Reading Time: 12 minutes Hello and welcome back to our off-topic chat series, Lord Snow Presides! We return to our review of the 1986 Christian fantasy novel, This Present Darkness. In this installment, we explore a trope that this book’s author never tires of repeating: how terribly angry his tribe’s enemies always are. Today, let’s look at the role of anger in Frank […]
This Present Darkness
Posted inGeneral
An Evil Ecumenical Church Service in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #122, Ch. 13)
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hi and welcome back to our off-topic Monday chat series, Lord Snow Presides (LSP)! Lately, we’ve been reviewing Frank Peretti’s dead albatross of a novel, This Present Darkness. In Chapter 13, he compares and contrasts a pair of church services. Last week, we checked out a scene from the TRUE CHRISTIAN™ church. Immediately after that scene, the author offers us […]
Posted inReligion
The Angel in the Back Pew in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #121, Ch. 13)
Reading Time: 10 minutes In today’s installment, we discover a popular Christian urban legend when a literal angel shows up to church–and a second one in how demons show up too. Today, Lord Snow Presides over Christians who just can’t get over themselves.
Posted inReligion
Meet the Remnant in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #120, Ch. 12)
Reading Time: 8 minutes In this installment, we encounter the term remnant, meet a Lucky Charms angel, and explore some other Peak Christianese terms. Today, Lord Snow Presides over more evangelical narcissism in This Present Darkness.
Posted inReligion
The Power of Prayer in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #118, Ch. 11)
Reading Time: 10 minutes In this installment, we examine the Yoda-like superpowers of ancient widow Edith Duster. Along the way, we’ll discover a deep and cherished core of victim-blaming within the tribe. Today, Lord Snow Presides over a doctrine that accidentally reveals a deeply-unpleasant and narcissistic core running through evangelicalism.
Posted inReligion
The Very Unlikely Party Tank in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #117, Ch. 11)
Reading Time: 10 minutes In this installment, we encounter a fundagelical trope at least as venerable as its embodiment: the old church lady whose unshakeable faith and rock-solid devotion makes her a church’s tank. I’ll show you what tanks are in gaming and why Christian culture warriors think they need one. Today, Lord Snow Presides over the weakest consolation prize ever!
Posted inReligion
How the Satanic Panic Hurt My Friend in the 1980s
Reading Time: 12 minutes Big David was larger than life. He had beautiful crystal-blue aquamarine eyes that seemed to look into forever and a strong voice made for public speaking. Tall and lanky, with black hair and pale skin liberally dotted with freckles, he looked like a country boy. He needed to be wearing denim overalls and a well-loved straw hat and carrying a homemade wooden fishin’ pole.
Posted inReligion
Abusing the Help in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #116, Ch. 11)
Reading Time: 7 minutes In today’s installment, we see how demons take defeat–and how poorly they treat their human assistants when they get frustrated. So yes: today, Lord Snow Presides over yet another example of Christian projection: mistreating the help.
Posted inGeneral
The Tempting of Pastor Hank in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #113, Ch. 10)
Reading Time: 9 minutes I find this book fascinating still, even after all these weeks of reading and reviewing it! It simply contains so many of the seeds of what we find most tedious and grotesque about evangelicals today. As we dive into Chapter 10, we meet a femme fatale who wants her a piece of Hank. Today, Lord Snow Presides over the worst counselor in the world.
Posted inReligion
Evangelicals’ Hatred of Psychology in ‘This Present Darkness’ (LSP #112, Ch. 8)
Reading Time: 8 minutes For a while now, we’ve been talking about Frank Peretti’s cringeworthy 1986 book, This Present Darkness. Its main plot centers around a moral panic called the Satanic Panic. Evangelicals started it as part of a culture war, though mostly it’s Catholics who shriek about it these days. Most of the awful traits we see in evangelicals […]