Here at Zombie Theology we greatly appreciate the interaction and input of others in the zombie community. We have had some great comments and interaction on facebook and twitter, but we would like to move your involvement a step further. This is why we have created the new “Field Submissions” category. This category will be entirely made up of guest submissions. These can cover any genre of writing: short stories, tips and tricks, how to’s, interesting news, poems, videos, whatever. If it relates to zombies we want to read it and share it here at Zombie Theology.If you have any ideas or questions please email us at zombietheology[at]gmail[dot]com.

The following is a Field Submission brought to you by  Daniel Otto Jack Petersen (Hack, Reflectivist, Shape-shifter) who is a husband of one and father of five.  Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana he now lives in Glasgow, Scotland and blogs about theology of monsters at The God Who Loves Monsters.

As always, we pray for your sanity and survival in these dark days…

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There are a few of them left. The non-zombies. Even a few still grouped in roving units. It’s utterly terrifying to even see one from a distance; worse to see a group. I’ve felt the shudder run right through a thousand of us as we travel – and only saw the dreaded thing after I felt the tremor of fright pass through me too. It’s a horrific irony to be terrified of your own food. But we survive. We millions. On each other mostly now. Or our own personal flesh when it comes down to it. Heh, I just remembered I ate my arm up to the elbow today. I’m sitting here typing one-handed and not even thinking about it – got that whole phantom limb thing going I guess – just felt like I was typing two-handed as always. I got separated from the conglomerate almost a week ago and somehow can’t find even a scrap to gnaw on. Had to make due today – the hunger pains had gotten unbearable. It’ll be better when there are none of the humans left to hunt and eat. Then I’ll dine without fear. The weakest of us will go first, which makes us live only strong days, strongest of the strong. I do envy the last zombie standing, the last former human feasting on the remains of the next to last. That will be the feeling. The knowledge of total and complete annihilation of the race that we’ve yearned to know, to be. I dream it could be me. Sure, an impossible dream but why not? I’ll get something cruelly jagged and deadly in place of this lost forearm, better than what I had. I’ve seen some others with stuff like that. Yeah, maybe I’ll eat some other carefully selected portions of myself to make way for improvements and ‘upgrades’ – make a real badass warrior out of this old carcass of mine. Yeah. I dream. The last zombie standing.

Well, goodnight Facebook friends. It’s funny how we drift into these social networks on occasion and do this pointless stuff the old us used to do. Before we were Eaters. Guess it’s just our last testament. Or theirs. We eat up their cyberspace along with their flesh. We the Eaters. I the Eater. The last zombie standing…

I found this image and had to share it with our readers.

Yes, this would be an awkward moment indeed…

Here at Zombie Theology we greatly appreciate the interaction and input of others in the zombie community. We have had some great comments and interaction on facebook and twitter, but we would like to move your involvement a step further. This is why we have created the new “Field Submissions” category. This category will be entirely made up of guest submissions. These can cover any genre of writing: short stories, tips and tricks, how to’s, interesting news, poems, videos, whatever. If it relates to zombies we want to read it and share it here at Zombie Theology.If you have any ideas or questions please email us at zombietheology[at]gmail[dot]com.

The following is a Field Submission brought to you by The Zombie Mom, mother of three precious undead children and the author of the blog Dead and Domestic.

As always, we pray for your sanity and survival in these dark days…

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Now they lay me down to sleep
So no more people I will eat
No more munching on their brains
No more ripping out their veins

So will they end me with a gun
I sure will miss the way they run
When I come stalking down the lanes
Moaning, groaning, “brains, brains, braaaaiiiinnnsss!”

But now they shoot me in the head
It doesn’t hurt for I am dead.

]]> http://zombietheology.com/now-they-lay-me-down-to-sleep-an-undead-poem/feed/ 0 http://zombietheology.com/a-letter-to-a-new-zombie/ http://zombietheology.com/a-letter-to-a-new-zombie/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2012 14:00:35 +0000 J Stephens http://zombietheology.com/?p=2953

Dear Zombie,

Sorry to hear about your bite. That’s a real bummer. I bet by now you are curled up in a corner, wrapped in a blanket, fully given over to the infection coursing through you. Soon, you will be completely transformed into what you were supposed to have been fighting against.

What happened with that, anyway?

You were supposed to be one of the tough ones. You seemed to always let your creativity out, you seemed to really live life, you seemed to have it all put together and seemed to genuinely love the people around you.

But when things got tough, you just gave up and let it happen.

It’s like all those things you told us—about how powerful love is, about how much we should cherish life, about how easy it would be for any of us to get the virus so we should do all we could to protect our passions—you ignored yourself.

What about that stuff where God was bigger than any virus? That any complacency, or apathy, or arrogance, or doubt was totally avoidable if only we made sure to remember where our life comes from…

…why didn’t you listen to yourself?

We listened, and we are still here. It is tough, sure…especially seeing the people around us collapse like marionettes, no longer even resembling the family they once were. But we are still here because we know that we can’t do it alone. Maybe that’s where you went wrong. You told us for so long the best, most powerful way out, but in the end you decided you could do it on your own.

You couldn’t. We can’t.

But I think there is still hope. The God you told us about, the one whose strength is unending and whose love is unsearchable, He can still break through that virus. That mud that’s sweeping through your veins right now, causing you to give up on everything around you except your fallen needs…it can still get cleaned out.

You just need some clean blood. Some saving blood.

That’s part of our war, after all. We aren’t told to just avoid the zombies and the virus. We are told to combat it, with all we have. And so when we see you again, with those lifeless eyes, know that we are all looking at you as the person you can still become…the person you used to tell us you wanted to be.

And in the meantime, try to not make things too messy.

Sincerely,

The Survivors

P.S. – “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13

Here at Zombie Theology we greatly appreciate the interaction and input of others in the zombie community. We have had some great comments and interaction on facebook and twitter, but we would like to move your involvement a step further. This is why we have created the new “Field Submissions” category. This category will be entirely made up of guest submissions. These can cover any genre of writing: short stories, tips and tricks, how to’s, interesting news, poems, videos, whatever. If it relates to zombies we want to read it and share it here at Zombie Theology. If you have any ideas or questions please email us at zombietheology[at]gmail[dot]com.

This drawing comes to you from a good friend, Steve Gower. He draws some awesome stuff, but this was his first go at “zombifying” someone. I’d say he did a damn good job! Make sure to share the love in the comments section if you wanna see some more of his awesome drawings of the undead!

As always, we pray for your sanity and survival in these dark days…

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Well, we’ve somehow managed to survie another year in the zombie apocalypse… at least, we’ve survived another season of AMC’s HOT HIT show The Walking Dead.

And, if you haven’t heard, the season finale which aired last Sunday blew away the competition (literally and figuratively) raking in 9 million viewers making it the most watching cable show in history by adults. And, who did it unseat? Well, itself. The Walking Dead has held that position (#1 show among adults) since at least season one’s finale.

But, now, AMC TV has given us another prize… a bonus if you will. They’ve produced a video of the main cast of The Walking Dead looking ahead to what’s in store for next season:

Some of the best zombie plots are centered small group of survivors, stranded with few weapons and supplies, that eventually make their way to some large center of commerce, where they barricade themselves against the attacking undead.

When looking at the theology of zombies, this plot can provide an amazing analogy to what life in modern society is like.

We, the survivors, have determined not to be taken over by the virus teeming through the population around us. The virus looks a bit different to different people, but typically results in complacency, apathy, and creative death.

We have few weapons at our immediate disposal. A few random baseball bats we have armed ourselves with to assert our creativity, one or two pistols of focus and desire that can hold off the laziness around us. We have even fewer supplies: a few spare loaves of bread in our satchels that are the fuel of our sympathy towards the world around us; maybe one or two cans of beans in the bottom of our sacks, the memories and successes in our past that keep us moving towards the goal of healthy living.

But where our plan, and ultimately the plan of many a zombie movie team, fails is that we are barricaded in the very place that will be our downfall. In the movies, it is a mall, a grocery store, an amusement park. For us, we force ourselves into the most virus-friendly locations possible. We try and be creative in the middle of checking Facebook and our email every two minutes. We try to be sympathetic to others, but surround ourselves with apathetic people.

We barricade ourselves against a virus in a room filled with the virus.

If we are to survive, if we are to remain thriving, living, creative creatures, we must be intentional about putting ourselves in situations where we have every possibility to survive. If we know we are more likely to succumb to the bite of an apathetic zombie, then we should make sure our team of survivors includes people already immune to that virus, or at least familiar with fighting it. If we know that we can be quickly distracted, a sure-fire way for our creativity to be overtaken by the virus of complacency, we should make sure to not barricade ourselves in a roomful of distractions.

There is always one survivor that lives the longest, that holds out to the very end and lives to fight another day. What changes can you make in your own life to make sure you are that one?

Where will your infection start?
I bet, were you to interview a zombie (that being, could you ever contain a zombie long enough and should their mental faculties be withstanding enough to form answers to questions) about when they were turned, every single one could tell you the exact time and place they were bitten.
And every one of them has been bitten differently.
Like delicate snowflakes, the teeth marks and contusions on the bodies of the shambling undead are each special and unique.
If you became a zombie, where would your bite most likely happen?
You should be thinking about it.
There is a part of you, right now, that is most exposed, most likely to be the easiest target for an infection.
Maybe it is your hands. Maybe you use them simply to keep yourself occupied by insignificant things. Those hours spent playing first-person shooters or chatting it up on Facebook are the simplest pathway for the virus of complacency to enter your body. If that is the case, how can you shield your hands? What could you be doing that is of more value to your heart and mind, protecting them better?
Maybe it is your legs. Hours spent in that cubicle, then hours spent on that couch, then hours spent on that bed. Repeat the next day. It becomes easy for a zombie to take hold of those things when they’re not in use. Exercise, get some fresh air, fight off the virus of laziness.
Maybe it is your eyes. Maybe you spend a little too much time engaged in things that are keeping you from the true and moral path of a survivor. Sure those things seem fulfilling, but you are giving the zombies the most direct route to your brain for their virus.
What part of your body is keeping you from becoming a more powerful survivor?
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.” – Matthew 5:29-30

This is one of the best promotions that we’ve seen in a long time. Apparently, this took place in South Africa as a way to promote season 2 of The Walking Dead.

What do you think?

Fox News recently recorded an interview with Steven Yeun who plays “Glenn” on AMC TV’s hit show The Walking Dead.

(You can find the interview on the Fox News in a post called “AMC’s ‘Walking Dead’ actor on the show.”)

The interview is interesting because of the context: many Fox News viewers have never heard of “The Walking Dead” or Glenn. So, he introduces the show, the concept, the plot, etc.

Also, Steven talks about the fans of the show… that would be us.

So, enjoy the interview below: