Christians, in exchange for a souled existence with Christ and his Heaven, doesn’t leave much space for the vampire.

The Church is also the home of God, who is there “wherever two or more are gathered in his name”(Mathew 18.20). Just as it is an uneven battle when mere humans stand against vampires (reference the film version of Thirty-Days of Night, it is an equally uneven battle when vampires attempt to stand against God.

So, does the Church – as a building -- repel Vampires? It depends on whose literary world (remember this is about literature. In the world of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, Father Callahan, the Priest, after being forced to ingest vampire blood, is no longer able to enter his own Church. He is now an outcast, although the choice was made for him, by Kurt Barlow (the Master Vampire), and his own body (or desire to save Mark Petrie, depending on if you are in the movie or the book).

Remember to add to the equation that a “working” Church is filled with Holy items which carry their own weight as symbols. Funny that Zombies can enter Churches at will (as can evil humans). Ask a Zombie if they have a soul and if Christian salvation is still on the table for them.