1995 gave us the film The Prophecy, a rather forgettable horror film about the war of the angels coming to Earth as angels battle and search for the most evil soul born to humanity. The film had few redeeming qualities, and both of those were name Christopher Walken and the angel Gabriel and Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer. In the climax of the film the heroes turn to a Native American shaman to save the day.

This really bugs me.

I have nothing against anyone’s religious beliefs. Personally I hold that all religions look whacky from the outside. If yo want to craft a story around a religion and its mythos, go ahead. I love The Exorcist but I am in no stretch of the imagination either Catholic or Christian, doesn’t mean I can’t accept the ‘world-building’ for the lack of a better term to allow myself to submerge into the story. To me it is no different than accepting the ‘truth’ of the Force while you watch a Star Wars movie.

What bothers me is when you do a grab bag of mythologies, or ignore the clear implications of what you are putting down on paper or up on the screen.

If the Christian world-myth is true to the point where angels are moving amongst us calling humanity ‘talking monkey’ and are jealous of God particular love for us then that means the other religions are wrong, mere myth and superstition. Bringing in other magic to save the day is simply dodging the real story consequences of the choice you made in setting up the world.

Let me give you another example: Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

In the pilot episode Gliles, as exposition man, explained that ‘contrary to myth this world did not start out a paradise.’ The bible and its creation myth are false. Demons were here naturally from the start. Okay I can buy that, but why do crosses repel vampires?

Oh I see you in the back waving your hand in the air all ready to quote ‘Fright Night’ that is it about the faith of the person holding the cross. In the story Willow Rosenberg is at best an atheistic Jew and later she becomes a pagan, but hey that cross works just fine. Oh it’s the faith of the vampire now? You mean the faith of the demon that know the truth of creation, or the person corpse the demon is possessing? So a vampire sired from an Hindu would flee from a cross or not?

The fact is that vampire lore, coming from the Victorians, have them repelled by crosses and so did Joss, but the Victorians took Christianity as a given and Joss rejected it in his world-building.

I say if you are going to accept the cross’s action then you need to put on your grown up writer clothes and accept the rest of it as well. The same is true for whatever real-world myth or religion that forms the factual basis for your fiction. You need to know it and own it, but please do not treat the world’s religions as a buffet.