The problem with evaluating Wicca here is that almost no one on this site has run into their local, hardcore Gardnerian High Priest and told him he's a fluffy bunny because he follows the 3 Fold Law.

Please note that I am not recommending this approach, though most likely he'll just chuckle and walk away.

But "book Wicca" and the Initiatory Traditions are worlds apart.

Trigun Stampede Episode 5 - subtle we are not; Monev the Gale, we only knew you briefly

Another Saturday morning has come and gone here and it means the next episode of Trigun Stampede.  Still pushing that breakneck pace and jamming in more world building.  For this week, I’ll start with the location map highlighting that we are in the Windmill Village.  Which is the remains of a crashed ship that has a lot of windmills to provide power. 

The episode starts with an establishing shot of the lack of wind at the Windmill Village.  A man is speaking over the radio, clearly a sort of televangelist type with the fire and brimstone sort of pseudo-Christian worship.  And if you’ve watched the original Trigun anime, you will immediately recognize that the radio preacher is Wolfwood’s VA, 速水 奨, Hayami Shō, stylized as Show Hayami in English.

As his sermon continues there is a shot of two people kneeling in prayer before a sort of eye of god/cross banner in their home.

The two of them continue to listen to the broadcast, their hands clasped together and we get a shot of the younger child looking nervous before it cuts to the OP.

This opening segment establishes that there is a sort of hard line religious group and these two people are worshipping it, or at least the mother based on the awkward body language of the child.

Our next shot is of Meryl driving as a religious radio program is on the radio and she’s ready to change the station, also telling us that it is around 50 degrees C on this desert planet at the moment! 

Don’t worry though, Roberto is here to info dump and tell us that the religious group around plant worship is newly established - only around for a few years in the Stampede timeline.  While they discuss the social cultural context, Vash and Wolfwood are sleeping soundly, somehow Wolfwood is able to do so with a half smoked cigarette.

Since Roberto doesn’t want to really have an actual conversation with Meryl, he decides to mess with her and make up some story about the red desert sand around them - which of course scares the shit out of her and then she almost hits the carcass of a giant dead bug.  Which when they inspect it, Wolfwood somehow is able to explain it was killed with a single one handed strike from a ‘person’.

Wow dude, way to try to cover that you aren’t an ‘undertaker’ and are a trained assassin.  Are you even trying to blend in Wolfwood?  I’m going to guess that Wolfwood likely knows who could have done this - perhaps not the specific individual but that he knows it was a modified human by the Eye of Michael.

They go onto investigate the ghost town further and conclude it died due to the lack of consistent wind.  The entire exchange between Meryl and Wolfwood about it is just weird.  What was the point of Wolfwood commenting that using wind power is dumb for Meryl to try to correct him that it is a flawed form of power if there is no wind?

The scientist in me has more of an issue with this set up of wind power is unreliable.  If you don’t have a plant, your plan would be to have both wind power and solar.  Since we don’t see any clouds at all on this desert planet.  Additionally, when you do live in a desert it is almost super reliable that you will have wind power; I never got over how windy the desert is and how sunny it is when I lived in the desert.  The solution for this plot point is a combination of wind and solar.  You have advanced technology even if some of it is lost - you can have solar panels.  Of course this then creates the issue of you need another piece of the puzzle to explain why plants are so important in this world.

It was always my understanding of the manga that besides generating power, the idea was that the plants also helped to stabilize the local environment for terraforming needs as highlighted in the anime episode and series of manga chapters around Little Arcadia (and the rest of the Nebraska family).  Even if you had wind and solar power it was the extra special stuff that the plants helped to add to the local environment made it livable and arable for farming if one put in the time and effort.  Little Arcadia implies that something from a plant sort of escaped into the land and the family that nurtured it were able to create a little oasis in the desert.

The group explore the area and Vash picks up a strip of cloth that is covered in dust before he’s shot at by gunfire.  Someone is attacking him!  Wolfwood rushes in with his weapon uncovered and yells at him to take an action.

I have to admit I’m missing the dramatic reveal of his Punisher from the original anime and manga, it always indicated that things are serious.  Now, he’s just there and ready to go.  The scenes keep flipping back and forth between the worried kid, Rollo and the action of the giant man in a mask with machine guns for arms.  The kid overhears his mother talking with others about how he’s supposed to be the next sacrifice to god having been a child born on a windless day.  Studio Orange is clear - being subtle is not their storytelling style in this.  We know that young Rollo knows that he’s up next for some sort of weather/ritual sacrifice to save the town and of course he makes a run for it into the desert.

Vash gets cornered and Wolfwood shoots him only for the camera to make sure that we know that little vials inject something into him that allows for rapid healing.  Wolfwood knows this man they are fighting has similar technology that he has so - yeah - it harkens back to his statement of punching the desert bug with a bare hand.

The two run away for the moment, with Wolfwood almost dragging Vash along.  We get them in an alley catching their breath and Wolfwood is already insulting and muttering about how pathetic Vash is.  And the fact that he knows that Vash is hiding something about this Windmill Village.

It cuts to what is for the first time clearly defined as a flashback.  I get it, they wanted you to not be sure if you were seeing parallel actions between Rollo and Vash but with a heavy nudge that this is likely a flashback and that kid might have something to do with the giant monster chasing them and yelling “Vash the Stampede!”

Vash finds Rollo when he tried to run away from him and that he was bringing him back for his mother who was very worried about him.  Rollo through his conversation with Vash is trying to decide if he should trust Vash’s [likely naive] advice and return to meet his fate of a certain death or continue to run.

Of course Vash is clueless to the dark sacrificial plot and instead promises that he will get the proper medicine to heal Rollo.  Since this is full time perma-sad Vash, we know by time he completes his quest to save the kid, he would have arrived too late!

The flashback then has Rollo going alone with a lantern to some part of the structure where he encounters our fine Doctor, the blonde girl who is barefoot and is restrained by some sort of grunts for the Eye of Michael who knock him out with a drug. 

The flashback has the girl stating that she’s not the same as Rollo, that she’s actually and angel and that he’s totally different.  The statement that she’s angel would make me think plant, but the fact that she doesn’t have the weird markings on her bare arms imply that she’s not a plant like Vash and Knives but more of a rather confident girl.

Rollo gets strapped to an exam room table, injected with all sorts of stuff and the Doctor explains that he’ll age rapidly but won’t die of his sickness if he can regenerate etc etc.

And this allows us to learn he is a ‘successful’ experiment living at least 5 years as his superhuman form.  The girl still thinks he’s a possible failure but the Doctor seems pleased enough and is using his hatred of Vash not saving him to drive his anger.  I guess.  The experiment scene also wants to hammer home that he is indeed Rollo, as at least 5 years later, he returns home to visit his mother before destroying their home which Meryl and Roberto inspect.  We can hear the radio is still on with the Wolfwood VA talking while they look around.  Interestingly, Roberto states it looks like this all fell apart 20 years ago.

If that is the case, the incident with Rollo running away from home and being rescued by Vash happened ~25 years prior, Rollo became his unnamed form, went back home 20 years ago, likely killed his mother and destroyed the place and then went back to the base?

While they inspect the rubble, Meryl finds a photograph of Rollo as a baby with Vash holding him that clearly his mother had taken.  Thus, the timeline that Vash is older than he appears is being confirmed but with all the info dumping that Roberto does - he’d know that Vash is older wouldn’t he?

While Roberto and Meryl are being good investigative reporters Rollo is fighting with Wolfwood and Vash, but Wolfwood is looking a bit rough and spits out his cigarette to pop out his own regenerative vial as he watches Rollo pin Vash against the wall.

These vials don’t appear into Volume 8 of Trigun Maximum with a full explanation from Wolfwood after he rescues Vash from Knives ark after fighting with Chapel, Livio and Legato.  This was after the 7 month time skip when Vash is kidnapped and imprisoned by Knives and Wolfwood eventually is able to brute force get him out of the ark through the combination of sheer willpower, a tacit understanding of Vash and the regenerative vials.

Vash is trying to get through to Rollo’s humanity which shows a shift as his facial display goes from Venom-ish from Spiderman to a regular man.  The reason this character looks like Venom is that Yasushiro Nightow is a huge fan of Spiderman and designed him as such in the original manga.  Vash is there pleading about his promise but it is obvious that he failed to save him.

Wolfwood then cracks open the vial, heals himself and then shoots Rollo through the head with the laser beam function of his gun.  The scene shifts to Vash pleading for Rollo to wake up as Roberto and Meryl watch and Wolfwood hangs back.  Wolfwood finally breaks the situation by stating that he’s dead and that he is not waking up.  Vash rushes at Wolfwood to grab him by the collar demanding why he killed him to which Wolfwood replies with ‘Mercy.’

He goes on to further admit that Rollo had become a monster, lost his humanity and even if he didn’t kill him, the man would not return to who he was.

This the starts the first of Wolfwood’s lectures/philosophical debates with Vash about how it isn’t always possible to save everyone and not hurt them.  Vash is someone who is able to say what he wants to see have happen but has no way to implement it in reality.  However, since we are going at a rapid pace there has been no time for Wolfwood and Vash to get to know each other as just friends; their debate both in the anime and manga only happened after they spent some time with each other for it to really show the differences between them.

This is an even more black and white interpretation of the difference between Wolfwood and Vash.  We do get excellent animation of Vash’s own shock here in his eyes which I was very impressed with.  Wolfwood’s facial expressions are a bit more muted in this episode, it seems if he glances to the side that is the most he can do for any sense of remorse/frustration.   Furthermore, it sort of makes it a Vash versus Wolfwood, when in reality it is Vash versus Knives with Wolfwood straddling the middle ground in life philosophy.

The group silently leave the Windmill Village as the wind begins to pick up.  With the sacrificial death of the child born on a windless day, the windmills are all able to spin and begin to light up the ghost town in the night.

Back at Knives HQ, Conrad is informed of Rollo’s death by Zazie, stating that he was killed by another one of them.  The blonde girl states he was Nicholas, but Conrad corrects it to the Punisher.

Which makes it clear that he was involved in the creation of Wolfwood’s current state and abilities. 

The episode then ends and the credits roll.  The first thing I did was double check the credits this time to confirm the blonde girl’s identity since I didn’t think to do so in other episodes if she had made a ‘hrm’ sound or not.  And there at the bottom of the first page she is and she’s indeed Elendira the Crimsonnail.

So, as of this point, Elendira appears to be a young girl, but since Rollo was ‘made’ at least 25 years ago in the current timeline she can appear to be a young girl at the moment.  It also looks like she will not be a trans woman either - unless we get more backstory for her.

It is clear that the terminology for the Gung-ho Guns no longer is a thing in Stampede and they are popping up in a new order.

Rollo is Monev the Gale from the manga and anime.  The whole association with the Windmill Village is more than enough to make that connection as well as the events happening over 20 years ago since the original Monev was imprisoned for ~20 years by Legato.  He shows up to cause total chaos in hunting Vash for Legato taking out lots of innocent bystanders in the process.

In the anime the climax of the action is when Vash shoots off his face shield and almost kills him with his hidden arm machine gun at point blank.  This was such an emotional scene where it is first the we really see Vash almost lose it in the slow build up to this point.

The manga makes it even more dramatic, with the close up on Vash’s face as he holds his long colt to his face as he’d had to break his arm off to escape the handcuffs/chains.

Both tense scenes end with Vash breaking down in tears by thinking about his past relationship and conversations with Rem.  With that we get the total emotional release of all of his anxiety, sadness and fears in a very cathartic scene.

What sort of hero has to hold himself in a hug as he weeps in pure frustration and loss?  It really was a great reveal of how Vash’s own moral compass and code is struggling with the reality of his own circumstances and existence and he does not know what to do. 

However, it doesn’t matter that Vash is compassionate and merciful to Monev, he’s eventually killed by other Gung-ho Guns several days later; crucified of course.

Things to ponder and take away from episode 5.

Honestly, I’m sort of really trying to scrape together my conclusion. In a narrative sense this episode does nothing to advance the plot. Sure, they have some themes that occur but all we did was repeat episode 4.  We introduce that Wolfwood is not good and Vash is good.  Wolfwood chooses violence and Vash does not.  Wow.

Additionally, the lack of inner monologues and thoughts from the characters is making it harder to understand them. Apparently, we are to infer everything from these characters through their actions alone.  Can a TV show do that and succeed? Yes, but Trigun Stampede is not Black Sails.  The original anime and manga have a lot of inner thoughts to show the conflict and issues characters are dealing with and it is completely missing from the story telling in this anime.

Themes:

1.) Religious groups prey upon and use desperate people - this is painfully obvious the entire episode.  Rollo’s unnamed mother is willing to give him up in order to save the town by bringing them wind and salvation from God.  Rollo clearly is questioning his faith and runs off into the desert to save himself - by likely dying from another fate.  The televangelists over the radio started more than 25 years ago and continue to do their work - though Roberto refers to them as a new cult.  In the manga, we know that the ships crashed ~150 years prior to the current events and the Eye of Michael state that they are ~130 years old working in the background for most of the time humans have been struggling to survive on the planet.

It also implies that the Eye of Michael sees no issue with taking unwanted children to form them into tools to achieve their goals - though I wonder if it is actually an independent group like in the manga or something else that Knives created and set into motion in this version?

2.) A pure pacifist cannot make impactful change - Vash convinced Rollo to return to his mother and Rollo wasn’t able to verbally state his own fears to Vash dooming him to his terrible fate.  Vash, you really aren’t a good listener or you can’t read people’s body language after over 100 years?  Vash at least is able to fire his gun again and works hard to defensively fight Rollo shooting at buildings and structures to slow him down or distract him but by not facing him head on, he is going to lose.

3.) Sometimes you have to pick the worst option - this is shown by Wolfwood killing Rollo.  Granted, since Wolfwood is on the same side, it is in his own best interest to kill Rollo to conceal his own identity - though his blunt statements aren’t really helping him to not look like an obvious assassin.  This is most likely supposed to mirror the moral conflict between Vash and Wolfwood when Wolfwood shoots Zazie the Beast in the anime and Vash and him get into a very heated argument about it.  We also have absolutely no context for why Vash refuses to kill in episode 5 nor why Wolfwood feels obligated to kill. 

Stampede is going through the motions, using specific lines and dialogue, but it isn’t working since we really don’t get that feeling that Vash sees all life as sacred.  There is no declaration of this land is made of love & peace.  Or how he freaked out when he shot B.D.N.’s lackeys and had to stop them from bleeding out.  The manga does a good job early on of establishing his no killing rule and the anime takes it to the next level.  Meanwhile, the manga and anime establish Wolfwood as a more compassionate and complex character.

We just have very 1 dimensional characters who seem to do one thing in the plot and that’s it.

4.) The mix of Buddhist & Catholic ideology that underpinned the original work is only at a surface level - Upon my recent watching and reading of the manga, it refreshed me on how the entire series is very much using philosophical and moral arguments that are a mix of Buddhist and Catholic ones combined.  There is the idea of humans by nature existing in a state of suffering and that are naturally born with sin, thus requiring a religious way to deal with that sin.  That Vash struggles to live an impossible moral code and that Wolfwood has crushing Catholic guilt through his own actions and decisions to protect others.  Knives is clearly a fallen angel but that Vash can’t be a hands off sort of distant angel either watching but not doing. 

I’m not here to make any sort of strong religious statement, more that the original work used these to religions as the foundation for the moral and philosophical struggles that the main cast face in the story.  Vash has to actually become critical of his own morals while Wolfwood sacrifices himself not only to save the orphanage but he also saves Livio.  Livio then also learns that despite all the terrible things that he has done is still a person worth saving and caring for and that he too is redeemable and can be forgiven.  Meryl has to learn of her fear and bias toward Vash when he protects her with his angel arm and then accept him as is.  It is just all these things worked well in the story and I appreciated how they were used in the manga and original anime.

Stampede instead is adapting these concepts on the surface level.  Characters are saying similar lines and doing similar actions but that doesn’t mean it replicates the original feelings. 

5.) Missing those dramatic sunglasses scenes - Due to the high octane nature of the action in this sci fi series, I find myself missing the ‘I mean business when I put my sunglasses on’ scenes with both Vash and Wolfwood.  Wolfwood frequently dons his own sunglasses when he has to get down to business or is trying to appear cool and collected.  But when the two of them are less stressed or in non-dangerous situations, they are without their sunglasses.

Escape from Pain is an anime only episode, but it highlights how Vash did his mock kill to allow Julius and Moore to escape.  Wolfwood steps on his sunglasses that Milly slapped off of his face, likely because he himself is upset that Vash upset Milly.  He won’t allow Vash to put them back on to hide his own emotions and look serious when he hurt Milly’s feelings through his fake actions.

Which is then balanced out with the humor where he reaches over, grabs Vash’s gun, pops out the bullets, squeezes it to show it is a rubber bullet before he rapidly reloads it with one, and shoots Vash at point blank range.

I’ve also realized how much I liked Wolfwood’s reveal of his own personal tools in the anime.  You want to take me on, allow for me to show you that I mean business.

Characters, comments & observations:

1.) Vash - continues to be passive; but finally is spurred into feeling some sort of rage when Wolfwood kills Rollo.  He apparently tries to do everything himself and trusts all adults at their word.  However, since this version of Monev didn’t kill and harm countless innocent people, we don’t get the full emotional breakdown of Vash.  This makes it hard for us to connect with his pain and suffering that his personal code has caused him.  It doesn’t make us feel how much of a struggle it is for him to continue to hold himself to his impossibly high standards.  Instead, he just looks sad and passive.  Furthermore, I feel the longer they don’t have him explain his moral code the more muddied it becomes; they missed their chance to have him clearly state “I will not kill!” which is sort of ironic with how blunt the story is otherwise.  This also fails when Wolfwood was a priest and Vash could always give him shit with “Thou shall not kill!” and he actually did not kill. 2.) Meryl & Roberto - do their best as the senior/junior reporter team.  We don’t get a lot of development from them other than that Roberto knows how to scare her and she’s decent enough to find a pristine photo of a younger Vash.  They honestly don’t do anything to advance the plot since they hide during the shoot out and are both info dumping for us.  I’m also starting to get tired of Roberto’s perpetually half untucked shirt look.  I get it, he’s supposed to be messy but can you at least switch between it being the right side, the left side or both?  Instead, it has been consistently the right side for the first 5 episodes when we know they’ve at least had time to clean up a little.  This isn’t a low budget anime from the 80s and 90s where you have no choice but to animate something out of order (I’m looking at you bus in Muder Machine where Wolfwood’s cross is on the top of the bus before they pick him up in the desert). At least the bickering between Meryl and Wolfwood is minimal at best, but they were only together for a short time during the episode.

3.) Wolfwood - is not doing a good job of hiding he’s a trained assassin with similar tools and tricks that Rollo/Monev the Gale had.  We know that some religious organization that worships plants clearly recruited him as a young child and he was subjected to treatments and experiments.  Hopefully, it will at least reveal that he was not directly involved with team Knives.  With the obvious nature of this work, they will likely beat us over the head when we get to Wolfwood’s backstory as an orphan taken into the Eye of Michael and trained to work for them.  However, since he doesn’t seem to be a compassionate and likeable guy trapped between his own unfortunate circumstances, who tried to escape his teacher and therefore those obligations it is hard to feel for him.  He’s just angry, aggressive and bitter lashing out at everyone.

4.) Rollo/Monev the Gale - we only knew you briefly.  This version gave us a new backstory for you.   You are an explanation for Wolfwood’s own background and the technology behind the assassins.  Does this work for me?  Sort of.  Rollo achieves the goal of being someone who knew and trusted Vash in the past to only be hurt by those actions; like Hopper the Gauntlet and Leonof the Puppet Master.  But his character also has to do double duty to explain that there is biotechnology that can turn children into super killing machines by physically altering them, giving them rapid regeneration skills at the expanse of aging them quickly and we know that Wolfwood is using it as well.

What is lost in Stampede’s version is the humanity of Monev the Gale and Vash’s inner conflict to not stoop to the level of killing.  Monev had no issue with killing innocents and lambasts Vash for not fighting him head on, civilians be dammed.

But it is when he’s defeated that Monev begs for his life that his humanity is shown to still be there - despite being forced to train in isolation for 20 years.  Was he a deep character in the original manga or anime?  No, but his own mortality and that realization of his own actions turned the tables on him showed that he still very much had basic human needs and emotions.

Instead, Wolfwood puts Rollo out of his own misery by killing him and we never get to see if he still had those human emotions only by him revealing his real face behind the mask as Vash apologizes.  Which doesn’t have the punch the barrel of a gun to the eye socket does as you cry out for mercy.

My two cents on the rapidly aging sci fi aspect of the story

Anime Wolfwood was a normally aging guy who trained as a child to about adulthood before he fucked off to do his own thing for a number of years, but based on how he acts and looks it is safe to say he’s late 20s to early 30s.

Manga Wolfwood suffers from unclear retcon with a wishy washy timeline for his backstory.  One reading is that he was recruited 6 years prior to the 2 year time skip - so, 4 years before the start of the manga he joined the Eye of Michael when he was 11-ish and did stuff and got shot enough to age him up to mid-20s ish when he first meets the group in the desert.  This very condensed timeline for him means he dies around 17 or 18 at the end since the kids don’t recognize him.  However, there are flashbacks with the young girl who Livio liked and we see her as a clear adult in the manga when Livio protects her implying that they were likely older when they entered the Eye of Michael and started the rapid aging bits.  With this information it means Wolfwood and Livio are in their 20s instead.  I’ve found support for both of these interpretations in the manga so I’m just not going to take one or the other and keep it unclear since it is vague.

Honestly, between these two scenarios, I preferred anime Wolfwood since his actions and words made more sense coming from a normal aging adult than a young kid who sounded so world weary at times it broke my immersion from the story when reading the manga.  But that is my opinion.  I’m not against the idea of him having a regeneration serum that has a karmic tradeoff. It was almost overkill when you realize he was a religiously trained gunman from a young age and trapped by his circumstances.  Tug at your heart strings more that Wolfwood dies even more tragically young. . .

Anyhoo, that took me off course.

Predictions for the future: 1.) Another bad guy of the week for episode 6.  Who will it be?  Who knows? The introduction of all the characters is not the same as the original anime or Maximum so your best guess is as good as mine.  Elendira, Zazie, Livio, Legato, Grey - any of them are possible.  We still have a ways to go to reach July on that map and there is an orphanage at the halfway point.  Does this mean Wolfwood will die by then? 2.) Characters likely dropped.  Dominique the Cyclops, Rai-dei the Blade, Midvalley the Hornfreak.  I very much liked all of them and how chaotic they were.  Oh well, they would seem too campy in this sleek sci fi series.

3.) Moar action!  Move frantically forward with no character development and only action. Action action action.  Please let the story breathe - at least have them stop for donuts?  Or have Vash mistaken for a cat?  Or fight Wolfwood for spaghetti?  You can’t keep up this level of depressing without some humor - that was key to the Vash-Wolfwood dynamic as well.

All in all, episode 5 was weaker than episode 4, which was weaker than the first three.  This episode has not advanced the plot, explained anyone’s motivations beyond that Vash is running away and now sort of heading towards July, that Meryl and Roberto want their story and that Wolfwood has to make sure he gets there.  I’m not sure who the intended audience for this is, but I’m pretty sure I’m not it. 

Studio Orange continues to demonstrate extreme technical skills with their animation but the lack of a coherent understanding of narrative structure, character development and world building are killing this for me.  The story lacks any sort of emotional core or heart.  Just slapping a known series onto 1D characters and making them look pretty.   And without character inner monologues we have to take what characters say at face value when interacting with others.

For some reason, this time of year always draws me to God more than any season. Maybe it's all the Christmas songs, particularly the religious ones like Silent Night or God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (which is actually my very favorite non-secular Christmas song) bringing a bit of Christian imagery to the mundane. You're grocery shopping, eating pancakes at Perkins, getting your oil changed, doesn't matter, there's a Christmas song playing and something in the air shifts whenever a religious one comes on. I can't describe it.

Someone I follow posted some lyrics from different hymns and whatnot, but the first one was the opening verse from O Holy Night:

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

'Til He appeared, and the soul felt it's worth...

I have often thought about this verse, particularly the "soul felt its worth" bit, even in the deepest of my pagan days. Something about that sentiment carried an extra weight that could be felt by someone who had never read the Bible and hadn't gone to church or listened to a sermon since I was like 10.

So often, people bring up eternal damnation as a way to try to scare people into believing in God. But I can honestly say that simple lyric "long lay the world in sin and error pining, til He appeared, and the soul felt it's worth" did more to turn my heart back toward God than any fire and brimstone rhetoric.

Not that I ever hated God, don't be mistaken. I actually thought God hated me, or at the very least, strongly disapproved of my life choices. Being a dedicated pagan from about age 8, but with definite pagan ideals and concepts–such as ancestor veneration and reincarnation–incorporated into my belief system from my earliest contemplations on matters such as death, I thought I was an outcast...though I didn't know why I felt that way at the time.

Several years later, I had gone through so many books on paganism, desperate to quell this hollow feeling I had on a soul deep level, this longing to belong with no respite, only to come up not only empty-handed, but also angrier and angrier. I had hoped that some book–any book!–would give me further insight. But everything just became progressively dumber and dumber and more and more infuriatingly so. And every Christmas season, when angels are everywhere and bells are tolling and a choir can be heard inside and outside of every store singing "come and behold Him, born the king of angels", and people are unusually kind and charitable...there's something there. A filling to that hollow feeling.

Now, don't get me wrong, this isn't the Redemption of Bee, I'm not a prodigal daughter. Not entirely, anyway. But, after learning more about God and Jesus, and the full context of Jesus' time on the cross and what He did for us (going literally to Hell and back to save all of humanity from our sins is frickin metal, I don't care who you are), and reading Genesis and seeing exactly how much love God has for us, and how well-meaning and genuine He is (don't blame me, I kinda bought into some atheistic rhetoric about how cruel God is in my teens), the non-secular Christmas songs don't make me cringe anymore. Heck, Christian rock doesn't make me cringe anymore (Crowder's Crushing Snakes is a banger, change my mind).

But what used to make me ponder about Things when I was a pagan, the line "and the soul felt it's worth", now really struck a chord with me. To the point where contemplating the full scope of that simple little line inexplicably brings me to tears. On my journey, winding though it may be, I didn't listen to preachers or priests or anything like that. I mean, I tried to, and only really liked Father Mike Schmitz's approach to talking about things. But mostly, and feel free to judge me for this, I listened to a lot of Andrew Klavan and his musings about God and Jesus and the meaning of life and death and questions of morality. Say whatever you will about him, I found a lot of his takes very comforting, like talking to your father about God. Because I never really talked to my dad about God, except when I came out as pagan to him.

One thing Andrew Klavan talks about a lot in regards to Christianity, is that God is forgiving. God is loving. Yes, sometimes he can be cruel, but that's usually to teach a lesson that's falling on deaf ears, like your father taking away a toy as a child because you disobeyed him. But, one thing he especially highlights, is that God loves you. It doesn't matter if you hate Him, if you blame Him for every little bad thing in your life, He loves you and He forgives you. And should you ever find your way back to God, he will embrace you with open arms and say "welcome home". Even if you've sinned. Jesus ate with the sinners, and counted them more dearly than the Pharisees.

In some ways, my period of paganism felt like the period before Christ's birth. I waited for a very long time, in sin and error, pining for that feeling of belonging, of worth, of acceptance, of order, of gratitude. Of sheer unconditional love. And I waited and waited, until God and Christ kind of nudged their way into my psyche, and then into my life. And the soul felt it's worth. My existence wasn't meaningless, my life has a purpose, and no purpose is too small. I was hopeful, I rejoiced, a new and glorious morn broke. I didn't hate myself anymore, and realized God never hated me. How can I go forward not completely revitalized by that notion? That concept that even when all seems lost and hopeless, there is always hope.

“Turn your face from the green world, and look where all seems barren and cold!” said Gandalf. Then Aragorn turned, and there was a stony slope behind him running down from the skirts of the snow; and as he looked he was aware that alone there in the waste a growing thing stood. And he climbed to it, and saw that out of the very edge of the snow there sprang a sapling tree no more than three foot high. Already it had put forth young leaves long and shapely, dark above and silver beneath, and upon its slender crown it bore one small cluster of flowers whose white petals shone like the sunlit snow.

ok, I have a really interesting DND villain idea: a fire and brimstone preacher who quotes the bible for his spells. like he'll say "Numbers 21:6: 'Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them so that many Israelites died.'" and he summons snakes or smt.

Oooh! It makes me think druid, for summoning. Also, the KJV calls them “fiery serpents” which could also be fun. Maybe some summon elemental along with the animals/beasts. Maybe a cleric multi class for thematic appropriateness. From the plagues of Egypt you could get frogs (probably conjure animals) and locusts (infestation or swarm keeper ranger?). There’s also Daniel in the lion’s den, maybe the golden lion figurines of wondrous power. And of course Noah’s arc has every animal ever.

Okay now time to ramble aimlessly about DND and church. Because I have stories. And I was going to put this in the tags. And then I found out there was a tag limit. So they are going here now.

So, my church youth group had a campaign for a while. Because for a long time the only two people who showed up were me and this other kid we’ll call Isaiah (because that was his character’s name) and me. We both play DND and the youth pastor wanted to connect with us so she found a module that was us playing the shepherds that go find baby Jesus. And there’s some evil dragon that’s a metaphor for all the bad stuff. Like if we the players make evil choices such as killing people, the dragon gets more powerful. So, Isaiah has a brother and they do not get along. They bicker all the time Like every word that comes out of their mouth has to be a barb at the other. And the GM gave Isaiah a luck sword, even thought it was very op for our level. Because she thought he would never use use the wish because of choice paralysis. But the we fought the dragon. And it was really bad. Like several people were down and barely getting healed each turn. And health potions ran out. And Isaiah’s brother’s character died. And we did not have diamonds for revivify. So Isaiah uses his one wish to bring him brother’s character back to life. And it just made me very happy that they could get along. And I could write an essay on the positive benefits of playing DND with youth. And this would be the anecdote at the very beginning.

Also, I played a bard for this campaign and made the mistake of not having a damaging cantrip. So when I ran out of spells I had to find a rock to throw. And the GM had me roll every time. And I could not find any rocks. Ever. Not one. It was the joke with my character. Like the others would give her rocks before a fight because we all knew I wasn’t going to be able to find any.

I’ve also played DND at the Christian summer camp I go to. A lot of staff play, and I have two friends who do as well. So our first one-shot was the post Covid year. Because we had a small enough group that it was feasible. We can’t turn people away because camp. It was still a way to big group like 7-8 players and more people watching. But it was fun. The GM made a little dragon from air dry clay and he’s still in the youth room. My friend played A-Aron the Bird, who was a chaotic like goblin. They stole the show.

Second time was last year. The camp changed how they did free time so there was a structured time as well. And the week that my friends and I went we pitched DND, because we wanted to do it. So one of the counselors ran a table for the middle schoolers and one of my friends ran one based on the summer camp. There were so many inside jokes, like one of the buildings on site was a mimic and one of the counselors was an old wizard (because he totally is). And all our weapons were based on camp stuff. Like my character had a whip that was made of lanyard string and health potions were this one caffeinated tea everyone at camp drinks. And it was super fun! I’m going to be on staff this year and want to see if I can help run a DND elective because I would love that.

Finally, please pretend I answered this ask on time.

LIVING IT OR FAKING IT?

THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE FAKING CHRISTIANITY THAT IT'S HARD TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE UNLESS A LIGHT IS TURNED ON AND THE PERSON IS SHOWED THEIR TRUE SELF. WHICH IS HAPPENING TODAY WITH THE PEOPLE STANDING BEHIND THE PULPIT MORE AND MORE. THE ALMIGHTY GOD IS CLEANING THE CHURCH AND IF THERE IS ANY IMMORALITY IN THAT CHURCH IT WILL BE SHOWN TO THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. 1 JOHN-5 TELLS US; THIS IS THE MESSAGE WE HAVE HEARD FROM HIM AND DECLARES TO YOU; GOD IS LIGHT AND THERE IS NO DARKNESS AT ALL IF WE CLAIM TO HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM AND YET WALK IN DARKNESS, WE LIE AND DO NOT LIVE OUT THE TRUTH. BUT IF WE WALK IN THE LIGHT AS HE IS IN THE LIGHT, WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER, AND THE BLOOD OF JESUS, HIS SON PURIFIES US FROM ALL SIN. IF WE CLAIM TO BE WITHOUT SIN, WE DECEIVE OURSELVES AND THE TRUTH IS NOT IN US. IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST AND WILL PURIFY US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. DOES THIS MEAN YOU CAN CONTINUE TO SIN? NOOO, HEBREWS 10:26 TELLS US IF WE CONTINUE TO SIN AFTER WE HAVE BEEN CLEANSED THERE IS NO OTHER SACRIFICE FOR US. WHOEVER SAYS I KNOW HIM BUT DOES NOT DO WHAT HE COMMANDS IS A LIAR. REVELATIONS 21:8 BACKS THIS UP WHEN IT SAYS ALL COWARDLY, UNBELIEVERS AND ABOMINABLE, AND MURDERS, AND ALL IMMORAL PERSONS, AND SORCERERS, AND AND IDOLATERS, AND ALL LIARS WILL BE CAST INTO THE FIRE AND BRIMSTONE WHICH IS THE SECOND DEATH. ACTUALLY, THIS IS NOT WHERE I WAS GOING TO TODAY. ACTUALLY, THE FILE I FOUND ON THIS SUBJECT BY ACCIDENT WHEN I WAS STRAIGHTENING OUT MY FILES LAST NIGHT IT WAS GOD AND JESUS HATING THE NICOLAITANS, TAKE YOUR PICK-REVELATIONS 2:14, IN FACT IT WOULD DO YOU GOOD TO OPEN THE BOOK AND READ IT ALL FOR YOURSELF SO YOU CAN SEE FOR YOURSELF THE FALLEN TEACHERS-PREACHERS- AND PROPHETS STANDING IN THIS DAY AND TIME BEHIND THE PULPITS. WHO WOULD HAVE EVER THOUGHT? BE BLESSED

jan 16

what if Jesus came today

"we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed — in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 1c cor 15:53

no, i'm not talking about His second coming.  i'm talking about the pre-wrath retrieval of His bride for the wedding ceremony.  yes, i am a dyed in the wool believer of a pre-trib rapture.  i'm talking about noah and his family being the only protected survivors before the world became engulfed.  i'm talking about lot getting out safely before the destruction of sodom.  i'm talking about Jesus coming for His bride.  the tribulation is called the wrath of the lamb and He has no wrath towards His bride, only love.

the bible tells us, "behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints." jude 1:14  no, we aren't raptured up only to make a u-turn and come right back down.  and where does that leave time for the wedding feast anyway?  a jewish wedding is seven days long; the tribulation is seven years long.

"therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God?" 2 pet 3:11-12  no, my Lord isn't coming for me as a thief in the night.  He's coming for me as an anxious bridegroom, excited the Father has given the ok.  "yes, my Son, all is prepared.  go and retrieve Your bride."

how one reacts to what follows will be determined entirely by whether they were prepared or not; whether they had enough oil to make the trip.  someone cannot get ready.  they need to be ready.  the word says all will be sleeping and are awakened only by the trumpet call.  i'm not saying only the super spiritual christians will be taken.  "we all stumble in many things." james 3:2  i am saying how dependent are you upon the goodness of Christ?  is He just an after thought more than a first thought?

do we really have a reverential fear of the Lord?  all anyone talks about today is love and acceptance.  while that's true, it's not all He requires.  "he who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me." john 14:21  you don't have to be perfect, but you have to strive to be.  you have to hate the sin as much as He does, not just live in acceptance.  "if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." luke 9:23  we must conform to His will.  He will not conform to ours.

i'm about to have to write a letter to a friend about about consequences.  while proclaiming Christ, they continued n their sinful habits and are now paying the consequences.  there are always consequences to sin.  it doesn't necessarily mean one isn't saved. it does mean they missed the mark, again.  one can't just keep coming when they want the "hurt" off.

even paul said to, "deliver such a one to satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." 1 cor 5:5  for peter tells us in 1 peter 4:1, "he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin."  God doesn't want it that way but He does want you redeemed.  Jesus told us to, "take up the cross, and follow Me." mark 10:21  it has to be His way and not ours, His will and not ours.

sometimes i think God needs to raise up some of the fire and brimstone preachers of old.  preachers who could scare the hell out of you even if they couldn't woo it out of them; some of those like jonathan edwards or leonard ravenhill. indeed, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." heb 10:31  if Jesus suggested cutting off a hand or putting out an eye if it would keep you from heaven, then you must know it is serious.  some have said He spoke metaphorically, but did He really?  we're speaking of where and how eternity will be spent.  one must take it seriously!

so again i ask:  "what manner of persons ought you to be?"  let nothing stand between you and your Christ.  not a spiritual leader.  not a friend or foe.  not a loved one or an enemy.  and yes, not even a sin.  "be holy; for I am holy." lev 11:44  you might say the law has passed away.  no it hasn't.  it has only been fulfilled by Jesus Christ.  "he who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters." luke 11:23  if you're not in Jesus, you're still under the law and will be judged by the law.  yes, "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

where are you falling today?  into the hands of a God of justice or into the arms of His saving Christ?  i don't know about you, but i don't want to get what i deserve.  i don't think any of us do who are honest with ourself.

so today, and everyday until He calls, i will be expectantly looking up and hoping for my "much better half" to call me unto Him.  i've got that "first love" in my heart and i'm not going to lose it.  do you know that song - the longer i serve Him the sweeter He grows?  that's how it is between my Lord and i.

there's no more "tomorrow" time to get ready.  use today while you still have it.  departure arriving soon!

Movie a thief in the night

#MOVIE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT MOVIE#

#MOVIE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT CODE#

#MOVIE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT SERIES#

Triple six tattoos become all the rage (45:29).įinal thought: This is it! Except no substitute. Kiddo shrieks in terror not long after a particularly charged sermon (33:35). Religious symbolism slithers up and bites a heathen (22:05). Guy with wacky sideburns thinks he’s Rich Little (11:27). Time codes: "I Wish We’d All Been Ready" music video (4:22). The Son has come and you’ve been left behind!" The Mark of the Beast is "kind of a super-evil credit card." Jimbo is quite the comedian, "I haven’t felt this bad since I ate my sister’s first meatloaf." Quotables: The Fishmarket Combo never made the Billboard charts despite these catchy lyrics, "How could have you been so blind? The Father spoke. appear as a preacher in the flick, he was also an associate producer of The Blob with Steve McQueen. CineSchlockers should note that not only does Mark IV producer Russell S. Gulp! Just like the Mark of the Beast warned of at Teen Town!!! Her hesitance to comply leads to a climatic chase sequence finale that still sends ’em screamin’ to the alter.

#MOVIE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT CODE#

Poor Patty must then face the sudden rise of the United Nations Imperium of Total Emergency (UNITE) who demand that the world’s citizenry get an electronic bar code tattoo on their forehead or hand. Patty’s future husband Jim ( Mike Niday) experiences the flick’s most dramatic conversion, as he finds Jesus after nearly croaking from a nasty KING COBRA bite! It’s not long after this decidedly unique twist that the two kiddos get married and the story strolls into Raptureville where lawn mowers, electric razors and mixers whirr idly when their Christian operators spontaneously vanish. While strolling through the Iowa State Fair, Patty and friends contemplate the meaning of this sermon with pig-tailed Jenny ( Colleen Niday) feeling compelled to go back to hear more, while Patty and her free-lovin’ gal pal Diane ( Maryann Rachford) decide to go on a helicopter joyride with some cute boys as they can "always get converted later." Bad move, ladies. When we first meet Patty, she’s just attended a service at Teen Town where a young preacher talks about Earth’s final days when Christians believe Jesus Christ will return "like a thief in the night" and call his followers home.

#MOVIE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT SERIES#

The movie: This series follows the perils of Patty ( Patty Dunning), a seemingly upright girl whose hubby got called up to heaven, with the rest of the good folks, and left her behind to deal with an Anti-Christ who enjoys seeing heads roll - literally. In fact, the filmmakers boldly claim six million conversions! And unlike today’s more timid, but slickly produced entries, this is a film that isn’t afraid to hammer heathens over the brainpan with its fire ‘n’ brimstone tinged salvation message.

#MOVIE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT MOVIE#

Even after nearly 30 years and a fraction of the funds thrown at these latest films, A Thief in the Night, the first of the series to be released on DVD, also stands out as a more creatively made movie with its sophisticated story structure and then avant-garde use of quick cuts and layered audio. Both films share a decades-long preoccupation by evangelical filmmakers with the Bible’s book of Revelation that goes back to another and far superior scare-’em-to- Jesus series - A Thief in the Night (1973, 70 minutes), A Distant Thunder, Image of the Beast and the epic Prodigal Planet. Then Left Behind brought the best-selling book franchise to the screen with "Growing Pains" heartthrob Kirk Cameron. Recently, the faith-based, end-of-the-world thriller The Omega Code surprised folks when it made a big enough splash at the box office to warrant a sequel. So it’s either one of these "safe" flicks, or none at all. In the same way blaxploitation pictures are made primarily by and for black audiences, a whole genre of religious-themed pictures are produced by and marketed to Christian viewers, as most find the content of secular movies to be inherently sinful. My first exposure to exploitation cinema was actually in CHURCH of all places and with THIS highly memorable flick.

Oh oki “fire and brimstone” for Jameson maybe?

CW: Some talk about fundamentalist Christianity from perspective of someone who left and had a bad exprience with it, memory loss, backstory hinting for Jameson, recovering whumpee, mentioned domestic and child abuse

“Every Sunday, rain or shine,” Jake is saying, the skillet in front of him sizzling so loudly with the frying crumbled-up sausage that he has to raise his voice to be heard. “All of us right there for Sunday School at 9, service at 10, on a good day we’d walk back out at noon to go eat.”

Jameson watches him, and thinks, I didn’t come down here to hear your fucking life story.

They’re the first two up, the sun rising in pinks and purples slowly giving way to blue. Jameson had stayed in bed for a while, watching the sky turn gray first, thinking of Allyn’s eyes. 

He’d padded down here to get something to eat, only to find Jake already in the kitchen, pulling out a cylinder of breakfast sausage wrapped in plastic, heating up a flat black cast-iron skillet. Jameson hadn’t asked, but Jake had said it was a gift from his mother.

Pretty sure you’re not allowed to move out where I come from without at least one. Jake’s voice is cheerful, sparking lemon bursts underlaid with something deeper, darker, that Jameson can’t name. Something smoother. 

He’s trying to be friends, Jameson thinks, and he doesn’t want to be friends, not with anyone, but... his mouth is watering at the scent of the sausage cooking and there are biscuits already in the oven, warm dough smell overlaying everything else. 

White Lily Flour, Jake said, patting the bag of it on the counter. I was raised right.

Jake’s lemon voice took on a hint of bitterness. Jameson wonders, sometimes, if he tastes changes in emotion, or if it’s just his brain malfunctioning, sparking off-key. He thinks he tastes the right things. Nobody’s ever asked him about it. He’s never told anyone. 

None of this - baking, cast-iron cooking, church - means a fucking thing to Jameson.

Except... it sort of does.

“Some days,” Jake says, pushing the sausage around with a wooden spoon, breaking up large clumps that are still pink in the center, “We didn’t get out until one. Just depended on what he was pissed off about that day. Then Monday my dad had men’s group, my mom had women’s group on Tuesdays, we had another service Wednesday night - short one, though. Then Youth Group on Fridays once I was old enough... I wasn’t in it for long, though. We left a few months after I was old enough to join.”

Jake stops, for a second, staring down at the sausage. He picks up a small measuring cup and shakes out some flour, stirring the sausage round as it picks it up. 

“Your family get sick of all that fucking sitting?” Jameson asks, just to fill the silence.

Jake swallows. “Nah. Just my mom and I. Got sick of all that fire and brimstone being aimed at us.”

Jameson’s eyebrows come together. Jake’s voice dips, caramelizes, the lemon is sticky-sweet and feels like fuzz sticking in his head. There’s something here he doesn’t get, and he definitely doesn’t give a fuck, only... 

He leans forward. “What’s that mean?”

Jake turns the heat down on the stove, and Jameson watches the gas flame flicker and become smaller. Then he pours milk in from a carton Jameson drank out of yesterday, not that he’s telling anyone, and watches as it heats.

The timer over the oven dings. Jake pulls on his oven mitt and pulls the tray of golden-brown biscuits out, setting them on a folded towel to cool on the counter while he finishes up the gravy. 

For a second, Jameson thinks Jake isn’t going to answer him.

“My Papa - dad’s dad - was head of the men’s group. He’d been a church deacon for decades, preacher’s right-hand man. Nana Stanton ran music, played the organ, organized the choir. My dad was everybody’s favorite son, you know? Preacher and his wife had six daughters. My dad was prob’ly supposed to marry one of them. He married Mom, instead. My mom and I... we caused trouble for him.”

This is weird, and yet Jameson can’t stop the sense that the hair on the back of his neck is standing up. Something is whispering to him, from deep in the recesses of his thoughts. He doesn’t care.

He has to know.

“Trouble how?”

Jake takes a breath, lets it out. Slow exhale. “My Dad’s a piece of shit, that’s all you need to know. Spent a whole fucking bunch of my childhood in the ER, for me or for Mom.”

Jameson feels himself rock forward, like a hand clapped him on the back too strongly, like the handler slapping the deep red welts just to listen to him moan, right on cue, in reply. 

Me, too. I did that, too.

No. False memories are a result of the Drip, of training. He knows that. He knows-

Wait, no, it wasn’t me. It was-

I had to-

Slid a piece of paper across the table with what she needed to escape, money for college and an apartment and a plane ticket as far away as she could get, happy birthday, you got this, never think about this bullshit family again, and the woman sitting at the desk had smiled and said, I think we can make this work for everyone involved, Mr.-

“... needed help,” Jake is saying, as he cooks down the gravy. It had boiled at some point, now he’s simmering, stirring as it thickens, adding salt and pepper. “But they told Mom she should strive to be fucking Godly. That it was better for her to fucking ‘stick it out’ because marriage is fucking sacred. Nobody told my dad not to be the goddamn devil to his wife and kid, you know?”

“Yeah,” Jameson whispers. Jake’s voice is dark now, the lemon is nearly buried by something thick and black with anger. It slides over Jameson’s mind, smooths out the thoughts he is trying desperately to hold onto.

Jake glances over at him. Whatever he reads in Jameson’s face, he sighs, softly. “Sorry, man. You didn’t ask about my bullshit. Sometimes it just... gets to me all over again. Usually whenever my dad manages to manipulate my grandparents or something into giving him my p.o. box address again.”

The headache arrives, swift and sudden, and Jameson closes his eyes against the flash of light, the thunderclap of pain that follows on its heels. 

Jake fixes him a plate of biscuits, gravy piled high, and it smells so so good and Jameson takes his first bite with the sense of a hard wooden bench biting into his spine and the pastor’s voice droning and she was holding his hand, the two of them, knowing this was the last time they’d be here, together.

She sat in church with the plane ticket he’d bought her in her pocket, hidden from them all. He’d held her hand with his heart in his throat, thinking about his brother.

Was it worth it?

What was it, anyway?

Jake sits down across from him, and Jameson looks up through the throb of pain to see those blue eyes focused on him, concerned. “You all right?”

He’s back to lemon, bright and tart, slightly browned from sugar and heat. Like a candied slice on a cake. But Jameson feels the steady rush of a river underneath, flowing under mountains, gradually wearing away the very earth that keeps them standing. 

“I’m fine,” Jameson says, and takes a bite.

What had he done, when he signed up for this?

Who had he done it for?

---

@astrobly @burtlederp @finder-of-rings @whump-tr0pes @raigash @moose-teeth @orchidscript @doveotions @pretty-face-breaker @endless-whump @eatyourdamnpears @boxboysandotherwhump @vickytokio @outofangband @downriver914 @justabitofwhump  @thehopelessopus @butwhatifyouwrite @yet-another-heathen @wildfaewhump

Mess of thoughts after the last post. Kinda heavy, religious trauma, misogyny, brief mentions of self harm/suicide attempt. Ends on an uplifting note though?

I think the thing that freaked me out with that post was I wasn’t expecting it. I grew up in the bible belt and christianity was, and still is, entrenched in everything around me. I’m used to dealing with it and most days it doesn’t bother me. I have a lot of good friends who are religious who showed me how to have a better, healthier relationship with belief and who respect my boundaries when it gets too much. I tell them ‘funny stories’ of the church I was in growing up and they stare at me in horror and I laugh it off and encourage them to laugh too as ‘can you believe this crazy thing? it’s wild right?’ and push aside any concerns that something’s wrong with my ‘funny stories’.

Their earliest memory in church wasn’t the nice lady who made all the church function’s t-shirts talking about a woman she knew who was so nice and kind but she mentioned something about jesus and the woman told her she was wiccan and wasn’t it a shame that she was going to burn in hell?

They didn’t have the ‘fire-and-brimstone’ preachers who spoke passionately about the devil as much as christ and warned that any thought, any hesitance, any doubt was the devil trying to tempt you. You can’t trust yourself. You’re weak and mortal. If you have doubts you have to beg god for forgiveness and listen to the church. You should have never doubted the church.

Their denomination wasn’t one that prevented women from holding any position of power in the church. Youth-group leaders were the ‘highest’ they could be, they couldn’t even run the adult sunday school lessons. Because women were born from adam’s rib and eve ate the apple first. It was all her fault, she deserved the pain and agony. Women still deserve to be punished today. Lilith? We don’t talk about lilith and even if we did, she’s more proof of women’s inherent wickedness, refusing to submit to her husband. It’s a woman’s place to listen to her husband. She is his helper, he her master. To obey him is to obey to the church, to obey god.

They didn’t live in fear of doing one single thing wrong, forgetting to ask forgiveness, and being damned for all of eternity. There was no punishment a parent could give that would match an eight-year old’s fear of damnation. Every doubt was from the devil. Every ‘this makes me upset, I don’t like being here’ was temptation and it means something is wrong with you because no one else reacts like this. Would your parents even love you if they knew you were so young but the devil was already tempting you so much? Listen to the church. Revelations was one of the most popular books preached. What if the rapture came and you were left behind? It could happen at any moment, have you asked forgiveness today? The anti-christ is said to be a man, but it could be a woman. What if it’s you? What if you don’t even know? What if the signs are as small and innocuous as trick-or-treating or reading books about magic and witchcraft? What if there’s something fundamentally wrong with you? “Serve like peter or serve like judas” god knows everything, has everything planned. You have free will, but do you?

Their denominations were open-minded and inviting. “Everyone is welcome” the church said but only on condition. There are no homosexuals here. Bisexuals do not exist. They’re depraved and sinful and our community is holy and pure. Not one of our women has gotten an abortion, they’re not sluts who spread their legs for every man that asks. They’re not tempted. They’re pure and abstinent, not one has a sexual thought until marriage, until their husband, who they should be with forever, decides to take their innocence and deflower them. A woman’s sex life is like a rose, you know? Every partner, a petal gets plucked. What man would want a plucked flower? Men are never held to the same standard. This is what a good woman should be, so why do you have sexual thoughts? Want physical pleasure? You should be ashamed. Pray for forgiveness, for the thoughts to go away. This, more than anything else, will be your damnation. When they don’t, grow desperate, make deals. It’s not self-harm if you’re not cutting your wrists. It’s not a suicide attempt if you’re not hospitalized and no one knows you tried. No one else has this problem. There must really be something wrong with you.

There is nothing wrong with you. You’re a child, a teenager, and you should never have grown up with this mockery of ‘love’. It’s all about control. Understand that and everything falls into place. You don’t have to beg and plead and make deals with their abusive god who never loved you anyway. Women are human. You are human. There’s nothing wrong with loving a woman, or a man. There’s nothing wrong with wanting pleasure or prioritizing you in your own life. Their holidays are taken from pagan ones and no one even read the damn books before they decided to condemn them for a single word. Man did not create woman, woman created man. Christ forgave all sins, but eve’s were still too great? How convenient. Misogyny at the rotten core, the same thoughts for thousands of years, with nothing new to say except new ways to tighten the shackles and drag you down. You’re not a vessel. Not a ‘non-man’. Or unfinished thing. Other women are not your enemy, they never were. You’re exactly like them, all the other girls. You should be proud of that, embrace it and find connection instead of constant unfulfilling competition with no victor. They’re hypocrites, they demand their book be read literally, the trumpets and angels, the wall falling down, the world consumed by a lake of fire and the mark of the beast but they ignore the slavery, the rape, the food prohibitions, and the fucking law on mixed fabrics. Don’t believe there’s something inherently wrong or evil with you. Every doubt is the devil if you’re trying to maintain control, they took advantage of your youth, your naivete. Trust yourself to learn right from wrong, never let anyone demonize you for asking a question again. There is nothing wrong with other beliefs. There is nothing wrong with your emotions, how scared they made you feel and how it still bubbles up from time to time, an albatross you may never fully let go. It’s getting better. Measure your progress by that. It was the hardest lesson for a child to learn: the adults were wrong. There is nothing wrong with you.

Not sure if I asked you this before, but what is your understanding of Satan as Adversary? And what is your personal understanding of the concept of Satan, as a Christian (if you are willing to share in such a public forum as this dumpster fire disaster)?

CW: Satan.

Thanks for the ask! It was…an adventure, to say the least. ;)

First, though: to my friends who’ve had Satan/Hell/etc. thrown in your faces by people trying to scare you or shame you: I’m so sorry. Please don’t feel pressured to read about this if it is any way triggering. However, I hope that if you do read this little essay, you’ll discover a different (and more Biblical) depiction of Satan.

Also: to my friends on here who are Satanists: I love you! And I recognize that we have very different conceptions of the idea of Satan even if we use the same word. Please don’t feel pressure to read this if you think it would be upsetting. If you do choose to read this, I hope you don’t read this as me attacking your viewpoint. As I write this, I am writing about my own conception of Satan, and I understand that yours is quite different.

And to everyone following me for Daredevil content – there is some Daredevil content here, actually, that you might be interested in, but not enough to justify tagging it as such. Just so you’re aware.

Also: disclaimer: all of this is just my opinion; I would’ve started every sentence with “Based on my understanding, I think ____” if I didn’t think that would get real tedious real fast. Point is: I don’t claim to be an expert. This is simply my attempt to explain what the Bible states about Satan, as I understand it, and to separate what the Bible states from some common misconceptions.

Warning: too many parenthetical phrases. Someone needs to ban me from parentheses.

Without further ado, here we go!

As I understand it, Satan mainly does two things: he accuses, and he lies.

Note that Satan is not actually, as far as I can tell, responsible for “punishing” sinners, which is possibly the most common misconception. I think that idea gained popularity in the US, at least, with fire-and-brimstone preachers who thought scaring people into God’s arms was a good idea. *sigh*

True, the Bible does not sugarcoat its position that humanity is, by default: 1) imperfect (as in: falls short of God’s perfect standard/design for us); 2) broken or “fallen” (as in: evil is innately in me and I don’t have to be taught or persuaded to do bad things – I can figure that out just fine on my own); and 3) in a state of rebellion against God. However, the message of the Bible is that God is on a rescue mission to restore me to right relationship with God, with the world, with other people, and even with myself, and ultimately remove my shame. (Psalm 34:5.) Anyone who uses the Bible to try to scare people into heaven is, in my opinion, misusing it and doing far more harm than good.

ANYWAY. Back to Satan. The Bible is clear (in Revelation 20:10) that Satan will be, in the end times, thrown into Hell (as for what exactly Hell is – that’s a whole other issue). He will be thrown there to suffer as the natural result of being separated from God and everything good. He is not there to rule the place.

So now that we’ve established what he doesn’t do, what does he do?

He accuses. His name in both the Hebrew (Old Testament) and Greek (New Testament) means “adversary” – specifically a legal adversary. He finds every little thing, real or imagined, that I believe I could have done wrong, and tries to twist it to suggest that God (and everyone else, for that matter) could no longer love me. He stirs up guilt and shame. He tries to make me despise myself. He is, truly, a prosecuting attorney who attempts to drag me in front of God and insist that God’s justice could never leave room for my forgiveness. We see this over and over in the Bible, but most clearly, I think, in Zechariah 3 and Job chapters 1 and 2.

(INCIDENTALLY, since this is also a Daredevil blog, that’s another thing that kills me about the show’s failure to resolve Matt’s objections to the book of Job. Catholicism is known – fairly or unfairly; I won’t get into that atm – for shaming people, and Matt certainly struggles with shame. Perhaps as a result of his faith, or his mental illness, or his personality, or more likely a combination of all of it. So it would’ve been much better, in my opinion, if Lantom or Maggie or anyone explained that the voice of shame accusing him is Satan’s (and/or his own), not God’s—as demonstrated in the very book Matt was trying to use to prove that God had rejected him! BUT IT’S FINE.)

I want to note that these accusations of Satan’s may even be accurate sometimes. I mean, if I intentionally hurt someone and then Satan starts whispering to my heart that I did something bad…well, he’s right. And I certainly don’t want to be the kind of person who dismisses every nudge at my conscience as Satan accusing me so I never have to worry about confronting my own flaws and actually becoming a better person.

However, there’s a big difference between how Satan points out my flaws vs when God does. When it’s Satan, it’s accusative. Again, he’s a prosecutor. He’s not on my side. He says, “You hurt this person, and therefore you are unforgivable and unlovable and you should hate yourself.” With God, it’s what we in the US legal community might consider “collaborative.” God is not against me – God is for me. (Romans 8:31.) God acts like a good parent, gently explaining: “Hey, when you hurt that person, you weren’t acting as I designed you to be, and it’s going to have bad consequences for you and for them. Let me help you make amends, and let me show you how to not do the same thing again. I love you.” That is how I, for one, can tell the difference between what Christians refer to as “conviction” (a healthy sense of “I should be better, I want to be better” that is actually accompanied by thankfulness to God for pointing out something broken in me) vs shame.

And here I should also add, as discussed briefly in another post, that the Bible presents God as my defense attorney. In the Old Testament, I (as I understand it) have God “the Father” defending me in Zechariah 3:1-2. I also have Jesus (also God, if you believe in the doctrine of the trinity) defending me in 1 John 2:1 and Romans 8:34. I also have the Holy Spirit (also God, according to the doctrine of the trinity) defending me. In fact, the Greek word often use for the Spirit (paraclete) literally means advocate/lawyer. (Interjection: I named my hamster Paraklete. To me, it’s a hilarious lawyer pun. My friends do not see the hilarity; they are generally bewildered.) In other words, all three “members” of the triune God are united in advocating in my defense, such that no charges against me can stand! (Romans 8:1, 33-34.)

Like. That right there just stuns me when I slow down and think about it.

Of course, shame can also come from within. I’m perfectly capable of shaming myself without Satan’s help. (Although I can’t actually bring a successful judgment against myself, according to 1 Corinthians 4:3-4, which is SUCH a relief.)

Anyway.

So the other main thing Satan does: he lies, hence one of his nicknames: Father of Lies. (John 8:44.) This mostly, as I understand it, has to do with temptation, although there’s definite overlap with accusations (such as when he lies about whether I did something wrong, or lies about whether God could forgive me, or lies about whether there’s still goodness in me). But mostly, this is where he takes something that will hurt me and wraps it up to look like a good idea. I see this portrayed most clearly in the Garden of Eden story. (Genesis 3.) God clearly told Adam and Eve that eating from the forbidden fruit would kill them – it would give them “knowledge” of good and evil.

(I’d be remiss here if I didn’t point out that this is referring to “experiential” knowledge rather than “intellectual” knowledge – Adam and Eve intellectually understood the difference between good and evil, but they hadn’t lived it yet, and God wanted to protect them from ever having to live through evil, which was why he forbade the fruit. I just mention that because it’s commonly presented as a bit of a “gotcha” towards Christianity – like, how could God judge Adam and Eve for sinning if they didn’t know what sin was? But they did, intellectually. They committed their sin knowingly. Also, some people are like, “Oh, does God want us all to be naïve?” *sigh* No, dude, God wanted us to live life without experiencing evil. And if you don’t believe me on this point, feel free to message me – I can explain my rational behind the conclusion, but it requires dipping into several other books of the Bible to understand what the original Hebrew word is communicating, and I don’t wanna write another essay in the middle of this essay.)

Anyway. So God gave them a clear command for their own protection. But Satan comes along and asks questions that cause them to doubt whether God really meant it, and eventually he straight-up lies – both about God’s personality and integrity and overall trustworthiness, and about the fruit, specifically by saying that the fruit will help them rather than hurt them. This is the same basic lie he’s repeated throughout the course of human history.

(So, for someone like Matt, Satan might lie and say that killing someone will bring him a sense of peace and safety for those he loves. Or that his anger is always 100% valid and must be Acted Upon Immediately And Without Restraint. Or that pushing his friends away will keep them safe. Or that doing everything on his own is the only way to maintain control of a situation. Or that he is generally not worthy of love and is, in fact, not loved. And, of course, he’ll lie and tell Matt that God has abandoned him, that God doesn’t care about what he’s going through, that God can’t look past the so-called “devil inside,” etc.)

(For me, if I’m getting real personal on this dumpster fire of a website, some lies that I believe are: that winning an argument is more important than loving another person; that my self-worth comes from other people’s recognition of me; that I’m not making a difference in the world unless other people say so; that indulging in fantasies is more fulfilling than engaging in the real world; that the choices I make now are mine alone and have zero impact on the people I love; and, most recently, that God does not love me enough or consider me important enough to really care about whether I am hurting myself – yeah, that last one WRECKED me when I realized I was believing it – and I could go on…)

It’s important, though, to note that even though Satan can lie about things that tempt me, that doesn’t absolve me of my responsibility (and ability!) to resist the temptation. (1 Corinthians 10:13, James 4:7.) “The devil made me do it” doesn’t actually fly because he can’t “make” me do anything. The Bible also teaches that my desires (some of them; enough of them) are naturally twisted (James 1:14), such that I can’t claim that I would not sin but for Satan’s interference.

Aaand moving on. So we’ve covered the two main things Satan does, and one main misconception. Let’s tackle another misconception. You know the classic story of Satan aspiring to take God’s position and subsequently falling from heaven? It’s actually taken from two separate passages (Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-18) that are both, technically, prophetic messages about ancient kings. The conclusion that these passages reference Satan is arguably not directly supported by the text, and that’s still a matter of debate. (This kinda goes to Father Lantom’s point in Daredevil about the Catholic church potentially taking this more general idea of an adversarial force or position (see discussion below of the implications of seeing Satan as a title rather than a name) and molding it into a single, menacing figure with a tragic backstory and all.) But although I personally would not die on my sword over whether these passages are actually giving us Satan’s backstory, I see no reason to emphatically claim that they couldn’t possibly be an analogy for Satan.

So let’s assume, for funsies, for the sake of discussion, that these passages are giving us Satan’s backstory. What’s cool about that is that it gives us Satan’s motivation. Like, what is this guy’s deal that he’s so obsessed with tormenting and tempting humanity? Well, my understanding is that Satan demonstrates what we all feel when we can’t separate ourselves from wounded ego. Satan “fell” when he, a gorgeous supernatural being in God’s service, wished to replace God, to become God. So he mustered some other supernatural beings and tried to have a coup, and it went as you’d expect when you’re attacking the One who literally created you ex nihilo. Satan lost, but he was never able to humble himself and repent and therefore find reconciliation with God again. Instead, he’s still trying to defeat God and, in the meantime, taking out his wounded pride on the part of creation God loves most: humanity.

(Idk. Even if those stories are just prophetic stories about ancient kings rather than giving us insight into Satan, it’s still a poignant picture of the dangers of being unable to let go of pride. At least, it is to me – a person whose pride often rears up against my desire to apologize to people I’ve hurt and seek reconciliation.)

Other than that, I should say that Biblical Christianity makes it clear that, as a created being rather than the Creator, Satan is not equal to God. Unlike some worldviews (and unlike a terrifyingly common counterfeit Christianity known as the “health and wealth” or “prosperity” gospel – don’t even get me started on that…actually, please do, it’s absolutely worth tearing apart), Biblical Christianity doesn’t portray good and evil as equal but opposing forces. Good is stronger than evil; good is always able to circumvent evil for its own ends (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28); good will always win. This leads to some incredibly complex and difficult-to-accept doctrines regarding evil that I don’t want to explore further here, because it would require another essay within this essay and also because, honestly, it’s a doctrine that always has the potential to be painful to hear. But I will briefly share how this overall principle of God being stronger than Satan affects me, personally: it allows me to confront the greatest evil I know (human trafficking) without becoming overwhelmed by the magnitude of evil, afraid of failure, or burnt out on my own fury at injustice. If I hadn’t seen God work through evil to create good enough times by this point in my life, I don’t think I’d be able to do what I do and avoid falling into despair, fear, or rage.

 All right. So those points above are really the most important points to me, personally, insofar as they actually affect my day-to-day life. But there are a couple other interesting tidbits I’ve picked up along the way.

For example: the Hebrew word for “Satan” is a title (adversary), not a name. In fact, in the Hebrew Old Testament, the original text sometimes reads has-satan. As I understand it according to some ancient Hebrew scholars, “has” functions like a version of the English word “the,” so has-satan would more accurately be translated “the adversary,” which further reinforces that Satan is a title rather than a name. But! I am not a Hebrew scholar, and it’s a very difficult question to google because google reads “has” as an English word. Ugh. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.

All that to say, some scholars believe that “Satan” may not in fact be one individual being. Rather, Satan could be a role – a job description, if you will – that various supernatural beings play. For instance, the Satan who accused Job may not be the same Satan that tempted Adam and Eve – although I’m pretty sure the creature that tempted Adam and Eve has to be the same as the creature that’s thrown into hell in Revelation. But I don’t know any of this for sure and have barely scratched the surface in terms of researching it.

Couple other misconceptions that get thrown around, primarily in Christian churches in the US. For one, the idea that talking about Satan draws his attention. Like, what? Firstly, that’s based nowhere in Scripture. Secondly, that’s directly countered by Scripture, which says that we must be aware of his schemes so we can resist them. (2 Corinthians 2:11, and verse 10 for context.) For another, the idea that he’s been defeated and is therefore no longer active in the world. I think that’s an incredibly dangerous misconception, since just because he’s been defeated doesn’t mean he’s no longer active, and it’s easy to get complacent (especially in more Western/industrialized cultures that don’t tend to see/recognize supernatural activity).

Okay. So these are the main thoughts I’ve been able to pull together. The study of Satan, demons, etc. is really expansive, and there’s a ton I don’t know, and a ton I don’t understand, and, unfortunately, probably a ton that I’ve misconstrued. But, well, the ask was for my personal understanding, and I can safely say that I have, at least, given that. ;)

Thank you again for asking!

Dr. King and the KING of Kings

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1 Timothy 6:13-16: “I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” Revelation 19:16: “And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords.” This message is important to me because I came to faith in Jesus Christ through the efforts of a white, independent Baptist church in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, that for many years did not accept black members, but in the late ‘70s was led to start a black church while I was in the Air Force and stationed at Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, at the age of nineteen. As I interacted with the leaders and members of that church, and even the pastor of the black church plant, I heard some negative things about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that I had never heard before. Some people tried to discredit him by suggesting that he was not a true minister of the Gospel, and even that he did not have a genuine relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. They viewed him as just a mere social worker, with some even claiming that he was a Communist. Even some of the blacks in that young church did not think too highly of Dr. King. I must admit that I did have concerns and questions about this matter because I was raised in the black Baptist church and the black Pentecostal Holiness church, with my dad being a Baptist preacher and my mother being a Pentecostal preacher, and yet I had never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ on how to be saved until I was nineteen-years-old, and a young man named Michael Lewis, who had gotten saved through this church plant that an all-white independent Baptist church had started, came to my dorm room and showed me what was commonly called the Romans Road to salvation from the book of Romans in the Bible. Up until that point, no one had asked me the question, if I were to die today, where would I go, heaven or hell? Thankfully, the Lord allowed me to keep an independent mind about the matter through all of that, and I came to see Dr. King as God’s man for that particular time in this nation’s history to help deliver both blacks and whites in this country from the ignorance of racism and prejudice. I even learned later that Dr. King tried to get into a white conservative Christian seminary, but he was rejected because of his race. However, based on his words and his life, it seems as though Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did know the King of Kings — the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, but the faith, courage, and fortitude that he showed (and that he inspired others to have) as he led the very dangerous Civil Rights movement speaks of a man who knew Jesus Christ as his Savior and had an abiding faith in God.

According to the book, 

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years

, by historian Taylor Branch: In 1934, when a guest minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta made a strong pitch for the salvation of young souls, Martin Luther King Jr. watched his sister rise to make the first profession of faith in Christ. Impulsively, as he later confessed, “I decided that I would not let her get ahead of me, so I was the next.” Also in his book, Strength to Love, Dr. King wrote: “Bound by the chains of his own sin and finiteness, man needs a Saviour (Jesus Christ). Man cannot save himself, for man is not the measure of all things and humanity is not God.” We see here that, contrary to what some thought of King, he did not believe that man could get to Heaven by doing good works. He believed that he and everyone needed a Savior — Jesus Christ. He also said, “Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight victoriously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.” That sounds like what Jesus Christ called being “born again” when He told Nicodemus in John 3:3 & 7, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” As a teenager, King wrote these words in a paper called “The Negro and the Constitution”: “We cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flaunt the central teachings of Jesus: brotherly love and the Golden Rule.” In a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1967, King said, “I’ve learned that to be a follower of Jesus Christ means taking up the cross. And my Bible tells me that Good Friday comes before Easter. Before the crown we wear, there is the cross that we must bear.” And, in his famous sermon, “A Knock at Midnight”, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The church today is challenged to proclaim God’s Son, Jesus Christ, to be the hope of men in all of their complex personal and social problems.” Dr. King certainly spoke as a man who knew Jesus Christ. His core philosophy of love and nonviolence was rooted in the teachings of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Dr. King is dead now, and based on his own words and testimony, we can only say that he is in Heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ having served his generation as a Moses in modern times. It is not enough to honor Dr. King alone because evidently it was the power of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, in his life that caused Dr. King to lead and help both blacks and whites in this nation overcome the ignorance of racism and prejudice. If you truly want to honor Dr. King during this time of remembrance regarding his life, you need to make the decision to trust Jesus Christ as your personal Savior so that you can do great things in your generation as King did in his, for the Bible says, we ‘can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth us.’ If you want to know Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, please listen closely, and take the following steps before it is eternally too late: First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7:20: “For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…” Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Fourth, accept the fact that you cannot do anything to save yourself! The Bible states in Ephesians 2:8,9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Fifth, accept the fact that God loves you more than you love yourself, and that He wants to save you from hell. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (Jesus Christ, John 3:16). Sixth, with these facts in mind, please repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and pray and ask Him to come into your heart and save you this very moment. The Bible states in the book of Romans 10:9,13: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Finally, if you are willing to trust Jesus Christ as your Saviour, please pray with me the following prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. I am sorry for my sins, and I want to turn from my sins. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. I want to trust Jesus as my Savior and follow Him as Lord from this day forward. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen. If you just trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and you prayed that prayer and meant it from your heart, I declare to you that based upon the Word of God, you are now saved and you are on your way to Heaven. Welcome to the family of God! I want to congratulate you on doing the most important thing in life and that is receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. For more information to help you grow in your new-found faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” Believe by faith. Share the faith. And keep the faith! God Bless You!

MORE courtships on the horizon...we are thoroughly overjoyed!

Author’s Note: Ingrid’s last hurrah!

I’ve decided to make Patience Grace my heir for this legacy. This was a tough choice because she was #10, pretty late in the lineup, but the Gormans didn’t have that many girls to choose from compared to boys (before Miracle, the final Gorman child, arrived, there were only 6 girls). Hope (daughter #1), and Evangeline (daughter #3), were way too free-spirited to be good heirs, Katlynn (daughter #2) became the Jana of the family early on, and Helen (daughter #4), while a great Quiverfull daughter, just didn’t strike me as the heir for some reason. It also helped that Evangeline, Helen, and Patience (daughter #5) came close together and right in a row, which made them easy to compare.

Patience reminds me of Ingrid, both because they look alike and because they share characteristics. Patience is a good, obedient Quiverfull daughter, but she also has a romantic streak and can be kind of self-centered. She’s not as rigid as Ingrid, but she’s close. She also lacks some of Ingrid’s cunning...kind of like a Kendra to Ingrid’s Michelle. 

Anyway, being the heir, Patience is courting young and aiming high--she’s dating none other than the eldest son of Pastor Fleming, who runs the Gorman’s Church, Newcrest First Baptist. Helen Praise is courting too--the relationships started around the same time--but she gets a lot less attention. Helen doesn’t really mind that, though--she’s never loved the spotlight, and she’s privately a little embarrassed by her mother’s antics.

Anyway, Patience Grace will soon be married off at 18, while Helen is going to wait until a more reasonable 20. I’m excited to see how their relationships unfold. After her wedding happens, I’m going to start telling this story from Patience’s perspective! I’ll still include the occasional update from Evy, though, since she’s my favorite.

Also, Jon Edward Fleming is named after fire and brimstone preacher Jonathan Edwards, who is famed for delivering the “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” speech during the First Great Awakening. I thought he was a fitting namesake!

Greetings, readers!

As many of you know, my sweet Evy May has been married for over a year now. Many worldly people did not understand her choice to marry so young. The devil is constantly prowling to devour sweet Christian families, and he certainly made an attempt to destroy us with the gossip that surrounded Evy’s marriage! While that time was painful for us, we are SO happy to report that Evy and Auggie are still very much in love and happy doing life together. 

Evy and Auggie recently celebrated Auggie’s 20th birthday at Auggie’s parents’ house. How sweet!

We haven’t had any baby news from Evy and Auggie yet. We pray that the Lord will open Evy May’s womb soon, but until then these two are enjoying the fruits of a happy, Christian marriage!

Happy birthday, Auggie!

Our greatest gift, Miracle Joy, also aged up recently. Stetson and I are SO proud of her! She is such a virtuous young lady and a blessing to us all...every sibling dotes on her!

Sweet Katlynn made a cake for her sister! She is truly a gift. Now if we could just get her married...she’s 23 and still single!

I cannot believe our youngest is now a big kid! The sight of her aging up truly brought a tear to my eye! Though I miss being a young mother greatly, being able to shepherd my children through these more mature seasons of life is such a gift as well, especially as our grandchildren multiply.

One of Stetson’s most important jobs is assessing the MANY young men who show interest in our daughters. Most of them do NOT make the cut!

But after years of careful discernment and praying, an event we always dreamed of has taken place. Yes, it’s true--Pastor Fleming’s oldest son, Jon Edward, has asked to get to know our Patience Grace. Their relationship has moved quickly because they are clearly such a perfect match! Jon Edward has even said that he knew from the first time he met Patience that he wanted her for a wife. He saw her humble spirit and her feminine modesty and was blown away! He agrees with us that women today are so worldly and self-absorbed. Patience stands in contrast to them like a shining light! We are SO grateful for her and the wonderful example that she provides!

Jon invites Patience to court.

Pastor Fleming spent a day at our home supervising Patience and Jon. Jon’s older sister, Laura, was also there!

Sweet fellowship!

Stetson and I had MANY serious conversation with Patience and Jon about the joys and responsibilities of young marriage. Patience is 18 and Jon is 22, so while they are young, they are old enough to marry in the sight of God, so long as they understand the gravity of making eternal vows!

After extended conversations with Patience, Jon, and Pastor Fleming, Stetson decided to allow them to become engaged!

Patience turned 18 just a few days before Jon decided to propose to her, but she is so strong and mature in her judgment! She is ready to be a wife and mother. We never allow our children to delay marriage for too long because it can lead to temptation, so we will allow these two to be married in two months’ time. They’ve already courted for four months and got to know each other for four months before that. Patience was younger than any of our daughters when this process started for her--she was on the early side of 17--but we were confident that the timing was right. We prayed on this match over and over again as a family, and over and over again felt confident that the Lord was drawing these two together!

In other news, our sweet Helen Praise is also courting! Helen is 19 going on 20 and has such a sweet servant’s heart. Young Tyson Bheeda is crazy about her! They both enjoy art and spend many of their chaperoned dates at local museums.

We are so grateful for these two and for their commitment to purity! Here’s to praying we will have another engagement on our hands soon!

Although Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor was not intended for the faint of heart, the novel, nevertheless, piqued my curiosity and kept the questions within my mind stirring. Not only was the dialogue intriguing and the plot complex, but the characters, specifically their names, captivated my attention. First, let us take a look at the main character Hazel Motes. Hazel is presented to the readers as an Army veteran who grew up in the bible belt south. His grandfather was a 'fires and brimstone' pastor, which eventually led Hazel away from the church to seek authenticity and truth regarding religion. Hazel's last name, Motes, is an interesting choice made by O'Connor due to his intense desire to find fault in every other person around him.

In the Bible, Matthew 7:5 states, "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye" (Matt 7:5). Hazel tells himself and others that he is clean and has found the truth, yet Christians are all corrupted. He goes as far as to stalk a blind preacher named Asa Hawks, who turns out to be faking his disability, and he runs over a false preacher with his car killing the preacher. Hazel never receives genuine satisfaction from his findings of hypocrisy, but instead, the desire intensifies each time he unveils someone's true evil nature. Eventually, a police officer pulls Hazel over when he is traveling to another town, and then suddenly, the officer pushes the car off of a hill and into a pond. This moment almost acts as a redemptive moment for Hazel, who is forced to now observe the own mote in his eye instead of the mote in others'. Once Hazel identifies his flawed living, he practices extreme self-flagellation in the form of blinding himself, wrapping barbed wire around his stomach, and walking with rocks and glass in his shoes. Hazel, mainly in the act of blinding himself, follows not only Matthew 7:5's instructions but also the instructions of 1 Peter 4:1 "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;" and Matthew 5:29 "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell" (1 Pet. 4:1; Matt 5:29).

The second character from the book that carries an intriguing name is Enoch Emory. Enoch is a secondary character yet holds an odd yet engrossing storyline. Enoch is introduced to the audience upon his meeting of Hazel. Immediately, the audience understands Enoch's loneliness and outcast nature, pushing him to stick to Hazel's side as if glue held them together. Throughout the novel, he talks about his" wise blood" and how his blood tells him things and shows him signs. His blood, which he references as Fate at one point, connects Enoch of Wise Blood to Enoch of GenesisGenisis in the Bible. Enoch of GenesisGenisis, the great-great-great-great-grandson of Noah, faithfully conducted the works of God and followed his commands for 300 years which allowed him to be carried directly into Heaven to escape death. Likewise, Enoch Emory becomes a faithful follower of Hazel's new church, The Church of Christ Without Christ. He even goes as far as to steal an ancient mummified indigenous individual whom he believes to be the "new jesus" of Hazel's church. Enoch thought of himself to be Hazel and new jesus's prophet, yet he was not a good prophet by any means. His "wise blood" or prophetic gifting merely convinced him to watch women swimming in a perverted manner, rob, and even murder. Additionally, His odd behavior made many people annoyed or even cower in fear which similarly relates to the fear within Enoch of the Bible's followers as stated in the book of Moses. Both Enochs had faith so strong in what they believed that fear, in different variations, appeared in the hearts of those around them.

The reason I found character specification through name analysis in particularly fascinating is due to O’Connor’s own affiliation with Catholicism. Throughout Biblical text, the notion that names reflect who a person will become is made incredibly evident to readers. Therefore, I find the fact that most of the characters of Wise Blood having names that can be traced to their personalities but also to biblical material is sneaky yet incredibly thoughtful on O’Connor’s part.

CHAPTER AND VERSE?  BY STEVE FINNELL

THE CHALLENGE GOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS, "IF YOU HAVE A VALID POINT, GIVE THE BIBLE CHAPTER AND VERSE TO PROVE YOUR POINT." THE PROBLEM IS, IF THE CHAPTER AND VERSE IS GIVEN WOULD IT BE READ AND IF READ WOULD IT BE BELIEVED?

POINT: "WHAT MUST YOU DO TO BE SAVED?" BELIEVE AND BE BAPTIZED.

MARK 16:16 "HE WHO BELIEVES AND IS BAPTIZED WILL BE SAVED; BUT HE DOES NOT BELIEVE WILL BE CONDEMNED.(NKJV)

A. Believes: Mark 16:16, John 3:16, Acts 16:31, Romans 10:9,10, John 8:24, John 3:18, John 14:6.

B. Baptized: Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, 1 Peter 3:21, John 3:5, Ephesians 5:25-27, Colossians 2:11-13, Romans 6:3-8, Titus 3:5

Did you read it and believe it? What prevents men from believing God's word?

Hebrews 5:11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. (NKJV)

Hearing is a problem.

2 Peter 3:14-16.....16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which those who are untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also with the rest of Scriptures.(NKJV)

Twisting Scripture is a self imposed barrier to the truth.

Mark 7:7 And in vain to they worship Me, Teaching for doctrine the commandments of men."(NKJV)

Mark 7:9 And He said to them, "All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.(NKJV)

Mark 7:13 "making the word of God no effect through your tradition which you have handed down, And many such things you do.' (NKJV)

Keeping man-made church traditions is not equivalent to keeping God's commands. God inspired the Bible, He did not inspired man-made tradition.

Church catechisms, church statements of faith, books about the Bible, Bible commentaries, nor popular preachers have not been inspired by God. Those writings and words are not equal to God's inspired book. THE BIBLE is God's book.

THE OCCULT  BY STEVE FINNELL

God condemns all occult practices. Sorry, Harry Potter fans, there is no such thing as good wizards and witches.

Deuteronomy 18:9-12 "When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.

God does not approve of any occult practices!

Galatians 5:19-21 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are:.......20...sorcery....21 those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

There is no white witchcraft in God's world. All occult practices are denounced by God.

Revelation 21:8 But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murders and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

THOSE WHO ARE INVOLVED IN OCCULT PRACTICES NEED TO REPENT; AS DO ALL WHO MAKE SIN A PRACTICED ART-FORM.

NOTE: DID YOU EVER NOTICE MOST  CHURCHES WILL NOT TOLERATE THEIR MEMBERS TO ENGAGE IN OCCULT PRACTICES, BUT WELCOME THOSE CHRISTIANS INTO THE FELLOWSHIP, WHO ARE INVOLVED IN SEXUAL IMMORALITY?

THE UNREPENTANT SORCERERS AND UNREPENTANT IMMORAL PERSONS WILL BE TOGETHER IN THE LAKE OF FIRE!          

ABSTINENCE OF ALCOHOL?   BY STEVE FINNELL

Far too many Christians like to defend social drinking. The question is which is the better lifestyle for Christians and non-believers alike? Two choices 1. Total abstinence. 2.Social drinking.

The downside to social drinking.

1. Had Noah not been a social drinker he would have not gotten drunk. (Genesis 9:20-26)

2. If Lot had not been a social drinker he would not have gotten drunk and committed incest. (Genesis 20:30-38)

3. If men were not social drinkers they would not become poor due to their drunkenness. (Proverbs 23:21)

4. Social drinking precedes drunken men staggering in their own vomit.(Isaiah 19:14)

5. Non-social drinkers are not lead astray by intoxicating drinks. (Proverbs 20:1)

6.  Teetotalers will never be prevented from entering the kingdom of God because of their unrepentant drunkenness.(Galatians 5:21...drunkenness....those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.)

The upside of abstinence.

1. Teetotaler will never suffer from alcohol poisoning.

2. Teetotalers will not have to endure liver disease induced by alcohol consumption.

3. Teetotalers will not experience dementia that is caused by alcohol abuse.

4. Teetotalers will not be affected my the adversity of cognitive function brought on by mild to moderate drinking.

5. Teetotalers will not commit crimes while under the influence of alcohol.

6. Teetotalers will not abuse their families due the influence of alcohol.

7. Teetotaler will not be unemployable due alcohol abuse.

Statistics from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.

Alcohol use was a factor in: 37% of rapes, 15% of robberies, 27% of aggravated assaults, and 25% of simple assaults.

There has never been a single person killed by a teetotaler in drunk-driver accident caused by alcohol consumption.

CAN ANYONE HONESTLY DEFEND  SOCIAL DRINKING?  

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DID THE APOSTLE PAUL PRAISE FALSE TEACHERS?   BY STEVE FINNELL

Did the apostles Paul praise the false teachers of his generation and of past generations?

What was Paul's attitude concerning the Judaizers and those who lied about the resurrection?

THE JUDAIZERS: Galatians 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.(NKJV)

LIED ABOUT THE RESURRECTION: 2 Timothy 2:17-18 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, 18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.

You will notice the apostle Paul did not recommend any books that were written by the Judaizers, Hymenaeus, nor Philetus. Paul did not commend them by quoting them in a positive light. The apostle Paul did not applaud, nor advocate reading books and Bible commentaries written by these men. The apostle Paul did not praise men who were guilty of perverting the doctrines of God.

What was Paul's message concerning those who pervert God's word?

Galatians 1:6-9 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so I now say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. (NKJV)

Galatians 1:6-9........8 Let God's curses fall on anyone, including myself, who preaches any other way to be saved than the one we told you about; yes, if an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other message, let him be forever cursed.........(The Living Bible---Paraphrased)

That was Paul's message to those who pervert God's plan of salvation.

The message we hear from Christian leaders today is quite different. Their message we hear all too often is to praise the books of those who pervert God's doctrine, recommend buying their Bible commentaries, quote them in a positive light, extol the virtues of their teaching methods, and applaud their accomplishments.

Why would Christian leaders praise men who?

1. Deny that water baptism is essential for salvation.

2. Claim there will not be a bodily resurrection from the grave.

3. Teach that men are saved by grace alone.

4. Proclaim that men are saved by faith only.

5. Declare that their denomination can add to the Scriptures, because God is giving new truths through their religious leaders.

6. Teach that their denomination (their church)  is the final authority in faith and practice and that the Bible is simply an aid to their truth.

The apostle Paul did not  praise false teachers. The question remains, why do Christian leaders of today applaud the works of those who pervert God's message.            

MODERN DAY APOSTLES?   BY STEVE FINNELL

What do modern day apostles believe about themselves?

Do they believe they are receiving direct revelation from God the Father? Do they think that their words are Scripture? Do they believe that when they record their thoughts in church catechisms and new books of revelation they writing Scripture inspired by God?

What does the Bible say about the apostles chosen by Jesus Christ?

1. Galatians 1:1Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead).(NKJV)

Have those who claimed to be modern day apostles had a Damascus road experience? Where they chosen directly by Jesus.

2. Galatians 1:11-12 But I make known to you , brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received if from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.(NKJV)

Have men today who believe that they are apostles because of apostolic succession received revelation through Jesus Christ?

3. 2 Peter 3:15-16 ...Paul, accord to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all of his epistles.....as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. (NKJV)

All of the apostle Paul's letters were, in fact, Scriptures. Are the writings in church catechisms and books of, so-called, new revelation, Scriptures inspired by God?

4. John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (NKJV)

Jesus told the apostles the Holy Spirit would teach them all things. Which of the modern day apostles did Jesus say that?

5. 2 Timothy 3:15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.(NKJV)

Do the modern day apostles write Holy Scriptures in their creed books and so books of new revelation? Can their writing make men wise to salvation?

6. 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God...

The writings of the apostles chosen by Jesus Christ were God breathed Scripture.

Who believes that the writings of modern day apostles are God breathed Scriptures? I, for one, do not believe that they are writing Scripture.

If what the modern day apostles are writing in their creed books, church catechisms, and books of new revelation are not Scripture, then of what value are they?

Modern day revelation that is synonymous with the Bible is unnecessary.

Modern day revelation that contradicts the Bible is false doctrine.

THERE ARE NO MODERN DAY APOSTLES THAT ARE SENT BY GOD THE FATHER.    

Upcoming Movies in September 2020: Theaters, Streaming, and VOD

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Movies are back! Granted they never really left either, with Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, and others keeping us satiated with content these past five months. Still, the streamers are about to be reinforced for those willing to return to movie theaters: Major Hollywood blockbuster releases are coming, and limited rollouts are slowly making their way back into cinemas around the world.

For that reason, we’ve assembled a list of potential moviegoing experiences in September, whether on the big screen (please consider the risks of attending a theatrical screening) or at home via video on demand. It’s time for the popcorn to get popping.

Bill & Ted Face the Music

Now playing in theaters and VOD in the US (September 23 in the UK)

One of the biggest movies yet to eschew its intended theatrical window for a premium video on demand (PVOD) release is this most excellent adventure. It’s been 29 years since we last saw Alex Winter’s far out Ted or Keanu Reeves’ perpetually astonished Bill, yet it’s good to have both back in their legendary stoner roles. 

The fact they’re middle-aged and still having adventures through time and space, and against the visage of Death—he’s still cheating!—is pretty sweet. As is Keanu coming back to this role one Speed, three Matrixes, and nearly five John Wick chapters later. But this time they’ve got daughters (played by Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine)… but rest assured, the children are as amused as their dads.

Tenet

Now playing in the UK (September 3 in the US)

Already playing in the UK, Tenet will be making its much vaunted North American debut in “select U.S. cities” in September. We’re still not entirely clear what that will look like, but hopefully it will be worth it for this mysterious and visually dazzling Christopher Nolan epic. 

Early reviews are in, and the majority promise Nolan’s most exciting use of IMAX spectacle to date, though even without spoilers, this one might be too big for its own good. Our own Rosie Fletcher describes it as Nolan’s long-whispered about James Bond movie meets Doctor Who…

The New Mutants

Now playing in the U.S. (September 4 UK)

Josh Boone’s journey into the X-Men universe has been pushed back so many times it almost feels like a mythical lost movie. So when it finally arrives in UK cinemas on Sept. 4 (it landed in the U.S. at the end of August) it might feel like a bizarre flashback to another era – namely that of 2017 when the main shoot took place. 

Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Blu Hunt, and Henry Zaga star as five young mutants held in a sinister facility against their will. It’s been positioned as an action horror which in theory sounds pretty cool, though what the final cut will look like is anyone’s guess.

Mulan

September 4 (Disney+ with premium)

One day after Tenet makes its U.S. debut, Disney, and more specifically Disney+, offers a starkly different vision for the future of cinema with Mulan. Whereas Tenet will attempt to jumpstart moviegoing, Disney has pushed one of their biggest 2020 blockbusters exclusively to streaming in all markets featuring Disney+, including the U.S. and UK. That means if you want to see Niki Caro’s anticipated reimagining of the 1998 animated Disney movie, you are going to have to pay $30 on top of your Disney+ subscription to get a load of this bad boy on a new PVOD model.

Read more

Movies

Mulan and Tenet Show Competing Visions for Future of Movies

By David Crow

Movies

UK Cinemas Slam Disney After Mulan Streaming Announcement

By Kirsten Howard

Even so, the film’s need to step away from the 1998 version’s iconography—Chinese moviegoers generally dislike musicals—appears to offer an opportunity to make a modern 2020 epic that can stand on its own two feet.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things

September 4 (Netflix)

Charlie Kaufman does horror? Well, uh, maybe?! For his first Netflix original production, the idiosyncratic writer-director behind Synecdoche, New York, and the Being John Malkovich screenplay is adapting Iain Reid’s thriller novel, I’m Thinking of Ending Things. But Kaufman is expected to come at it from his singularly off-center perspective.

With a somber setup about a young woman (played by Wild Rose’s talented Jessie Buckley) going to meet the parents of her boyfriend (Jesse Plemons), the movie is actually about an unhappy lover planning to terminate her relationship. Yet when she meets Mom and Dad (Toni Collette and David Thewlis), things are going to get weirder, if not necessarily better for the relationship…

The Roads Not Taken

September 11 (UK)

Sally Potter’s wistful drama was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival earlier in the year before the world went into lockdown. It follows Leo (Javier Bardem), a man with dementia, as he imagines different paths in life he might have taken, while his daughter Mollie tries to help him keep various appointments and struggles with decisions about her own future. A very personal study of mental illness, grief, and regret.

The Devil All the Time

September 16 (Netflix)

Southern fried noir might be the creepiest noir. With its rural and sunny backdrops, and a smiling Christian face, its pleasantries belie an evil heart. And Tom Holland of all people will be driving right to the dark center of it in The Devil All the Time, a new thriller by writer-director Antonio Campos. 

Ready to bow on Netflix this month, the all-star cast, which also includes Bill Skarsgård, Riley Keough, Sebastian Stan, and Robert Pattinson, as a fire and brimstone preacher no less, The Devil All the Time reimagines post-WWII Tennessee backwoods as a hotbed of corruption, hypocrisy, and murder. Sounds about right.

Antebellum

September 18 (U.S. Only)

Co-writers and directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz appear to have cracked the code in making one of fiction’s favorite fantasies terrifying. You know the type: From Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court to Midnight in Paris, some congenial fellow travels back to a point in history he loves and has an all-around splendid time. Now imagine that same scenario except the protagonist is a Black woman. And she’s sent to the Antebellum South on the eve of the Civil War. Scared yet?

It’s a disturbing premise that aims to put Antebellum in the same wheelhouse as recent horror movies that have tackled American racism head on, including Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Us. The movie stars the ever compelling Janelle Monáe as a 21st century author trapped inside a 19th century nightmare, and it’s one of the most intriguing setups of the year. It also will be available on VOD and in select theaters.

The King’s Man

September 18 (September 16 in the UK)

Kingsman: The Secret Service was one of the nicer surprises of 2015. A better Bond movie than that year’s Bond film, this Matthew Vaughn directed and Jane Goldman co-written spy adventure was both a satire and loving homage to 007 movies of the 1960s and ‘70s, with excessive swagger and style to boot. Unfortunately, Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) didn’t live up to its predecessor. It did, however, make enough money to spawn a prequel. Which brings us to The King’s Man.

As Disney/20th Century Studios’ latest release, this movie sees Vaughn return to the director’s chair as he travels back in time to World War I and the origins of the Kingsman secret service. With the same daffy style but now in period garb (it worked for Vaughn in X-Men: First Class), the prequel hopes to recapture the charm of the original. It certainly has a winning cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Bruhl, Djimon Hounsou, and Gemma Arterton.

Kajillionaire

September 18 (October 9 in the UK)

One of the happy discoveries out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Focus Features’ Kajillionaire is a movie we’ve had our eye on for a while. The picture is writer-director Miranda July��s pleasant vision of criminality and heists being the stuff of family team-building. Take Evan Rachel Wood as Old Dolio. She’s an adult daughter whose depression has forced her to live at home with her small time crook parents. But Mom and Pop (Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins) have a plan; they’ll incorporate their daughter in the next heist and bring her out of her funk. It’s a charming premise that won over almost every critic who saw it back in January.

The Nest

September 18 (U.S. Only)

Another apparent highlight out of Sundance this year, Sean Durkin’s The Nest presents itself as a foreboding drama. As the follow-up feature from the director of Martha Marcy May Marlene, the film intends to be an unsettling account of a wealthy marriage descending into Gaslight levels of manipulation. With Jude Law as the rich patriarch and Carrie Coon as his quietly suffering wife, a sudden move to the country reveals dark dimensions to their relationship and the brittleness of domesticity. If the buzz is to be believed, the wound up WASPy tension in this could strangle an elephant.

Enola Holmes

September 23 (Netflix)

Did you know Sherlock Holmes had a little sister? You’re about to thanks to some strong synergetic mojo going on at Netflix with Enola Holmes, a new mystery/adventure that stars The Witcher’s Henry Cavill as Sherlock, The Crown’s Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Holmes, and Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown as the eponymous Enola. That’s right, Eleven’s going to use her own English accent and play Sherlock’s kid sister. 

Often kept in her famous brother’s shadow, it is up to Enola to do him one better when she sets off to find their mysteriously vanished mother. In the process, she proves she’s a super-sleuth in her own right and brings to light a deadly conspiracy. The game’s afoot!

Misbehaviour

September 25 (Open in the UK)

A crowd-pleaser that debuted earlier in the year in the UK, Misbehaviour has all the markers of a charming dramedy with real world ramifications. In fact, it’s set during the events of the Miss World competition in 1970, a televised beauty pageant in London that was then the most-watched event on the planet. In this context, the Women’s Liberation Movement reached international acclaim by disrupting the proceedings, and a Woman of Color from Grenada became a contender for the Miss World title.

Director Philippa Lowthorpe (The Crown) reportedly explores these events to winning results with an ensemble of players that Keira Knightley and Jessie Buckley as lead activists, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Jennifer Hosten (aka Miss Grenada), and Greg Kinnear at his greasiest as an aging Bob Hope.

Greenland

September 25 (U.S. Only)

Imagine this: A comet that is supposed to gently pass Earth by was misjudged by the science community, and instead a cataclysmic extinction level event occurs with comet fragments destroying parts of the world one action scene at a time! Yeah, in 2020 that sounds about right. It’s also the plot of Greenland, a new high-concept survivalist action movie starring Gerard Butler as a family man who, realizing Florida is gone and his home state is next, tries to save his wife (Morena Baccarin) and child by getting his family to the last place that may be spared: military bunkers in Greenland!

And you thought U.S. leadership was being ridiculous when it tried to buy the country a few years ago…

The post Upcoming Movies in September 2020: Theaters, Streaming, and VOD appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Judgment XX

Part 1

When I was sixteen, I came home from school one day and my mother gathered my little sister and I in the living room with an enormous sense of urgency.  Her face was full of fear and sorrow as she presented us each with a backpack, and told us that everything we would need to hopefully survive could be found inside. A change of clothes, running shoes, thermal blanket, protein bars, tablets to disinfect drinking water, basic first aid supplies, iodine tablets to prevent the body from absorbing radiation, and a bundle of cash in small bills.

She informed us that the very next day, according to the prediction of an evangelical pastor, the rapture would take place. In Christian theology, this is the second coming of Christ to Earth and the event that signals what is commonly conceptualized as “the end of the world.”  As a Christian, my mother believed that she would ascend to heaven. As “non-believers,” my sister and I would be left in the rubble… which is to say some vague, resource-scarce dystopian landscape of smoky skies and fights to the death in abandoned grocery stores aisles.

My mom was ready to go. She was ready to leave this world, and move on prematurely to the afterlife. But this was not a new thing. She had been ready, with barely one foot on the ground, for as long as I can remember.

As a young child, I recall tornado warnings that would send us running to the basement with sleeping bags, ready for the worst. The world ending wasn’t always about Christ’s return, see. More broadly, for my mom, I think it was about retreating from reality. It was any excuse to hole up and defend her nuclear family from threats semi-real to fully imagined.  She hoarded (and still, I believe, hoards) supplies as a regular practice--cleaning products, canned goods, bulk grains, batteries--and invariably most of it would expire before it was ever put to use. But it soothes her, my mother, and abates the anxieties stoked by Fox News, InfoWars and fire-and-brimstone preachers delivering end times prophecies to the day.

It is hard to share this. Despite the harm she caused me, and the fact that we do not speak, I have love for my mother. I see her paranoia and her attempts to feel safe in a world that is fundamentally not safe.  I feel sad that she can only conceptualize safety as being more prepared than her neighbors, and keeping it all to herself. I want to share this, though, because in being raised by someone perpetually readying herself for the apocalypse, I developed a readiness of my own.

I am thinking about the Dean Spade lecture on mutual aid, “Solidarity Not Charity,” that I attended this past fall. There was a moment when he was speaking about the idea of safe spaces as being not only an impossibility, but a concept that actually detracts from effective organizing. I want to quote him as saying, “If I get my safety from making you wrong, that’s authoritarian.” He described being at a meeting where people were planning for a common goal, and someone saying something hurtful and offensive. Rather than immediately kicking the person out, he said, what could come of recognizing that you had a common enemy (capitalism, the police, etc) and educating them. The “safety” that would allow him to respond to that situation in the latter way was generated by “having enough, and being held in community so that we can tolerate discomfort.” it is this definition of safety that I have been orienting towards.

Part 2

Recently someone asked me what kind of witch I am, and I told them “a political one.”  I say this because the witch hunts of early modern Europe are one of the main origin points for our current conception of what a witch is. Although the Wicca of second wave feminism claimed those executed as “witches” to be ancestors of a Pagan religious tradition, in reality many if not most of them understood themselves as Christian. According to Silvia Federici’s extensively researched thesis, the people executed as witches were killed for the threat they posed to the newly enforced order of economic and social relations— early capitalism. In medieval Europe, most people practiced some form of what we would call magic. Charms for love, money and protection were run of the mill. It was only the magic of those who existed in opposition to the patriarchal capitalist order--the unmarried, disabled, unhoused, and destitute--that was labeled diabolical. Those Christians became heretics, and heretics became witches. The practice of magic alone did not, and perhaps does not, make someone a witch.

I am a witch in part because I was baptized in the Presbyterian church. I am a witch because I am a dyke who loves God (in a polytheistic kinda way). I am a witch because I survived an upbringing that nearly killed me, and I have committed my life to fight to destroy the societal structures which give rise to the interpersonal violence that I endured. I am a witch because of the non-hierarchical way I strive to relate to life in all its forms— plant, animal, human and non-human, living and dead. I am a witch because I believe that what we can imagine, we can bring into being.

In March of 2017 I was preparing for a spring equinox ritual with a group of witches as part of a Wheel of the Year class offered by my teacher, Miel Rose. On the seasonal theme, we wanted to cast a spell for moving back into embodiment after a time of being numb... For embracing the movement of spring after the dormancy of winter.  In the week between our planning meeting and the day of our ritual, I found out the man my sister was dating, Rafael, an undocumented man from Guatemala, was detained by ICE in Pennsylvania.  I remember feeling utterly powerless to free him from the jaws of the evil machine that is our immigration system. I went into ritual thinking about our intention for greater embodiment and movement. It wasn’t complete, I realized, as a spell to support our own transformation. We needed to cast a spell for freedom of movement for all people, all beings.  And so we did.

On the bike path in Northampton, under the South Street overpass, we chalked in huge letters

A WORLD WITHOUT CAGES IS POSSIBLE.

And we chanted and hummed and visioned and sent the truth of that world we could feel in our bodies out to be picked up and passed on by others.

After ritual, I wrote these words in my journal:

"I WILL FEED MYSELF BECAUSE I LOVE THIS WORLD AND I AM OF THIS WORLD AND I DESERVE TO BE FED

Let it all come up into the (sun)light

Learning to be vulnerable, slowly Learning I won’t be punished for it Learning it’s ok to make mistakes, to be wrong, to fuck up That I can and will be held

Real change is slow and sometimes it hurts but sometimes it’s a steady drip till the water flows in full."

We were unsuccessful in our legal efforts to free Rafael from detention and prevent him from being deported. Witnessing his journey struggling against the system--attending his asylum trial inside the prison where he was being held--further radicalized me and moved me to political engagement in a new way. Fast forward a couple of years and I’ve been blessed to organize as part of the Trans Asylum Seeker Support Network to get transgender and genderqueer asylum seekers across the U.S./Mexico border, out of ICE detention, and set up with sponsors and support in western Massachusetts. This work has drawn me into a web of community I had previously only dreamed of (and cast spells for). We believe it is possible and necessary to abolish the police, abolish prisons, abolish capitalism. As a collective, we treat each other with kindness and encourage honesty in everything we do. We recognize that we need each other, and we act like it. What an immense gift to be surrounded by people who believe that a world without cages is possible, and to be fighting for it together. The more I connect and build with radical left activists, the more I realize we could have an entirely different world.

Part 3

And that is what I am sitting with in this moment. Everyone is calling it the apocalypse, and I don’t think that’s heavy handed. The word apocalypse comes from the Greek apokalupsis, from apokaluptein meaning ‘uncover, reveal.’ The whole world is seeing what was behind the curtain that is the mythology of capitalism.  There are extreme losses occurring in this process. Death abounds. This is heavy. And. In the shadow of death there is preciousness. On this, I think, my mother and I agree. Everything is cast in a softer light. The finiteness of life becomes more real. There is possibility for deep change, because the ultimate change looms so large. We feel the urgency of how totally unsustainable the current order of economic and social relations is. The working class is fed up, and recognizing that they have power.

I re-read the Revelation to John (aka the Book of Revelation) recently for the first time in years. I believe that the end of the world described there cannot be separated from the description of the downfall of the Roman empire. I choose to read it slant. I choose to queer it. I choose to cultivate a relationship with this apocalypse moment that centers weaving webs of care alongside on the ground organizing to bring about the downfall of our current empire. For me, it is the only way through.