1 December 2014
Dear Stephenie Meyer,
First, I would like to briefly introduce myself to you. My
name is Kristi. I am a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. Currently, I am in my last semester at Brigham Young
University, majoring in Family Life Studies.
You may be wondering why I am writing you and I will explain
why. When I was in high school, I read your first three books, Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. At
first I liked your books, but after thinking about them, I have no idea why I
liked them. No offense to you, but something about them has always bothered me,
like there was some underlying factor that I just couldn’t see, until recently.
Currently I am taking a class called Media, Family, and
Human Development. We have learned a lot about how much media influences
people, especially adolescents. In literature, adolescents are exposed to about
30.23 acts of aggression, after reading one hour verses 18.46 acts of
aggression when watching one hour of television. Most adolescent literature
shows acts of verbal or relational aggression, although the male characters
tend to be more physically aggressive. Typically, this aggression is NOT
justified and there are never any consequences for them. By the time a child
graduates elementary school, they will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000
other acts of violence. The effect of media violence on subsequent aggression
is just as strong as the effect that smoking has on lung cancer. Over 1,000
studies, including a longitudinal study spanning over 22 years, show a link
between media violence and aggression. Overall, media violence influences
physical aggression, aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, physiological
arousal, prosocial behavior, empathy, nightmares, relational aggression,
racism, fear, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and sleep
disturbances. All of that information is very overwhelming in seeing how
violence in media can affect one’s soul.
In the For Strength of Youth
(2001), it says, “Depictions of violence often glamorize vicious behavior. They
offend the Spirit and make you less able to respond to others in a sensitive,
caring way. They contradict the Savior’s message of love for one another.” In
the 2003 Ensign, Brad J. Bushman said, “Similarly, the Spirit is offended when
we pollute our minds with harmful, violent material, whether or not such
material causes us to commit violent acts. Consuming violent media makes it
more difficult to keep ourselves “unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). It is
troubling that so many people consider it entertaining to view violence […].”
Violent media desensitizes, makes us unware in feeling.
Your books contain quite a bit of
violence as there are numerous fights between the vampires and werewolves. I
can see why it is there because of your plotline, yet at the same time, it puts
a reality to all these statistics and warnings. It is one of the many sources
that lead to this desensitization. It does not uplift or invite the spirit into
one’s life. It is a source of chaos and confusion.
Another source of confusion
that hurts people’s souls is pornography. Many people describe along the lines
of “printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display
of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather than
aesthetic or emotional feelings” (Google’s definition). My Media class defined
it as “two people having sex (seeing and implying), two people in bed together
(after the fact), frontal shot of man, woman takes off top, woman takes off top
in a non-sexual context, rear shot of a person, passionate kissing, and heavy
petting. This I total agree with. Pornography is more than what many define.
There are many things out there that can sexually arouse a person. This is what
I label as pornography. For children and adolescents, this can led to lasting
impressions, harming their sexual development, leading to an earlier onset of
sexual intercourse, and more risky sex. For marriage, it can lead to decrease
sexual desire, women feeling objectified, divorce, and dissatisfaction with
partner (in affection, appearance, sexual curiosity, and sexual performance).
Also, sexual deviancy, sexual perpetration, decreased intimacy, acceptance of
rape myths, behavioral aggression, and sexual aggression can be results of it.
Sex and pornography are rampant in the media.
The For Strength of Youth
(2011) says, “Pornography in all forms is especially dangerous and addictive. […]
Use of pornography is a serious sin and can lead to other sexual transgression.
Avoid pornography at all costs. It is a poison that weakens your self-control,
destroys your feelings of self-wroth, and changes the way you see others. It
causes you to lose the guidance of the Spirit and can damage your ability to
have a normal relationship with others, especially your future spouse. It
limits your ability to feel true love. If you encounter pornography, turn away
from it immediately.”
According to the Google
definition, you book does not contain pornography. But if you look at it in the
sense that there are parts that are sexually arousing with the romantic scenes of
passion, it does contain pornography. This is just another set lens, a way of
thinking, a way of looking.
Twilight’s summary says, “The
lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knifed-between
desire and danger. Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight
captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires.” This is not in line with the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Mosiah 3:19 reads, “For the
natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will
be, forever and ever, unless he yield to the enticing of the Holy Spirit, and
putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ
the Lord.” Satisfying our desires is satisfying our natural man.
As members of the Church of
Jesus Christ, I believe we should uphold to what we believe in. We shouldn’t
satisfy the desires of the world, but listen and uphold the word of God in all
that we do. As Alma preached to his people, we need to “stand as witnesses of
God at all times and in all things, and in all places” (Mosiah 18:9).
I really do not mean to be
offensive in this letter, but as everybody knows you are a member of the church,
I feel like you should be upholding those standards so others may have an
accurate view of the Church. I as a fellow member of the Church, I do not
appreciate reading about moony, love sick couples. I would not want my
daughters to read and learn from Bella’s example. This is not how we should
act. Yes, we have emotions and sometimes they are hard to deal with, but we can
overcome our trials and heart breaks. That is where the atonement of Christ
comes in. I know there are many others in the world today who do not believe in
Christ or His atonement, but that does not mean we cannot profess our belief in
Him and of His redeeming power. We should teach our children correct principles
(Doctrine & Covenants 93: 42). When we have power in the media, we should use
it for good and write, speak good things. We should have messages of peace and
charity (Moroni 7:47), not of hatred and violence. This is my belief. This is
my message.
Thank you for taking your time
to read. Like I said, I don’t mean to be offense, just giving a hand of
admonishment.
Sincerely,
Kristi
A BYU Student
A member of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Saints
List of
research articles:
- Malmuth et al., 2000; Kim & Hunter, 1993; Sheppard et la., 1988
- Manning, 2006
- Witherspoon, 2009
- Huesmann et al., 2012
- Coyne & Archer, 2004
- Bushman & Anderson, 2001
- Bushman & Anderson, 2001
- Strasburger, 2009
- Huesmann, et al., 2003
- Anderson et al., 2010; Coyne et al., 2008; Krahe & Moller, 2010
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