Reading Time: 10 minutes It’s a very ugly fantasy–the demonstration of a very broken psyche on display in the lewdest possible manner–and though the movie itself isn’t a critical masterpiece, seeing that fantasy marched across a screen for that runtime made me feel like I was reading some Nice Guy’s short story about his revenge on all those high school girls who rejected him long ago. It was that obvious and that disquieting to see this movie and think, “This is what they really think of us.”
Rapture
Posted inReligion
The Great Left Behind-a-Palooza
Reading Time: 16 minutes To my astonishment, a quick search on Netflix revealed not only the new version of the movie but also the original Kirk Cameron version–and the two Kirk Cameron sequels. I feel like a five-year-old on Christmas morning suddenly. I’d say we’re set.
Posted inReligion
When evangelicals became the opposite of social justice
Reading Time: 10 minutes When someone is convinced that the end of the world is coming, that person isn’t exactly going to care what his or her credit rating looks like, so to speak. I personally knew people who didn’t want to take care of their own bodies because they were so sure that they’d just be Raptured before they got old. I’ve met other ex-Christians who told me that their parents didn’t want to teach them to drive or take sex education because they were so sure that they and the end of the world would happen well before the kids became old enough to hit their teens. I’ve seen “Rapture ready” type websites that actually advised readers to take out as much credit card debt as they possibly could in advance of apocalyptic predictions. And we’ve heard countless Republicans in the Jesus Party claim that the reason they fight against legislation meant to reverse climate change is that Jesus is coming back anyway, so why bother with it all when he’s just going to destroy the planet in the last battle?
Posted inReligion
Left Behind: The Pandering.
Reading Time: 11 minutes When a horrible remake gets made of a movie that was already horrible to begin with, though, that’s when things have potential to get really bad. Left Behind is one such movie franchise.
Posted inReligion
(Un)Prophetable.
Reading Time: 13 minutes Prophets–the divinely-touched emissaries of a god–have always had a very special place in human minds, haven’t they? They are thought to be the conduit for divine words and power, the most effective demonstration there could be for the existence of a living god. Prophets told a religion’s followers what to do, how to react to […]
Posted inReligion
Rapture Night: Party Over, Oops, Out of Time
Reading Time: 11 minutes I’ve written about the 1988 Rapture scare that I went through as a teenager, the one that scared me into joining a Pentecostal church, but I want to mention briefly what it was like for me to be a teenager during a Rapture scare because I think we’ve kind of forgotten the harm that these […]
Posted inReligion
Rapture Night: Party Over, Oops, Out of Time.
Reading Time: 11 minutes I’ve written about the 1988 Rapture scare that I went through as a teenager, the one that scared me into joining a Pentecostal church, but I want to mention briefly what it was like for me to be a teenager during a Rapture scare because I think we’ve kind of forgotten the harm that these […]
Posted inReligion
Crushing on the Antichrist.
Reading Time: 9 minutes If you’ve never seen The Damn Show, a homebrew sketch comedy show out of Austin, Texas, you’re missing out–but be forewarned, it’s not exactly family fare. In one of their sketches, a spoof of the Osbournes’ reality show, some missionaries come to “Mrs. Osbourne’s” door to witness at her. Her response? “I’d love to help […]
Posted inReligion
Logical Christians.
Reading Time: 11 minutes I hope your holidays are going well so far! Welcome back. I realized not long ago that I’ve made references to “logical Christians” a couple of times here, and I wanted to talk about that idea a little bit now. I truly believe that “logical Christians” are about the very worst of the worst of […]
Posted inUncategorized
Happy Anniversary of the World Not Ending
Reading Time: 3 minutes You may not realize how lucky you are to be reading this. The world was supposed to have ended two days ago … but I guess it didn’t. Again. (And do you know what today is the anniversary of?)