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 by Miss Poppy Dixon I am the true vine. Jesus, John 15:1 What we know as vampyre myths can be found among the earliest writings of almost every culture. And where they don't exist explicitly, they've been handed down through legends. Vampyre imagery is especially vivid in Christianity, with its requisite fixation on blood. In fact, Christianity is responsible for "fleshing out" the modern vampire, making it a romantic, even Christ-like, figure. It should come as no surprise that Christianity makes of blood a fetishistic object of worship. Such tenacious oblations hearken back to ancient times when women wielded power through their mysterious bleeding, bleeding that generated life. Woman is the first immortal, the first vampyre. The "first" woman, Lilith, originally appeared in Sumerian and Babylonian literature as a vampyre. A staple of Hebrew folklore she also appeared in the Talmud as Adam's first wife. She appears nameless in the first creation story - Genesis 1:27. According to legend, Lilith wanted to be on top during sex. Refused, she departed Eden to the Red Sea, "an abode of demons." From then on Lilith wreaked all kinds of havoc on humanity. Contemptous of normal sexual relations she would take the form of a succubus and torture men, causing nocturnal emissions and impotency. She was also blamed for causing barrenness, miscarriages, still births and unexpected deaths. (1) So feared and despised is Lilith (no thanks to Sarah MacLachlan) that one online Christian ministry, Demonbusters, attributes Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) to her influence. SIDS claims more male than female babies and since Lilith is accused of hating both men and babies, their deaths are attributed to her curse. The following advice is given for protection of infants:
Perhaps there is a figurative interpretation to Moses' victory over Egyptian goddess religions in his "parting of the Red Sea," the abode of Lilith and her demons. Could it be the power of female blood and will that we find sublimated today in Christian ritual and worship? JESUS CHRIST, VAMPYRE Some of these ideas are amplified in the punk cult classic, The Last Days of Christ the Vampire, written by J. G. Eccarius. It's a fast paced novel with Christ as the ultimate vampyre, taking over the world with a viral belief system. COMMUNION I am that bread of life. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. I have to admit that I love taking communion. It moves me to the very depths of my soul. Every week it mysteriously unites me with the body of Christ, and all the saints throughout history (though I still wouldn't want to be in the same room with most of them). Communion is so earthy, primitive and undeniably female. When you surrender to its power you come in contact with your most primal needs, desires and fears. It's no wonder that it has had such a profound influence on popular culture. For Catholic children, first communion is a major life event. Girls dress up like miniature brides of Christ, both girls and boys confess their sins, and partake of the holy meal. Parents often immortalize this event with photographic portraits. One Internet company, aptly named "Frozen Memories," will take a communion portrait, and morph it with a stylized version of the Last Supper so that Christ himself is serving your child communion. And it's only $14.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling. (3) From this:
 To this:  TRANSUBSTANTIATION For if from the point of view of a Jew an atrocity committed on the host would be meaningless, from the point of view of a medieval Christian it would be a repetition of the torturing and killing of Christ. ...this interpretation is born out by the many stories of how, in the middle of the tortured wafer, Christ appeared as a child, dripping blood and screaming. (4)
Jack Chick, of Chick Publications, is so offended by the Catholic concept of transubstantiation that he calls the host a "death cookie," and Catholic communion "wafer worship." Trust Jack to be the first to alert the public to the dangers of gliadin, a sometimes troublesome byproduct of gluten, in some manufactured hosts. (6) BLOOD LUST AND SALVATION
While Christ was supposed to be the end of animal and human sacrifice old habits die hard. Christians continue to worship the blood of Jesus, and this continued fascination with blood has manifested itself in unspeakable horrors directed at dissenters and heretics - all for the salvation of souls. The 18th century Moravian leader Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf wrote, Fuga sanguinis hydrophobia spiritualis.He also wrote the words to the song, "Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness," in 1739 which was later translated to English by John Wesley. Songs adoring the blood of Jesus are many and include titles such as, "Are You Washed In The Blood?," "The Blood-Washed Throng," "The Bloodwashed Pilgrim," "Nothing But The Blood," "Saved By The Blood," "There Is Power In The Blood," "There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood," and others. Most of these songs were written between the years 1875 and 1920 when vampyre lore was in vogue. Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula" in 1897.(8) The song, "Cleansing Wave," by Phoebe Palmer Knapp (1839 - 1908) reads, Oh, now I see the cleansing wave!And the Catholics are even more explicit with, "Blood of Christ, Inebriate Me!" Inebriate me with Your Love, CHRISTIANITY AND VAMPYRISM In contemporary Christian theology vampirism is used to prove creation "science," that the earth is only a mere 6000 years old, give or take a year or two. In "The Dracula Connection to a Young Earth," John Woodmorappe asks, "Is it possible that vampire bats have acquired their disgusting habit of craving and drinking blood in only a few thousand years since the Fall?" He goes on to explain about the evolutionary changes necessary to adapt to a diet of blood, quite minor with this particular species of bats, and concludes with, "Had millions of years been available, many bats should have had the time to develop a sanguivory habit. But with just thousands of years available, only those bats which already possessed anatomical features consistent with blood sucking actually switched to it." (11) So there you have it, vampirism proves that dinosaurs walked the earth with man.
Please enjoy The Best Christian Blood Links. Please let us know if you have any comments, suggestions or objections.
NOTES (1) J. Gordon Melton, THE VAMPIRE BOOK: THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE UNDEAD (Visible Ink Press, 1994) p. 370. [back] THE BEST CHRISTIAN BLOOD LINKS
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Take precaution by cleaning out your homes and your baby's room of those abominable things (night lamps made like an owl, elves, smurfs, fairies, etc. Foreign made toys carry many evil powers, and which have been dedicated to a false god). (sic)
Between the years of 1243 and 1761 thousands of Jews were tortured and executed for the crime of host desecration. Most were burned, many were mutilated. In 1370 almost every Belgian Jew was massacred, man, woman and child, for the crime of host nailing. 
I'll end with a final strange example of Christian blood lust - the candy cane. It seems that a humble Christian candy maker in Indiana was dismayed at his lack of opportunity to witness for our Lord. But his plea, "What can a humble candy maker do?" did not go unheard and he was inspired to create the candy cane as an eternal witness of his faith. He started with hard, white candy to symbolize the purity of Jesus' origins and the endurance of God's promises. He fashioned it into a "J" for "Jesus" and if you turned it upside down it could also represent the shepherd's hook, used to rescue lost lambs. The small red stripes represent the scourging of Christ and the large red stripe represents his blood shed at Calvary for our sins. 
