Haunt of Jackals by Eric Wilson, Day Three

Eric Wilson's Family Fought Reds
The most interesting thing I found on author Eric Wilson's web site was his bio, in which he tells that his parents smuggled Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. I wish he'd elaborated on that, it's interesting.

For the younger set, I thought I'd tell a little bit about Bible smuggling and the Iron Curtain. In the Communist view of things, Christianity is the enemy. It's competition to their own ideas, for one thing. And so Communist regimes have tended to be murderously hostile to Christians.

In the Communist revolution in Russia, the Bolshevik leader V. I. Lenin was so hateful against Christians that he ordered that the Grand Duchess Elisabeth, the sister of the Empress, be murdered even though she had become a nun and worked among the poor. He said she was even more dangerous than other aristocrats because of her Christian service.

(These events in Russia were anticipated in 1917 by the events of Fatima, Portugal, in which three shepherd children witnessed a vision of Mary in which, among other things, she warned that Russia would spread her errors throughout the world.)

The story of the horrors inflicted on Christians by the Communists, and upon people in general, is every bit as horrible as the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime. But it isn't told very often since it is an embarrassment to American Progressives. One story is of a woman who was told she was going to be sent to a labor camp because her father was a priest. She told them that her father was a farmer, not a priest. The authorities demanded how she knew her father wasn't a priest, since her mother was a Christian and had gone to the church. The woman was sent to the camp on this lame excuse.

Vampires and Christians
During the blog tour some of the participants have questioned whether Christians ought to write about vampires at all since vampires are evil. This is my two-cents on it. Christians can and do write about evil, and that includes writing about vampires --- look at the example of Bram Stoker, who wrote 'Dracula'.

Also, vampires are a fictional creature and each vampire-author's vampires operate by different rules. Some vampires can live without human blood, some don't have to kill their victims, not all are able to control human minds. Most vampire-authors make their vampires able to turn humans into vampires without the humans consent. Therefore, it is possible for a Christian to write a story including a good vampire--- even a Christian vampire. I have even read a story where a Catholic priest was made a vampire against his will (though he quit being a priest at that point, even though he only fed from volunteers).

(I've had the idea kicking around my head about vampires who subsist on communion hosts, since communion hosts are, in Catholic teaching, the Body and Blood. Lutherans could probably use the same fictional concept, since they have similar beliefs, but any Protestant/Evangelical might use that concept since after all God is perfectly free to sustain the 'life' of a Christian vampire by communion wafers no matter which theological belief about the sacrament is correct. If anyone thinks I should actually write the story, encourage me in a comment and I may do it. UPDATE: so far, one vote in favor.)

Some blog tour posts worth viewing are:
Vampires and Christian Fiction by Rebecca LuElla Miller
KM Wilsher reviews Haunt of Jackals by Eric Wilson
Haunt of Jackals Day 3 by Keanan Brand

Links to other blog tour participants

BLUE ARMY conspiracy: The motto of the Blue Army is 'One World Praying'. In the EWTN coverage of the 'One World Praying' event at the Blue Army shrine, one of the speakers mentioned a previous 'One World Praying' event where they went to Russia and asked both Orthodox and Catholic Christian groups to participate in the worldwide prayer event. They also asked Muslim groups to participate with their Muslim prayers, and they also were televised in that event.

Muslims are not Christians--- they believe Jesus Christ was a prophet only, and that Mohammed was a greater prophet. While Christians cannot compromise their faith on the issues on which Muslims and Christians differ, perhaps praying together as fellow religious believers will cause many Muslims to soften negative attitudes about Christianity and leave them more open to the Gospel.

The Catholic Verses by Dave Armstrong is now available as an e-book. Dave Armstrong was a Protestant campus missionary who became a Catholic. The Catholic Verses explores 95 Bible passages which historically have divided Catholics from Protestants, and which, Armstrong claims, support Catholic teachings. Armstrong also includes extensive quotes from the Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther (not the same dude as Martin Luther King) and John Calvin. This book is great for helping Catholics and those considering becoming Catholic discover the Biblical basis for the faith. Protestants who want to know what Catholics believe and what the Biblical basis for those beliefs are can also use the book if they don't mind the Catholic convert's point of view. (Too many Protestants/Evangelicals, when explaining why Catholicism is allegedly not Biblical, make big mistakes about what it is that Catholics really believe, such as the Evangelical author I read who believed that Purgatory was a second chance for the hell-bound soul. Actually, it's only the person who is destined for heaven who might go to Purgatory--- it's a place to get cleaned-up for heaven.)