Remember in the 70’s when some white-haired old men in polyester suits said that if you spun your evil rock & roll records backwards, you could hear embedded devil lyrics that would worm their way deep inside the unsuspecting soul. Backwards masking! Subliminal hellfire! My friends and I spent hours pulling at our turntables hoping to find something through all of the garbled, warped noise. In the end, the buffoons probably boosted record sales more than anything else.
But why are we fascinated? Why do we spend time, energy, and emotion looking for bad?
Abe Lincoln once said, “If you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.”
Yeah, you don’t have to look hard to find bad. It’s everywhere. So, when you stumble upon it, as you inevitably will, what do you do with it? Shout at it? I can’t find where Jesus said we were to shout at the darkness. What good does that do? “Hey darkness, uh… you’re dark!” I do see the Sermon of the Mount where Jesus said we were to shine a light in the darkness. There is quite a difference between the two.
Matthew5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Shouting only makes noise, while shining a light shows direction.
Shouting creates confusion, light dispels fear.
Shouting is angry, sharing light is love defined.
♦
My oldest daughter told me about a “preacher” out west who has decided that the Disney movie Frozen is going to make us all gay with its hidden agenda. Before I address him, I want to give you my review of the movie. I really liked it. It was like Up – I had few expectations going in but I walked away loving it. Olaf cracked me up, the story was compelling, and the music was beautiful. Now that the Bluray has come out, I’ve seen it again and I still like it. (oh no, I said ‘come out’, what’s happening to me?) It’s a very sweet story and I think anyone finding an agenda simply has one of their own. They are searching for substance out of shadows.
I had originally quoted some of what the shouter said here, but I don’t want to give air to such blather, especially since he admits he has not seen the movie. I will give one quote for the sole purpose of mocking it:
“If I was the Devil, what would I do to really foul up an entire social system and do something really, really, really evil to 5- and 6- and 7-year-olds in Christian families around America?…If I was the Devil, I would buy Disney in 1984, that’s what I would have done.”
I read The Screwtape Letters. I know C.S. Lewis, and you, sir, are no C.S. Lewis.
But maybe. Just maybe… if I were the devil, I’d sit back in an ivory tower and in the name of religion spew ridiculous insinuations that make the church of Jesus Christ seem like a bunch of backwards, unloving idiots that no one in their right mind would want to be a part of. Yeah, that’s what I’d do.
Look around, Rev. Shouterson, this tactic seems to be working.
This post is a bit out of the norm for me. I typed it while ticked off and debated whether to trash it. I even made a new (hopefully seldom-used) category called ‘Don’t Blog Angry’ for it when I decided to push publish. Uh, enjoy – I guess?
A Generous Helping 
Clearly he hasnt seen Mulan.
Cuts off her beautiful hair and poses as a boy in the Army. Oh snap!
Sounds like a real gem Mark.
Gotta love free speech. Lol
Yeah, but it makes me mad when the lunatic fringe brings down the rest of us with them. I like Mulan too.
Christian confrontation seems to be an oxymoron to the rest of the world, but Jesus did confront the religious, he was quite peeved at them for leading his sheep astray, but he died for them anyway. He called them “white washed tombs full of dead men’s bones”, he called the Samaritan woman by the well a “dog”, he openly rebuked Peter.
The apostle Paul taught taught us to judge, correct, and even remove our brethren when warranted.
Bully for you, I say. Rebuke away, in Jesus name.
Amen! And thanks. Very good points.
I love Olaf and I love your reference to ‘You sir are no Sen. Kennedy” Great post thanks.
Thanks Art, nice catch on the Dan Quayle reference.
Mark, I feel this way when all of the reality shows, Big Brother, Survivor, Amazing Race, bring on people from Oklahoma or the South and make us look like a bunch of hillbillies. I cant hardly even find people like that around here. lol Great post!!!!
Thank you Levi. Nothing steams me more than when this is the kind of nonsense that the world thinks represents the church in general.
I understand and agree. It makes the Real Thing look bad.
it is upsetting when a few, try to make decisions for the others. i am all for freedom of speech and each individual deciding what is right or wrong for them. it is one of the things that turned me away from organized religion so many years ago.
I agree with you Beth, he can say what he wants, but I hate to hear him speak as a “leader”.
There are some good apples in the barrel too 😉
I am going to be the contrary person here. Have you ever wondered what Disney does to the child actresses like Brittany Spears, Miley Cyrus that makes them go crazy when they grow up?
Is that Disney or the lifestyle (and sometimes parents)? It happens with a lot of child stars, not just Disney ones. Good point though.
Disney is in the business of turning fanciful (sometimes originally depressing) stories into happy feel good movies that kids enjoy because of the music and silly characters. As a kid, my favorite part of Cinderella was the mice. Kids don’t notice half the stuff adults do and I’ve always thought it was ridiculous when adults would shout and stomp their feet over something they didn’t like that the kids were totally oblivious to (like supposedly it says “sex” somewhere in the clouds during “The Lion King”). If there is any evil in Disney, it’s the same evil that exists in practically all filmography, unrealistic portrayals and expectations of love and beauty.
Oh, and I have now seen Frozen. If there is a hidden homosexual agenda, it’s hidden so well it’s pretty much non-existent. *shakes head* I like to think people in general are sensible enough to know that it’s the individuals who are ridiculous, not the faith in general…
I hope you are right. But if you read some of the opinion pieces that cover this guy, they paint with a broad brush just like he does. Of course, they mock him completely, but tend to lump the rest of us in with him.
We humans are so silly sometimes. Trying to find stuff where there is none. We try and make things so complicated and sometimes outright weird.
I remember once, my husband was leading an arts team during the Carnaval season here in Brazil. One afternoon we met a woman that clearly had some problems. A lot of Christians may just go ahead and shout out all sorts of stuff like, “I rebuke you devil” and so one, while the enemy keeps having his way and making his show. My hubby noticed that this is what was happening. So, he went up to this woman, sat beside her and spoke very quietly close to her, “Shut up devil, you have no room here”. That was it. If a person isn’t ready or willing to repent and give their life to Jesus, then there’s nothing you can do really. You can shut the enemy up, but you can’t make him come out of someone unless that someone is truly willing to let go.
Great post Mark.
🙂
Thank you Staci. Discernment is the key, your hubby obviously has a dose of it!
So the song “Let it go” is some hidden message or something? Sheesh!
That is the ‘coming out’ song. Really a stretch!
But in reality-world, isn’t that a beautiful song?
It is nice but I was pulling for Ordinary Love by U2 for the oscar 🙂
“So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head, as you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it.”
~Eckhart Tolle, ‘The Power Of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment’
Took me a few reads, but I really like that.
I might have written something myself about the lyrics – didn’t see the movie. The song I decided to see as strength. WHILE IT SEEMS TO BE EGO PROJECTION. I choose to see perceptions that are temporary and the positive energy that enlivens from spirit to be giving hope.