The Fellowship of the Sun
A Fictional Cult, or a Familiar Presence?
The Fellowship of the Sun is a large church within the Sookie Stackhouse novels whose main purpose is to see the end of the Vampires who have just made their presence on Earth known. Harris writes, "What the Khlan was to African Americans, the Fellowship of the Sun was to vampires. It was the fastest growing cult in America." Harris herself states that her fictional Fellowship of the Sun is very much like a cult, which is defined by Wikipedia as a "new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre." It goes on to state that cults are "criticized by mainstream Christians for their unorthodox beliefs." Evidently, the Fellowship of the Sun is a cult for Harris, as is it criticized by everyone in the novels, and clearly has unorthodox beliefs. However, from the point of the Fellowship, vampires could easily be viewed in the same light. They obviously have unorthodox beliefs and their practices are entirely abnormal. But one has to consider the perspective of the novel; Sookie. She is the protagonist and therefore, one has to respect her point of view and view the Fellowship of the Sun as the enemy when they open attack on our dearest heroine.
It is difficult to argue against the relationship between the Fellowship of the Sun and a cult, especially when it is considered that the main reason for joining a cult is due to how someone views a particular group of people, which Michael Lagone, the executive director of International Cultic Studies Association states (Wikipedia). But does Harris draw on any real life organizations when developing her concept of the Fellowship of the Sun? Tarren from thechickmanifesto.blogspot writes, "The Fellowship of the Sun continues to fascinate me and I was so glad they played a larger part in Living Dead in Dallas. It's really amusing that there's this large mega-church whose one goal is the extinction of an entire race of beings. Picture the Westboro Baptist Church on a grander scale and slightly less crazy first impression. They're certainly more of a parody of them than of 99% of the less violent religious people..." The Westboro Baptist Church is a church based out of Kansas that is entirely against homosexuals. They comprise themselves of approximately forty members and continue to protest against homosexuals on a daily basis (Wikipedia). The basic image that Wikipedia provides of the Westboro Baptist Church already faintly resembles the Fellowship of the Sun. If Harris was searching for a model to conform to, she couldn't have found a more prominent one in our society than the Westboro Baptist Church.
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