No Dread of the Undead

Robert Hart on Virtues & Vampires

. . . that diabolic aid which is surely to him; for it have to yield to the powers that come from and are symbolic of good. . . . Thus are we ministers of God’s own wish: That the world, and men for whom His Son die, will not be given over to monsters, whose very existence would defame Him. He have allowed us to redeem one soul already, and we go out as the old knights of the Cross to redeem more. Like them we shall travel towards the sunrise; and like them, if we fall, we fall in good cause . . . for the good of mankind, and for the honour and glory of God.

—Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, mustering the courage of
his companions in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

The vampires in the popular TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I am told, are all evil—except one named Angel. He is a vampire “cursed with a soul.” In other words, he does the same evil things to defenseless people that all vampires do, only we are supposed to accept him because he feels bad about it. What a moral quagmire pop culture can be these days.