“Does a poem about a rose, with no mention of God or any direct indication of Truth, not glorify God?”

Short answer: yes, absolutely such a poem can glorify God. Even better: we have direct Scriptural evidence for this idea, and for this we can thank God for these stories. Next: the longer answer.¹ In our recent Fantastical Truth episode, we had interviewed Seventh City author Emily Hayse. Then Zack Russell and I took this podcast question from listener David Corder:

I enjoyed this episode² about C.S. Lewis and his thinking in regards to creating story, and how it was talked about how you don’t “preach” in a story. Doing so doesn’t make it a story anymore, as you two pointed out.

But I find myself a little confused. I agree that fiction is a medium for conveying Truth, but I also got the impression from this podcast that that is all it should be used for, especially in terms of Christian creatives, which makes me question some of the work I write. Some of my fiction is just purely for fun, with no intention to have any subtle points directed towards God, which I don’t think necessarily is a bad thing. Does a poem about a rose, with no mention of God or any direct indication of Truth, not glorify God?

In reply, Zack and I shared our thoughts about, first, how creative works such as stories glorify God based on biblical texts and themes, and second, how Christians respond to these joys with thanksgiving to our Creator. Here’s a transcript, edited for clarity, of what we said.

Do ‘purely for fun’ stories glorify God?

Zack: This is a great question. What do you think, Stephen?

Stephen: It is. It is. And I think that example of the rose is a perfect lead in, too.

You could get a whole podcast series out of just this question, about what glorifies God. Is it teaching? Is it exposition of doctrine? Does it have to be a sermon or something nonfiction in order to bring the most glory to God?

Let’s say that God’s glory is the 100 percent level. And fiction is 20 percent glorification of God, if you’re not sinning any more than usual while doing the thing. But maybe nonfiction or sermons are 50 or 60 percent?

Yet God himself, when God is giving his people in the Old Testament specific directions for building the Tabernacle—that’s certainly an instrument for glorification of God, where the people would be doing sacrifices and following ritual law in order to show themselves who God is, and who they are by comparison, and what they need from God. They need their sins to be carried away in the form of animal sacrifice. They need to show that they know that God is perfect and they are not.

God is teaching through these things, nonfiction teaching. But he’s also building in symbols in the construction of the Tabernacle, including these floral designs and these sculptures of fantastic creatures. Even the minerals included and the tapestries and the textures—all of those implicitly point to who God is, and the wonders of his creation. Some commentators say that the Tabernacle that is prescribed in the book of Exodus, after the Ten Commandments, is actually meant to be a reflection of Eden, the garden of Eden as it once was. All its imagery of God’s creation there, the minerals, the animals, the plants, the imagery of the skies, the seas, and the land—all of that is meant to reflect God’s original creation.

So it is, I think, with a story. A poem about a rose doesn’t need to mention God in order to bring glory to God.

The person who is bringing glory to God is you—if you’re writing that poem about a rose.

As we like to say, this is not a writers’ podcast. There are are plenty of other resources designed to help you as a creator, if you are a creator, do that in a way that most glorifies God, with particular attention to excellence in craft.

But as fans, we can appreciate that fact that a Christian author who wants to be in the word, wants to be in the gospel: his or her chief end, her highest purpose, is not just to teach. Not just to evangelize. But as we were talking earlier with Emily Hayse, we want to give a taste through stories. To give an idea, to communicate this truth directly to the imagination. It’s a shortcut to the heart, to help us feel and experience, to “taste and see” that God is good. A poem about a rose can do that. And a ‘purely for fun’ story can do that. In that case, you still have a point. You still have a purpose as a human, as a citizen, in making that story. That purpose, as the old confession says, your chief end is “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

Do stories that don’t mention God glorify him less?

Zack: I think that’s a great answer, Stephen.

I’m going to sort of answer a different question that is just the mirror opposite of this question: Is it okay to read a novel that has no mention of God or any direct indication of truth?

Stephen: Absolutely.

Zack: Does that glorify God?

Stephen: If I could temper that a little bit—I think that most Christians, certainly most people responding to this podcast, would say: “Yes.” If it’s a binary answer, yes or no, is it okay? they’d say, “Yes.” But at the back of our minds, we would have that faint suspicion about glory percentages.

Wouldn’t it be 5 percent better to read a story that has “God-talk” in it? That drops in a “John 3:16” or at least has some reference to deity?

Whereas if I go over here and just read a “Calvin and Hobbes” book, there’s no mention of God in there. Does that bring less glory to God?

I think that’s more of the question. It’s a question of “more or less,” rather than “yes or no.”

Zack: Yeah. I have a very good friend who refers to fantasy novels as a “guilty pleasure.” I think about that all the time. I’m not going to “out” this friend! But is that how we look at books, whether we’re reading them or writing them? Do we look at them as kind of a frivolous enjoyment?

I would say: no. Here’s why I would say that.

As a reader, I don’t think the value of a book comes from how much truth is in it, or just how much truth is in it. I think beauty and goodness also point to our Creator. Romans 1 talks about this: how the invisible qualities of God have been clearly seen by what has been made, by what is visible. I think that’s what a lot of stories do so well. A story makes the intangible experiences of being a human, it makes that tangible. It shows you what sin looks like. It shows you what fear and hope and desire and redemption can look like.

I don’t know if we need to rename our podcast to the “Fantastical Truth, Beauty, and Goodness” podcast. But this is a good point. We don’t just have to find the truth in a story. We can find the other aspects that, like in Romans 1, point in their own way toward God.

When you look at a sunset, does the sunset have “John 3:16” written on the sky? Hopefully not. You may need to talk to your doctor if you see that.

A sunset in its own way points to God, but in a very different way than “truth from the mouth of babes” would speak to God.

I think that it’s totally fine to glorify God in different ways, in what we write and what we read.

How do Christians thank God for stories?

Stephen: This theme is all throughout Scripture.

Of course, Scripture doesn’t speak specifically to novels or poems, or how specifically Christians are to enjoy them. But the idea—as we’ve explored multiple times in this podcast, and as I hope to explore the rest of my life—the idea in Scripture is that God has given us these very human gifts for a reason. Those didn’t arise by accident. They certainly weren’t hacked into the universe by the Devil or some malevolent human sin-presence there.

The idea is that God has given us imagination to do these things as a means of reflecting God back to him.

That’s glorifying God. That’s his idea, not our idea.

Therefore, any time Scripture is talking about gifts and the redemption of gifts of God, things like food, or holidays, or friendship, or fellowship, building things, making culture, tilling the earth, turning grapes into wine, baking food, bread, any of those things—fiction, I think, art, culture, storytelling—all of that falls into the same category of cultural goods that God has given to people.

In that case, that is why I apply the wisdom of the apostle Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 4. Here, in a letter that Paul is writing to a younger pastor—who’s having a lot of trouble with people who want to be so spiritual—then as now, the apostle Paul says to Timothy: “Hey, watch out for the people who are going to question the intrinsic goodness of God’s gifts. They’re not actually holier than thou. They’re the ones who are actually missing the purpose of these gifts.” And the apostle Paul writes:

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

1 Timothy 4:4–5

There’s a word there, too. It’s going to be trending here in a couple of weeks after we record this: thanksgiving.

Maybe we need to say more about that.

That is how thanksgiving works with stories. You don’t just take them and say, “Well, thanks God.”

There is a specific process there, that the apostle Paul alludes to. A gift of God is “made holy by the word of God and prayer.”

The word: God’s word, reading the Bible, Scripture study. And prayer.

Those are the two things that we suspect are more important than the other things. Yet here we see that, yes, those practices are more important, but because it is through those things that God is working in us to, in some way, redeem these gifts, make them holy for our enjoyment and for the glorification of God.

A number of years ago, I wrote an article reflecting on how holidays and celebrations deepen the worldbuilding in speculative fiction. Later, I zeroed in on Thanksgiving specifically. I want to again bring that article to Spec Faith, with some additions based on comments.

– – – – –

I know a declared Thanksgiving Day is not a universal holiday. Canadians, for example, celebrate Thanksgiving on a different day than we do in the US, and many countries don’t have a specific Thanksgiving Day. Harvest Festivals are a different story.

Places as diverse as Australia, Egypt, Barbados, India, Korea, Portugal, Greece, and China have harvest festivals, either locally or nationally.

So what about the worlds in speculative fiction?

I can understand why dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic fantasy might not include Thanksgiving Day. Along with the death of much of civilization, celebrations such as Thanksgiving might become a think of the past.

In many respects, we’re witnessing in the US the change in the Thanksgiving Day celebration from a major holiday to a minor one. The presence of Thanksgiving or harvest day celebrations seem more apt to be important to a culture if the people are in tune with the growth cycle. As our urban society has become divorced from the way food gets to our table, we seem less thankful and more inclined to take for granted the food we eat.

As a result, Thanksgiving Day is losing its special-ness. For instance, most fast food places remain open on Thanksgiving Day, as do a good number of restaurants [in places that allow restaurants to be open in the year of Covid] and grocery stores. In the past few years, “black Friday”—the day after Thanksgiving when retail stores slashed their prices to induce consumers to begin their Christmas shopping in earnest—has gone from “open at midnight” to “open on Thanksgiving Day at 6” or 5 or whenever the businesses think they can woo people out of their homes [and which will not take place in may states with strict “social distancing” protocols—without, of course, returning the special-ness to Thanksgiving].

Add in the fact that football has become an integral part of the celebration so that it’s reduced to Food, Family, and Football, and fewer people are commemorating the holiday as a day to give thanks.

Even my church, which has a rich tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving, including decades when we held a service in the morning on Thanksgiving Day, didn’t so much as sing a single Thanksgiving hymn a few years ago or focus the sermon on what the Bible says about Thanksgiving.

All that to say, if Thanksgiving is fading before our very eyes as a major holiday, it’s understandable that worlds set in the future, especially if that future is bleak or dominated by a heavy-handed, perhaps Godless, government, would be less inclined to have a Thanksgiving or harvest day celebration.

On the other hand, if these futuristic societies are a return to a more agrarian way of life or if the world of an epic fantasy has a rural setting in which people are dependent upon cultivating the soil and growing their own food, then perhaps a harvest festival would be appropriate.

Undoubtedly our urban-centric society has influenced the devaluation of Thanksgiving. But probably the attitude toward God has the most to do with the changes. That and the inability to commercialize it enough. I mean, it’s too close to Christmas to do much—promote cards, give gifts. And because of a lack of concern for God, that period of US history in which God was the motivating factor for coming to a new land and establishing freedom to worship, may be uncomfortable for those who don’t believe in God. They’d just as soon turn the day into Turkey Day as anything.

Add in the recent rewriting of history that paints the Puritans as at war with the native Americans, many people not only rework Thanksgiving as Turkey Day, they ignore it all together. Even churches—we who ought to be at the forefront of thanking God for His continued blessings.

In speculative literature, then, Thanksgiving can be much more than just a celebration. Whether or not a story world holds harvest festivals and how they are celebrated can define a culture and make it come alive.

Does this place recognize God as sovereign over the provision of daily food? Are there gods, with one particular god controlling fertile soil and sun and rain? Or are each of those under the purview of a different god? Must they all three be in agreement if the harvest is to be plentiful? How do the people express their thanks for what they receive?

Or is this world self-sufficient and so advanced in their technology that they can make the skies pour rain at their command? Perhaps they’ve put all food growth inside in the equivalent of gigantic greenhouses, and they have no understanding of nature being independent of humankind’s manipulation.

In such a culture, sentient beings, then, would think of themselves as gods. They might have forgotten the one true God, living with no thought other than meeting their own needs and pleasures. In their eyes, they are the highest authority, the ones in charge.

All these varied storyworlds and the peculiarities of their cultures can be established by the presence or absence of a Thanksgiving Day or harvest day celebration.

Such a brief holiday, easily over looked, and yet as full of potential in fiction as in real life.

This article is a revised version of one that appeared here in November, 2014.

The title is more an attention-grabber than the most accurate way to say what I really mean. More accurate would have been something like this: “Contrary to what you might expect, some of the biggest doubters of the Bible are theologians and doctors of divinity–yes, of course of the liberal sort who engage in “higher criticism”–while some of the evidence backing up the chronology of the Bible against these naysayers comes from straight from scientific data, in particular studies of linguistics and archaelogy.” But that’s not as catchy as: “Science Saving the Bible from Theologians.”

I expect that many Christians who are speculative fiction fans will not be especially aware of this particular issue. IF science hits our radar, it will be for those of us who are science fiction fans–we might follow debates over the origin of the universe, in which atheist scientists critize the idea God exists supposedly based on what’s known from science, a criticism we may feel the need to answer (I wrote a series answering atheists, in fact). Or we might think about the likelihood of aliens existing and how that might relate to our understanding of God (I wrote a series about what aliens teach us about God, too). Or, how Christian writers might choose to employ aliens in stories, in spite of some Christians objecting to the existence of aliens at all–objecting based on the idea that writing aliens would be caving in to evolutionary science (sorry, no series on that, just an article).

We see in the examples above that science and relgious belief seem to be at odds. Science pointing one way, Bible believers another. (Though of course my articles above treat science seriously and while I disagree with atheist assumptions, I don’t disagree with the validity of science itself.) But science and belief are not at odds everywhere–as this article is pointing out.

Note this article cannot possibly cover all the instances of where science has in effect wound up defending the Bible verses a type of academic scholarship that sees it as late and non-literal. But it will highlight some particular issues: The dating and authenticity of the Pentateuch (first 5 books), of Isaiah, and John’s Gospel.

The debates over the origin and nature of the Bible may not be on our radar as much, because the topic doesn’t have as direct a connection to speculative stories. Thought the topic does have some connection to such stories–the question of “What was the world really like in Bible times?” can have a speculative element, especially if we choose to include time-travel to Bible lands via fantastical tales.

So I’m highlighting the nature of this debate, pointing out how science can serve serve as a defender of traditional views of the Bible, even though that’s not normally how we think of science interatcting with Biblical Studies.

The Academic Consensus On Bible Chronology

Traditional Chronology

Not all Speculative Faith readers may not be aware of it, but the vast majority of academics in Biblical Studies do not hold to what we might call the traditional view of Bible chronology (though of course some scholars defend this view). The traditional view would be that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, then each book after that was written more or less at the time in which it was set. So the book of Joshua would have been written right after Deuteronomy, Jonah would have been written by Jonah after the events the book describes, Isaiah would have been written by the prophet Isaiah, etc.

The traditional chronology would of course date books set during the Persian Empire, like Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, much later than Genesis, with books like Kings being written somewhere in between. In New Testament chronology, the traditional view was Matthew was written first and Revelation last (though the epistles are not in chronological order), all complete by the end of the First Century A.D.

Late 19th Century Chronology

By the late 1800s, the spirit of the age (Zeitgeist) in academic circles was not in favor of seeing the Bible as anything special, especially in terms of its decription of origins. The origin of the universe had been explained long ago in Greek philosophy by the idea the universe had always existed and even if one granted that it came into being at one point, scientist and mathematician Ludwig Boltzmann taught that it could come about as the result of random fluctations, given enough time (Bolzmann’s idea is disproven by the thought exercise of what’s called a Boltzmann Brain–a “universe” self-generating by random fluctuations would more easily produce a single mind than a universe). Couple the notion of an already-existing or already-explained universe with known laws of physics and moreover Darwinism, and then literally everything was believed to be explicable in non-miraculous terms.

Given that philosophy, it was only a matter of time before a dose of skeptical treatment about its origins would become the standard way to see the Bible. Even though the philosopher Spinoza doubted Moses authored the Pentateuch and Jean Astruc speculated the authorship of Bible passages could be determined by the name of God used and Johann Karl Wilhelm Vatke argued for evolution of relgion in the Bible, it’s Julius Wellhausen who is generally credited with creating the definitive academic hypothesis which convinced most scholars that Moses did not write the first five books of the Bible. That hypothesis is known as the Documentary Hyptothesis.

The Documentary Hypothesis, which dominated the academic consensus on the Pentateuch, held that modern critical scholars can detect the layers of writing of the Bible by the names of God used. First, there was a writer who liked to use the word “Jehovah” (יחוח), followed by one who liked to write “God” (as in “Elohim”–אלוהים), followed by the writer of Deuteronomy, followed by a writer who was interested in customs of priests. These separate sources or “documents” were designated “J” for Jehovah, “E” for the Elohist, “D” for the writer of Deuteronomy, and “P” for the priestly writer. The earliest of these texts was seen to be written around the time of King Solomon and the latest, during the Persian Era.

Likewise when looking at the book of Isaiah, the late 19th Century view was that it was fragmentary, the work of two or maybe three authors, largely but not exclusively between differences in theme in Isaiah 1-39, 40-55, and 56-66. Not based on any discoveries of ancient texts, but rather a presumption that the message of the latter part of the book had historical references and spiritual themes that could not have come from an earlier time, when Isaiah would have lived. Naturally, the question was eventually asked if Isaiah was a historical person at all. (40-66 was generally dated to the Persian period, long after any historical Isaiah would have lived.)

Q not Q!
(Copyright Paramount)

The Gospels also were treated to a documentary view. Mark was seen as original and Mark and Luke copied from it. But instead of seeing Luke referring to both Mark and Matthew and other unnamed sources, scholarship invented a source called “Q” that both Matthew and Luke had independently drawn from in addition to Matthew. There was controversy over the book of John, but it increasingly was seen as unhistorical, a product of evolution of religious thought of Christianity, much later than the other Gospels (some claims had it that John could not have been written any earlier than the end of the 2nd Century, though the 3rd or 4th Centuries were favored by some).

20th-21st Century Chronology

The dating of the Gospel of John underwent a radical shift with the discovery and 1934 publication concerning of a scrap of papyrus, the ancient Egyptian paper pressed together from reeds. P52 contains a small portion of John’s Gospel and is widely seen as the oldest fragment of any Biblical text, in terms of time-of-writing-to-copy-we-have. The original date of the fragment, based on handwriting style, was A.D. 100 to 150. In recent years, this date has been challenged by some to be possibly as late as the 3rd Century, but with plurality of scholars accepting a date of A.D. 125-175.  Note though that the fragment comes from Egypt. Presumably John’s Gospel would have already existed for decades prior to being found on an Egyptian papyrus, which strongly implies a First Century date for John.

The concept of a Deutero-Isaiah or even a third Isaiah is still with us in the modern consensus opinion of Isaiah, in spite of the discovery of the Dead Seas Scrolls (DSS), first published in 1947. Why would the DSS affect a scholarly view of Isaiah? Because the first whole scroll of a Bible book found among the DSS, and the one to this day which is most complete, is a copy of Isaiah, with all the chapters we know combined into one book, just the way we have it. Over a thousand years older than any other copies of Isaiah anyone ever had. Clearly if there was a complilation of multiple authors of Isaiah, it happened hundreds of years before the DSS were tucked away into their caves.

Isaiah chapter 1 in the DSS. Courtesy: The Israel Museum

In the late 2oth Century and early 21st Century, the Documentary Hyptothesis is still followed by some people, but has largely been replaced by the Supplementary Hypothesis and similar concepts–which dates the Pentateuch even later than the Documentary Hyptothesis, making Deuteronomy the first book written and all other parts of the first five Biblical books coming from the period of the Babylonian exile and the Persian period. (In fact, some modern Higher Critics date all or almost all the Hebrew Bible from the Persian period.)

Science to the Rescue (well, sort of…)

Archeology

I’ve already mentioned how P52 changed the view of the Gospel of John. Let’s talk a bit about the modern re-interpretation of the archeological discovery of P52 by a minority of scholars. The minority view that P52 is possibly as late as the Third Century is a 21st Century claim that I personally am not able to evaluate–I can’t myself identify the details of Greek letter-forming style by time period, even though I’ve looked into this topic a little bit. But I can’t help but notice that atheists, fans of the religious-evolution-of-Christianity idea, and other general doubters of the authenticity of John (such as a Muslim site I’m linking here) have embraced the later dating…whereas more neutral observers have not. Science, as in people objectively looking at the available data and determining what it indicates, still leans in favor of P52 being the oldest flash-to-bang of any Bible text. In spite of controversial claims otherwise, the available science still seems to back up the idea that John comes from the First Century, based on P52.

Likewise I’ve talked about how the DSS shows that Isaiah was seen as a unified book around the 2nd Century B.C. (a likely date for the Isaiah scroll in the caves of Qumran). However, I didn’t mention the discovery of seals that provide historical evidence (via the science of archeology) that Isaiah was an actual person, a contemporary of King Hezekiah, as talked about in this 2018 National Geographic article.

Yeah, just because this bit of a seal that seems to say “Belonging to Isaiah the Prophet” is from the right time period as the Biblical Isaiah and was found less than ten feet away from a find with King Hezekiah’s name on it, doesn’t completely prove it was the same Isaiah as the one mentioned in the Bible. And of course it doesn’t prove who wrote the book of Isaiah. But as these discoveries are made, over and over, people mentioned in the Bible who were once considered legendary or doubtful are discovered to have existed. Or at least, there are very ancient references to the people which really seem to indicate they existed. (Another example: the Tel Dan archeological find referencing King David, found in 1993.)

In all of this, actual scientific findings continue to chip away at ideas that stemmed from hypotheses on the evolution of religion and how thematic changes in the Bible and differing word uses required different authors. That is, facts are eroding hypothetical notions of whether or not the Bible is reliable. One drip of scientific data at a time, moving incrementally in the direction of science supporting the chronology and authenticity of Bible texts.

Linguistics

The study of the Hebrew Bible by linguists has long yielded two basic layers of Hebrew in the Bible. The first is Early Biblical (or Early Classical) and Late Biblical Hebrew. Unlike handwriting analysis of ancient Greek by time periods, this is a subject I have personal knowledge of.

It turns out that Early Biblical Hebrew matches those inscriptions and fragments from pottery that are available in the time before the 6th Century B.C., that is, before the Babylonian exile. While Late Biblical Hebrew, which has changes in vocabulary including Persian and Aramaic loan words, a number of spelling and grammar changes, dates from the time after the Babylonian exile/the Persian period. And, linguistic analysis repeatedly shows that the Pentateuch, all of it, belongs to the Early type of Hebrew. Books like Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and Esther, are, surprise, surprise, late Hebrew.

Books fall in line, generally speaking, with the time period they are portrayed to have been written. There are a few exceptions to this–for example, the Song of Solomon has a number of linguistic late features (which doesn’t really prove it wasn’t written in the time of Solomon at all, because it could have been re-written later, as a sort of NIV update of the original work).

Oh, and Isaiah, which once was thought to have a significant separation of time between the latter half of the book and the former? It’s Early Hebrew. The whole thing. And while that doesn’t prove the same author wrote the whole thing, linguistics does damage to ideas about the second half being a lot later.

Note there have been challenges to the liguistic data, mostly arising from theologians. This topic is a matter of debate to a degree, with (let it be fairly said) some linguists arguing that the differences in early and late Hebrew could reflect stylistic choices and scribes deliberately faking the style of the past in places…in effect arguing that all Biblical Hebrew comes from the Post-Exilic period, with “early” Hebrew being a stylistic choice or an expertly-crafted fake.

The linguists-who-support-the-Hebrew-Bible-is-all-late also point out that while Aramaic words are much more common in Late Biblical Hebrew, they also exist in Early Biblical Hebrew…though science answers this, too, with discoveries that show Aramaic was a key language in the region starting around 1000 B.C., and existed as a language long before the first written texts which have been found in Aramaic, which are from around 3,100 years ago (1,100 B.C.). So it isn’t surprising that Early Hebrew would have some Aramaicisms, though Late Hebrew would have more, and it certainly doesn’t prove the entire Hebrew Bible was written after the Babylonian Exile.

Personally, I’m much more used to Early Biblical Hebrew and so find Late Biblical Hebrew more difficult to read…and I also find the idea that all Hebrew represents one time period a bit silly. All languages change over time–the simplest and clearest explanation of the differences evident in the Hebrew Bible is it changed over time, too. And, an examination of those changes argue that Bible books of the Old Testament are more or less written in the time period the Bible claims they come from, with very few exceptions.

Conclusion

There are many more discoveries that could be added to the list of things that chip away at views first made widespread in the late 1800s and only modified somewhat by the majority of higher critics of the 20th and 21st Centuries. But I’ve shared enough to get the idea across.

In Biblical Studies, on a regular basis science is giving support to traditional views of Bible chronology and authenticity. No, it isn’t true that the linguists and archeologists can prove their points absolutely, and it isn’t true they are all in complete agreement. But the other side, the ones who make claims that exclude Biblical authenticity, which make the whole Bible later-than-we-think, which show a clear evolution of religious ideas in a way that doesn’t match the written order of Bible books, they’re the ones using analogy and looking into style–that is, engaging in highly speculative stuff, but treating their speculations as if they were reality. It was called the Documentary Hyptothesis for a reason–it was a hypothesis, though for nearly a century it was treated as a fact in the most elevated academic circles.

Romans 3:4 says, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” But not all humans are liars–some are going to follow what the evidence shows…and the archeology and linguistics indicate something quite different from what liberal theologians and Divinity students say.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Are there any bits of archaelogy you find especially interesting that you’d like to share? Any counter-points to make? Please comment below.

I have a confession to make. I’m not a Star Wars fan.

I can hear the gasp of millions as I make this confession, their shocked eyes and drooping mouths staring at me in horror for this admission.  The administrative team at Speculative Faith has probably called an emergency meeting of all members as they discuss this scandal that can threaten the fabric of the faith-based speculative fiction lovers community.

With a scarlet “H” on my chest ¹ I stand firm against the opposition. I must admit it at the cost of all else. Therefore, I must say it again.

I am not a Star Wars fan.

Don’t cry for me, Star Wars fans. The truth is, I prefer Star Trek.

All joking aside, being a non-fan of Star Wars doesn’t preclude my becoming aware of the “controversy” and the “canceling” of Baby Yoda.

To say this is ridiculous would be too kind a word.

Thank God (and I really mean that) the cancel culture of the 21st century didn’t exist in the 20th century. In the bygone days of the 1980’s, poor ALF would have never made it past season one with his desire to eat cats, particularly when he tried to microwave the cat for a fast meal. ²

ALF was a loveable puppet that made its stamp on the pop culture of the 1980s. Now, in the 21st century, we have Baby Yoda making its stamp on the pop culture but in a new way.

After all, this is “Baby Yoda.” I’ve no idea if it’s a reincarnation of Yoda from the original movies. In all non-fan fairness, I wasn’t all that interested in finding out so there won’t be any commentary in this post about the origins of Yoda, the Force, Luke boy, Vader, and all that.

In  The Mandalorian, from what I’ve seen of posts, Baby Yoda is eating the eggs of some frog alien lady. Apparently, this frog alien lady or whatever, is the last of her kind and her babies are the future and he’s chomping on them. Due to the “controversy” the producers clarified that the eggs are “not fertilized” so there’s no actual “baby” he’s chomping on. They compared it to us eating chicken eggs. This apparently backfired because now, some of the fans were really disgusted now.

It was meant as a comic relief. Just like ALF trying to eat Lucky the cat. Who was really lucky after all.

Yet, the uproar is up. Now, cute Baby Yoda is now cannibal Baby Yoda and the scourge of the universe.

You gotta be kidding me.

This is the latest example of a culture who has lost its soul and is replaced with a veneer of morality. For goodness’ sake! Baby Yoda ain’t real. The frog alien lady ain’t real. The eggs, the puppet or CG Baby Yoda is eating ain’t real. To throw all this shade on a puppet is ridiculous.

I assure you, Baby Yoda ain’t feeling the hate.

Now, in defense of fandom ³ (after all, I am a Trekkie) fandom is a member’s only club. Not just for those who are mere observers of our fanaticism, but those who immerse themselves in the obsession.  We connect to the source of our fandom on many levels, but the one that makes us all fans is imagination. I don’t mind getting into rigorous discussion of why Captain James T. Kirk is the best captain of all time. I’ll go toe to toe with you defending the position that Vulcan should never have been destroyed in the reboot of the franchise. I’ll sign the change dot org petition to produce an episode showing a battle between the Voth and Species 8472.

Underneath the obsession is that fact that I know its fictional. I enjoy it because it gets me out of the real world for  a while.

My issue I take with canceling Baby Yoda  is this: If there’s uproar over this fictional thing—why does it stop at the real-life destruction of millions of children who are aborted every year? Where’s the cancel culture on Planned Parenthood, funded by government? Remember when undercover pro-life people showed videos depicting the truth behind Planned Parenthood and those videos were thrown out, dismissed, and summarily suppressed by the media — where was the cancel culture then?

No, this post is not going to expound on pro-life issues. There are better people than I who can go deep on that. I’m using the example of abortion, in real-life, to simply make a point.

Giant businesses and organizations get behind abortion all the time, donating millions. What about legislations that lets a mother abort her child at birth? Where’s the cancel culture for that?

See, the “babies” that the cancel culture says that Baby Yoda is eating on aren’t real.  One fan said, “He’s killing this mother’s children.” Another made a remark that Baby Yoda eating the babies could be offensive and harmful for women who are infertile. Not surprisingly, a woman who was infertile thought it was funny.

I guess there’s no accounting for taste.

The point is this: the eggs in the womb of a woman are very real. As Hank Hanegraaf once said. “You did not come from a zygote. You were a zygote.”

Does anyone else see this glaring problem? That a cancel culture would have more compassion for a frog alien lady on TV than for a child in a womb? What does it say about our culture at large? Have you ever canceled a favored fandom? Or, am I just being too flippant? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

A lot of people (I may have been one of them) have bemoaned the fact that 2020 has been a horrible year. A pandemic that has taken thousands of lives, civil unrest, violence in the streets, political discord and contention (worse than usual, it would seem). There’s not much that has said, Let’s give thanks for THAT.

Interestingly, the Bible doesn’t seem to qualify the idea of thanks or thanksgiving to “only things that are beneficial.” Instead, while the apostle Paul sat in prison, he wrote,

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:4-7—emphases are mine)

Centuries before, the prophet Jonah, on the third day of his ordeal in the stomach of a great fish, prayed

But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving.
That which I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation is from the LORD.” (Jon. 2:9)

There are many other such passages, none clearer that 1 Thess. 5:18: “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

All this has me thinking about thanksgiving in stories. Is thanksgiving a common theme? Are there stories in the speculative genres that show thanksgiving as a desired end? I mean, I can think of stories about sacrifice and enduring hardship and staying true and standing firm and other such significant topics. But I’m not aware of one which shows primarily the importance of a heart of gratitude.

A quick search uncovers a number of children’s stories about gratitude, but in the realm of fantasy, it would seem that there’s an inclination against thanksgiving, at least when a fairy or fae is involved. That’s the “standard” understanding of fairy etiquette, it would seem. For an excellent discussion of the subject see “Gratitude, Thanks, and Fairy Etiquette” posted at Writing in Margins, May 25,2020.

Where are the adult stories? Do we think that gratitude is a “minor” virtue, not something worthy of the full force of a story? Do we understand thankfulness as something kids need to learn, that adults have mastered? Do we see gratefulness as a trivial part of etiquette?

I suspect that as society downplays thanksgiving, so do writers. I mean, a Christian radio station in our area has made available a channel on their app for Christmas music. So far I have heard no word about Thanksgiving Day or anything special to celebrate it. My church has announced the plans to replace our usual Christmas celebration events, but no word about Thanksgiving Day.

If Christians are overlooking Thanksgiving, no wonder the secular society here in the US refers to it as “Turkey Day,” a day for family, food, and football.

So why should writers create stories that value thanksgiving when society apparently has deemed it something for children, a polite nicety, but not a necessity? I suggest Christian writers would be wise to value what God values and to write “against the culture” as necessary.

Against culture? Yes! Culture doesn’t need an echo chamber. Culture needs stories that challenge our assumptions. I can see speculative literature in particular standing against the norm, if for no other reason than an author can invent a world that either values gratitude more than we do, or, as in the accepted view of the fae, holds it in disregard.

Simply by making gratitude an issue, a story can influence and affect readers.

But maybe I’m wrong. Are there stories for adults, particularly in the last twenty years or so, that elevate gratitude, that make this quality a central piece?

Featured photo by Johannes Plenio from Pexels

Today’s post started as a simple movie review. Last week I reviewed Rim of the World, which if you missed last week’s post, I felt contained some highly innapropriate innuendo and more importantly served as a bellweather for cultural trends I don’t care for. So I thought I’d review a movie I liked this week as a counter-balance–so I wouldn’t seem like the guy who always disagrees and never likes anything. Thus, this week I set out to do a simple review of the movie Prospect, which like last week’s review, was a film I saw on my wife’s Netflix account. However, I found myself turning introspective as I thought about the review. Why do I like Prospect better? It turns out that a story that could be called nobledark or grimbright is much more in line with what I think is a good story than one intended to draw laughs but which honestly reports a culture with serious problems.

What is Nobledark? Or Grimbright?

The term “nobledark” surged to my mind as I was thinking of a way to descrbe the film Prospect. But then I looked up some definitions and found not everyone agrees what “nobledark” is. It turns out “grimdark” has a clear definition–grimdark is the a type of speculative ficiton story in which there really is no such thing as good and the story is filled with despair. There’s a struggle for survival going on and everyone involved inhabits various shades of corrupt. The saying, “Might is right” matches grimdark very well–and in fact, grimdark has dominated much of fantasy fiction since the 1990s. Think George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice as an example. (Though lots of other stories can be said to have grimdark elements–The Walking Dead has never been completely grimdark, but often isn’t far off.)

So after grimdark became a trend and someone created a label to define it (note, a grimdark mood took over much of fantasy before anyone coined the term “grimdark” to describe it), someone wanted to define its opposite. From my own, doubltless imperfect Internet research, it turns out some people latched on to the term “noblebright” as the opposite of “grimdark.” (Whereas others like the term “hopepunk.”)

Creating the term “noblebright” to define a basically optimistic world with heroic figures led to some people offering two other terms for moods in-between noblebright and grimdark. “nobledark” and “grimbright.”

“Nobledark” would be a story in which there are genuine heroes, but the story world is full of terrors and gritty. An epic struggle for good and evil is ongoing, but the heroes are holding their own. Barely. And “grimbright” would be a world in which there aren’t really any clear heroes and no epic struggle, within a story situation that’s a total wreck, but ordinary people are managing to hold on to some form of hope and make the world a slightly better place. Modern Batman movies probably would count as nobledark and the beginning of The Force Awakens, the part that depicts Rey as a scavenger  on the planet Jakku, who is just getting by but manages to maintain hope in her heart–that would be grimbright. (By the way, Star Trek at its most opimistic would be nobelbright or hopepunk–a basically optimistic view of the story world, filled with mostly-good and heroic characters.)

Except, based on some time I spent chasing a Reddit rabbit trail of arguments before writing this article, not everone agrees with those definitions. Some people think both terms are completely unneeded, because pretty much every story that features an unpleasant setting, pretty much every dystopia and post-apocalypic world, would either be “grim” or “dark.” And those stories have been around longer than the terms “nobledark” and “grimbright.” Why not just call them “dystopian” or “post-apocalyptic” or “dark” or “gritty” or whatever? Do we really need to call anything “nobledark” or “grimbright”?

Ok, “they” who say that may have a point. Still, I’m going to borrow these possibly-unneeded-terms for the purpose of this post. Because I like stories that can be called nobledark and/or grimbright and the definitions I found for these terms are handy for my purposes here. I like these kinds of tales way more than grimdark (which I can actually find interesting in small doses, but which gets depressing fast), but also even more than noblebright or hopepunk.

Let’s Talk About Prospect

Ok, with some terminology defined, let’s return to talking about Prospect. I will not give away the entire plot, but a few spoilers follow. Of course.

The Netflix ad for Prospect featured a girl around thirteen years old walking around in a spacesuit with an adult man, somewhere with moss-covered conifers, probably in the temperate rain forest of the North American Pacific Northwest, which does in fact look a little alien. And my immediate thought was, “Ah, another low-budget sci-fi show. Probably is going to be cheesy.” But for some reason, I decided to give it a chance. I’m glad I did.

Prospect Partial Plot Summary (Some Spoilers Included, but Not Everything)

Prospect movie poster, copyright Gunpowder and Sky (an indie film company)

In Prospect, a young teen girl (played by Sophie Thatcher) and her father start the tale in their personal lander, attached to a space station orbiting “the Green Moon” (which in turn orbits a gas giant). Well, in fact the girl is supposed to be in the lander, but is off elsewhere, listening to music. Her father scolds her a bit as she returns and asks her to do some chores.

This sets the expectations that this character, the teenage girl–her name is “Cee”–is more or less the same as other teens, no matter what the story setting is. Though the viewer discovers as the story progresses that she isn’t at all ordinary.

Her father reveals a scheme to find “the queen’s lair”–a particularly rich source for a type of gemstone that will set them for life. It turns out some mercenaries have found the lair and have asked her dad to harvest the gems. The gems are extracted from an alien living organism, rather like pearls, but have to be handled in a specific way, or else they will be destoyed. Which is why the mercenaries need his help. With the catch they only have limited time, because the space station is preparing to leave the Green Moon forever.

The pair, the girl and her father, set out to land their pod near the lair, but the pod malfunctions on landing, so they aren’t one the site. The two set off on foot to meet up with the mercenaries. Wearing spacesuits because of a mold in the air that kills human beings, rather like story “Parasite Planet” in the Worlds of Weinbaum anthology I published.

On the way, the pair run into robbers and take a stand against them. I don’t want to give away too much of this part of the story, but let’s say the girl holds her own, both fighting and retreating when it makes sense to do so. The boss of the robbers, Ezra, winds up replacing Cee’s father on the quest to find the alien gems. (Note that Ezra is portrayed by the Chilean-American actor Pedro Pascal, who you may know as the man under the armor in The Mandalorian series.)

By the way, I really enjoyed the way the character Ezra speaks. He’s got that long-sentence 19th Century eloquent but menacing thing going. Really good writing and acting.

Continuing on the way to find the gems, the pair run into a small band of religous cultists, who offer to purchase the girl. She escapes them and attempts to leave the Green Moon, but can’t. She again joins Ezra on the quest for gems and the two of them find the camp of mercenaries and the Queen’s Lair of gems.

Something goes terribly wrong with their plan, but they manage to fight their way to an escape, not only immediate death, but the Green Moon itself, soon enough not to be trapped on the Green Moon forever. During the fighting, and even before the fighting, without giving too much away, Cee proves to be courageous and risks her life to save Ezra–a man she has no particular reason to save.

Before the final scene the story shows Cee interested in a fantastic novel she read once, still caught up in her music when she gets a chance. Still recognizably a young teen–but actually a noble and heroic one, when the situation called for it.

The Gruesome Storyworld of Prospect

In Prospect, everyone is greedy for something. Well, except Cee. Also, it’s one of those gritty story worlds in which people will not hesitate to kill you to take what they want.

Even the gemstone the characters extract in the story requires slicing into an alien lifeform, pulling out a body part, and chopping into an alien piece of meat. It’s clearly a brutal form of prospecting, with no interest in whether the (apparently unintelligent) aliens survive or not.

The Green Moon is beautiful, but deadly. You can’t ever expose yourself to the air, always trapped in a spacesuit or a cleared shelter because of the molds.

Cee is clearly in greater danger as a teen girl than the men are–not only because she is smaller and less experienced, but because of the menace of rape and sexual exploitation. Which doesn’t prevent her from acting with courage when needed.

In spite of her courage, Cee doesn’t quite rise to the level of being a hero, because the stakes are mostly personal. And the villains are not epic. So, on the grid of stories we discussed already, Prospect should be defined as “Grimbright.”

Why I Recommend Prospect and not Rim of the World

Overall, I really like the movie Prospect and recommend it. Note though that the special effects are not as good as the acting and dialog, but are not actually silly at any point in the story. Also, sometimes minor characters seem surreal, especially some of the mercenaries. I would not say the story is perfect, but most of its elements hang together very well. I’d give it an 8 out of 10.

Rotten Tomatoes gives Prospect an 88 percent, but the IMDb rating is 6.2–which is barely better than the 5.2 rating for Rim of the World. Which of course raises the subject of why I like this movie much, much more than Rim of the World. (Because I do.)

A critic might ask of me, is it better to portray a teen girl in danger of sexual slavery than some “harmless” innuendo? Is it better to show a world in which most people are greedy and dangerous than a basically silly world with oblique pornographic references in which many people seem to have good motives? Or in short, how could I possibly object to the morals of the Rim of the World and not to the arguably less-moral world of Prospect? Is this just a Christian fixation on prohibiting sex coupled with a tolerance of violence (as Christians are often accused of doing)?

A Cleaner R Rating for Prospect than the TV14 for Rim of the World

First, a rating as in a story containing negative triggers as commonly defined is not the main reason to like or dislike a story in my opinion. But if we are going to do that kind of compare/contrast, it turns out Prospect is cleaner than Rim of the World in terms of rating. Which might be surprising, because Prospect is rated R. Significantly, it’s not marketed to the young teen market, even though it has a young teen character.

Prospect’s most graphic scenes in terms of violence actually revolve around extracting the alien gemstone, which shows a lump of meat being cut, and a case of a medical amputation, in which little is directly shown. Otherwise, people get shot or stabbed, but the spacesuit covers details. It is by no means a splatterfest. Rim of the World shows plenty of people getting killed as well. Not realistically, but still.

In terms of profanity, Rim of the World walked up to the line of its rating on multiple occasions and used what words it could. Prospect has only one moment of cussing that I recall–not a moment everyone will like, probably, but there in the story for specific reason. And just one moment.

In terms of innuendo, Rim of the World has plenty more than just the three cases I pointed out in my article last week. Prospect contains no innuendos–well, there’s an oblique suggestion the mercenaries might sexually assault Cee if she goes to them alone, but as an innuendo goes, it’s one without appeal.

In terms of sex, Rim of the World features one particular moment of ogling that stands out above everything else, but no actual nudity…but Prospect has no examples of ogling characters or images. Not even when the cultists offer to buy Cee. Just some sexual menace–but that’s clearly shown to be a bad thing, something undesirable.

Not Rating, but Expectations Mark Prospect as More Moral than Rim of the World

In fact, that’s really the key thing. Prospect portrays an awful world and awful people, but never gave me the sense that it was trying to portray that world as normal. We can cheer for Cee because even though she is in danger and given bad examples, she desires to do what is right and in fact partially succeeds. She saves herself–and a stranger whom she has no particular need to save. She is not a perfect person, but her character points to an idea of good and evil–evil exists in the story, even if it is so common that nobody is surprised when it shows up–but the central character is not a part of that evil And in fact opposes evil in multiple ways.

Evil in Rim of the World is the aliens trying to kill everybody, which of course is a no duh bad thing. But nothing about what the main characters do that I find objectionable, whether ogling or making innuendoes or crying because they are going to die a virgin, etc, none of those things are portrayed to be bad. Just ordinary stuff.

We could say Rim of the World normalizes these behaviors and of course it does, but my main reason to object to the movie was because of one of the things one of my critics thought invalidated my point. The critic stated the movie simply reflected the way kids are, awkwardly claiming more sexual knowledge than they actually have. Yeah, but “the way kids are” is main element of what I complained about. I think “the way kids are” in our culture is oversexualized.

Imagine traveling back one hundred and fifty years into the past in a time machine and noting how many thirteen-year-olds would be smoking. A lot would be. While some people of the period would agree with you that’s a bad thing, many would shrug their shoulders and say, “Hey, that’s just what kids do.” You’d immediately reply, “But is that what they should do?”

Likewise, of course there’s an age in which boys especially but also girls are going to have a lot of sexual interest. But they aren’t necessarily going to announce that they’ve already had a threesome with two women as one of the young characters in Rim of the World does. They aren’t necessarily going to think pretending to be sexual experienced is cool and admitting to being a virgin (at 13) is shameful. Yeah, it may be this kind of behavor is in fact normal right now in our culture, but it should not be normal. Or course sexual interest will be normal—but a culture of expectation concerning sex, that having it as soon as possible is good–that doesn’t have to be normal. And having it in ways common to porn–that also doesn’t have to be normal, either.

Conclusion

In fact, I think being a Christian puts me at war with the world in a way. Not a war in which I burn things down and shoot people, but a war in which I oppose the standards of the world and offer other standards, ones I believe God has inspired. Note not all Christian people think that way. Not all fans of speculative fiction are on board with me to be sure.

I like the nobledark and grimbright type of stories because they reflect what I see is reality. The world is not good–it cannot be trusted. But that doesn’t mean it’s nothing but bad. There still is good to be found. But you have to look for it, fight for it even. And we need both heroes and ordinary people to stand against what’s wrong, in both big ways and small.

When I put it that way, it seems like nobledark and grimbright or dystopian, post-apocalyptic, and otherwise dark and gritty stories should be what Christians authors of speculative fiction mainly write. Of course, that’s not how things are and isn’t even true of all the stories I like best. But it’s true of some of them.

So what are your thoughts on this topic? Have you seen Prospect and if so, what did you think? What do you think about the categories of grimdark, noblebright, nobledark, and grimbright? Please leave a comment below.

I know that most of the time people read fiction for entertainment. Others say that we also read it to have our biases confirmed. So we choose to read stories that reinforce a “good wins out” motif, or a “love conquers all” theme or whatever we agree with.

Some people do enjoy the challenge of learning about new and different people and places. One of the more eye-opening books I ever read was Emile Zola’s Germinal, a novel set in France in the 1860s about a coalminers’ strike. It’s evocative and thought-provoking and reveals struggles of people in places and in cultural conditions that are not like my own.

More recently I’ve enjoyed Kay Marshall Strom’s novels such as The Call of Zulina, set in Africa, or The Faith of Ashish, set in India, both in an earlier century. Or there are novels such as Jill Stengl’s Shadows of Yesterday (Until That Distant Day Book 1), a novel set in France during the early days of the republic.

I suppose most historical novels would fall into the category of ones that introduce the reader to new places and peoples and cultures. James A. Michener’s numerous (and lengthy) historical novels such as Hawaii and Mexico and Alaska and Texas and Poland and many others, certainly introduce readers to people who lived in different times and cultures, in a way that feels a bit like exploring.

However, I think there is another reason to read—one which I’m calling “for the soul.” Some books go beyond the element of feeding our mind or feeding our pleasure center. They resonate with us because they say something true that is deeper and greater and longer lasting about life, about our relationship with God.

When I was a kid, I grew up with that kind of fiction. One of our favorite books, which we read aloud as a family was Aurie’s Wooden Leg by Lionel A. Hunt. All three of us children enjoyed that book, to the point that my brother went on a search a few years ago to find copies of the now out-of-print book. He succeeded and bought us each a copy. When I re-read it, I was amazed at the quality of the story.

But apart from that, there is no pretense to hide the spiritual elements. This is a book about a sister’s heart for her twin brother who doesn’t “understand how to get to heaven yet.” It’s got some surprises and suspense and tragedy and danger. But it doesn’t leave the primary purpose—that this little girl cares about her brother’s eternal destiny.

Other books that my brother owned but were also included in our family reading were ones by Paul Hutchens. The Sugar Creek Gang books “follow the legendary escapades of Bill Collins, Dragonfly, and the rest of the gang as they struggle with the application of their Christian faith to the adventure of life.”

Bill, as I recall, was the narrator of the stories, and he was always so honest about his own struggles to do the right things, and his admiration for their leader, Jim, and their young Bible-quoting member, Little Jim. I found Bill’s honesty refreshing, even as the truth and values of Scripture were reinforced. Of course, I didn’t think in those terms as a kid. I just liked those books.

As I look back now, I can see how those stories did nurture my soul. Same with the books by Kay Marshall Strom, and many others by Christians as Christian fiction began to grow and become well-written stories that portrayed life realistically.

Sure, there are stories that make the effort but are poorly written or preachy or contrived. But the books that tell a good story and yet uncover some truth about God that I need to be reminded of or haven’t thought about in that same way exactly, feed my soul.

Narnia did that, and does that when I re-read those books. Lewis had a way of showing God in a way that makes Him seem so winsome and desirable, so joyful, and yet so majestic—well, they simply feed my soul.

How about you? What books have you read, as a child or as an adult, that feed your soul?

I’m not a Netflix subscriber myself. My wife is though–perhaps to the surprise of many, she opened her account in Mexico and it’s actually paid for in Mexico, but still available in the USA (my wife is a Mexican citizen who is a greencard-holding resident alien in the United States). We can still watch US shows, albeit we pick them from a menu listing Spanish-language titles. Within the last week we decided to watch a Netflix-made movie called “Campamento en el fin del mundo,” which is literally “Camp in the End of the World.” Note the title in English is actually “Rim of the World.” The translator took some liberty, but in fact I think the title in Spanish is more interesting to me than the English.

Note I didn’t read any reviews of this Netflix production before watching it. The trailer and poster art made it look like a take on Goonies perhaps. Or maybe a bit like Stranger Things with aliens. Plus, I wondered what “camp at the end of the world would be” (the title caught my attention) so we just went ahead and started watching (in English, claro).

Didn’t check reviews–should have

If I had read the reviews I might not have watched it at all (there’s a lesson here), because it has an overall rating of 5.2 out of ten in one place (IMDb), with a number of very strong negative reactions pulling down an average that would otherwise be higher. The negative reactions include one review entitled “Rim of the Toilet,” which tears into everything about the movie, from sloppy writing to ethnic stereotypes to (most significantly for me) foul and sexually-suggestive language.

Well–it’s not a very good movie, granted. The aliens are ridiculous, the plot has truck-sized holes…and yes there’s some pretty clear ethnic stereotyping. And too much fecal humor and yes, crude language. However, all of that didn’t totally destroy the charm of the movie for me. Some characters were likable and believable. I did continue watching until the end, even though I’m about to complain about this film. The appeal was more like Spy Kids than Goonies, because it cast young teens in the highly improbable role of saviors of the planet (from an alien invasion). With some pretty goofy story gimmicks, but which would be okay for kids except for what I’m going to gripe about.

By the way, I just gave away a piece of the plot. I’m going to give away a bit more, but I won’t call them “spoilers.” You’d be better off avoiding this movie altogether. Not really because of the crude language, occasional fecal humor, unrealistic plot, and ethnic stereotyping. There’s something that bothered me more.

One thing worse than the rest for this run-of-the-mil film

There’s one thing about the show that’s by far worse than everything else. Which was certain sexual references, really pornographic references, thrown out for laughs in this film.

Note this movie isn’t like Cuties from what I now of that movie. From what I hear, Cuties was intended to criticize the hyper-sexualization of young girls…but also wound up promoting the very thing it intended to criticize. Since I haven’t seen it, I can’t say how badly Cuties failed or how exploitatite it was. But from what I understand, that film was intended to be high art. Avant-guarde stuff.

Rim of the World has no such excuse. It’s a run-of-the-mill kid comedy, not particularly original or groundbreaking in any way. With pornographic references thrown in. As if expecting that it’s standard for 13 year olds to already be highly sexualized. Which of course is true in our culture…but more on that in a bit.

What were the objectionable references?

This story shows three young teen boys and a girl, three of whom were at a summer camp in California, on a quest to save the world from an alien invasion by delivering a key handed off to them by an astronaut who just flew in from the International Space Station, which for “reasons” has to be delivered to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

In the bit of the film that took place before an alien invasion distrubed summer camp, a female camp counselor says to one of the boys she wants him to “put it in my box.” She’s referring to putting his cell phone in her cell phone box, but he embarassingly misunderstands the reference as a sexual one (for those who don’t know, “box” in a porn context can mean “vagina”). He doesn’t embarass himself so much that this movie becomes acutal pornography, but the reference would only not be picked up by someone completely innocent of this kind of smut. Which would not be me, sadly. Nor was it, far sadder still, something that most 13 year-olds in the USA would fail to understand.

Later, there’s a sexual reference to “motorboating”–if you don’t know the sexual context of that term, I don’t care to explain. If you hadn’t heard that as a sexual reference before, trust me, it can be. And no, I wasn’t reading into the film something that wasn’t there. It was there, all right.

Also, there’s a scene in which the one girl in the story announces to the boys, “One of you can sleep with me tonight.” She seems to be making the reference a literal one, since there are two beds where they are and she hops in one (and furthermore, she’s from China, so maybe doesn’t understand the nuances of “sleep with”). The boys, realistically enough for our current culture to be sure, interpret what she said as a sexual reference and discuss among themselves who will be the lucky guy–as if presuming sex was included in “sleeping with.” (Which, granted, is not specifically pornographic–still, the expectation of sex fell in line with other sexual references).

The movie was a bit coy about if any thing actually happened or not. The girl says, “I’m glad it was you” when the boy gets in bed with her. But the movie doesn’t show anything happening. They awake in the morning fully clothed, but with odd little smiles, as if sharing a secret. Overall, the movie implied nothing happened…though with little hints that maybe something could have happened.

Avoiding this movie doesn’t explain why it was made in the first place

Avoid this movie. It’s not worth your time. But the fact that this is just one bad movie in an ocean of bad movies misses the point I was making just a bit ago.

This movie is not in any way groundbreaking or original. The dialogue was more smut-stained than what you’d hear in, say, Stranger Things, but that doesn’t count as innovation.

The filmmakers obviously tried to create stereotypical kids with stereotypical situations. They were not pushing the envelope of artistic expression here. They simply drew from what they knew of ordinary life for kids. And that’s just the problem–it wasn’t just that filmmakers made a bad film or they made bad decisions, but that what they put together matches a culture that’s mainstreaming these kinds of references. So that this sort of thing is expected. So that it’s considered normal.

The fact that a program containing the sexual innuendoes it has could be sold as a story idea, plotted, filmed, edited, and marketed–to kids, mind you–that itself is the problem. “What were they thinking?” someone might say.  Obviously, not much–but pushing the “easy” button to grind out a mediocre tale picked up a slice of what the filmmakers consider normal for American youth.

We could hope the filmmakers were deluded and simply imagine kids are like this. But I don’t think they were. They actually managed to show something true by means of their not-very-outstanding production. It’s actually standard for 13 year-olds to be exposed to sex through pornography. All anyone needs is a smart phone and the knowledge of how to find sites–which isn’t all that hard.

And another disconcerting thing–all the good ratings this film got on IMDb. Enough to counter the many people who rated the film at one or two. The little demographic chart they share shows older women like the movie more than any other groups. Could that be because they didn’t pick up the sexual references? Maybe.

Porn needs to be restricted; it’s changing us

I’m not going to try to establish in this post the principle that pornography does harm. I’m just going to state that it does and we can discuss that idea in the comments if you want.

But I see an analogy to how cigarette makers used to sell their products to kids back in the day, before laws effectively restricted that. They wanted to get ’em hooked young. To keep them as customers for life.

The porn industry doesn’t have to market to kids in the same way–unsupervised Internet access already takes young people there. Yes, sites tell people if they are not 18 then they can’t enter. But that’s not much of a restriction. And even parental controls have their flaws.

I think a vice tax on porn to end the distribution of free porn would be appropriate. Maybe I’ll talk about that idea more in a future post–but for now, let me just put the idea “out there.”

But as for trying to explain why each generation in the USA is less religious than the last, it isn’t because of properity. That happened here in the mid-20th Century and didn’t change the United States all that much. But ubiquotous entertainment of the 21st Century, including easy-access porn? That has made us an entirely different nation than what we used to be.

Again, I’m not defending in detail the assertion I just made in this post, that porn changed America–I’m simply making my opinion known to the public at large.

Conclusion

I could say a bit more about Rim of the World and much more about porn in our society, though I won’t go into any more detail right now. We can discuss these topics in the comments if you like.

But I’d say this movie simply reflected what our society is like in the inappropriate sexual references it dropped. Porn hits young people early. That’s a sad truth.

So now that you know what I think, what are your thoughts on this subject? Please share them in the comments below.

Nature vs. nurture is the underpinning motivation of the many of the horror and thriller flicks of evil child protagonists.¹ These movies chill us at the heart because we, in the modern world, especially in the West, have certain expectations about children:

1. Children are inherently innocent, pure, and good.
2. Childhood should be guarded and protected from the evils of the world
3. Children are separate from being an adult.

These ideas about children and childhood are relatively new. Before the late 19th century, adults viewed children as “little adults.” They had responsibilities on the same plane as adults as well as expectations.

Using a biblical example, The Lord called Samuel at seven years old to be a prophet: he was to pass judgement on Eli the priest and let him that that thus saith the Lord, you about to get it. Did the Lord consider Samuel too young to fulfill this task?

In the following the movies I am going to comment on, I am going to expand on how the perception of children/childhood differs from the reality of what a child is.  A child is a free-willed individual who chooses to do right or wrong. This does not mean children do not need guidance, help, and a structure. On the contrary, the Bible says to train up a child in the way he should go so that when he is old, he will not depart from it.

The Bad Seed (1956): born evil

Rhoda Penmark looks like a normal girl of the 1950s: blonde hair, blue eyes, and an effervescent attitude. But, as her mother begins to realize, her normality is only a façade. She’s really a sociopath, psychopath, and, cherry on top, a serial killer. She’s manipulative and cunning. I would almost say she’s a savant although that’s not explored in the movie. When her mother, Christine, finds out she was adopted and that her mother is a serial killer, she believes she passed on “the bad seed,” genetically speaking, to her daughter.

After all, Rhoda has a good life. No evidence of mistreatment from her parents or anyone else. The only thing is that kids sensed something was wrong with her and kept their distance. Rhoda can fool the adults of town because most have the view about children as I stated before. Only a couple can see past the mask to the real person. When Rhoda finds out they know the real her, she gets rid of them.

As far as the children in town who are not fooled by Rhoda, this is a classic understanding of children – that children can sense evil because they have not been corrupted by the world. Alas! If only that were true!

The character of Rhoda Penmark is fictional but there have been children who exhibit a sociopathic behavior. They are born without conscious or empathy. A real-life example would be the BTK serial killer. He was not abused, hurt, or mistreated as a child. Life and film seem to suggest that there’s nothing you can do about children like this: born inherently evil, stained, and bad. The opposite of my first set of expectations.

In the book that the movie is based on, Christine attempts to murder Rhoda and then she kills herself. This was changed in the 1956 movie due to the Hays Code which did not allow for ‘crime to pay’. In the 1985 remake and other adaptations, the ending remains true to book’s original form.

The Omen (1976): evil destiny

All you have to say is, ‘Damien’ and most people will think of this movie. It explores the idea that a man, who’s own son died without his wife knowing about, switches babies at the hospital and they raise the boy as his own. Everything is fine…until one day…

The boy possesses many peculiar abilities. Animals are afraid of him (except Rottweilers), people are killed in unexplainable ways, and people will give their lives for him. The puzzle of this child is soon revealed when it is discovered he is the Antichrist, destined (in the movie anyway) to prevent the Second Coming of Christ.

This movie spawned a franchise and a remake and endless pop culture references. Like Rhoda Penmark, Damien Thorn ushered in horror in a different kind of way with children as the evil protagonist – the one sent to fulfill their destiny. Unlike Rhoda, who was born evil, Damien is born to fulfill evil. As a child, from baby to five years old (or seven) he’s fine but then, his true nature comes to fruition. Awakened because that is his purpose.

Immediately, I thought of Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Christ. Most people aren’t going around named their kids Judas, even though back in the day, it was a nice name. There’s not a lot known of his childhood but sadder words have never been spoken for Christ to say, “It would have been better if he’d never been born.”

Evil destiny tends to have a deterministic view. You can’t be anything other than you are because this is your purpose. This evil thing is what you were meant for. Instead of being guarding and protected from the evils of the world, you bring the evil.

Brightburn (2019): Evil conqueror

Although I will limit my comments to the constraints of this post, I have to say that this movie had so much potential that was unrealized. Maybe in a future post, I will go into it.

Suffice it to say, Brandon Breyer ain’t from around here. A wonderful twist on the superhero trope, we have a supervillain. Laden with powers and a need to conquer the world. “Take the World” he screams at one point in the movie. The thing with Brandon is that he is sent to conquer. To infiltrate, to scout out, and (hopefully in the sequel) report back to whoever about Earth and its occupant.

Brandon represents ‘supposedly’ the blank canvas of children. He crashed to earth, has power (whether from the earth’s atmosphere or not, we don’t know) and walks among us. Then, when he turns twelve, his true purpose, to conquer is activated. Because the makers of the movie decided to go along a horror trend as opposed to an action or thriller take, the later part of the movie is taken up with horror gore and the like.

There are times in the movie where he seems to fight against his nature. After all, his adoptive parents love him, and he knows they do. But, are they simple going to be collateral damage or will he turn away from his purpose?

After all this talk of bad children, you may be thinking, “Geez, Parker!” My point in mentioning the Bad Seed is that they are interesting characters to see portrayed on TV. It shows us that children are NOT a blank canvas but that they come with impressions. Impressions that are molded inherently, through, biology, destiny, or function.

Does that mean that the “bad seed” cannot be redeemed?

Of course not! God is more powerful than all the evil in the world. In Matthew 17, the bring a young boy to him who they aptly call a ‘lunatick’ and Jesus scolds them. Not because the boy’s a lunatick, but because they had little faith. And then He does want only He can do and rebuked the evil spirit in the boy. But he does say, in verse 21 “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” Meaning, it’s gonna be a fight on your hands. 

In the young and in the old no one is ever to far from God’s love that He cannot reach them. However, the Bad Seed makes for fascinating storytelling for our horror fans out there.

And for parents who say, “Glad that ain’t my kid!”

Or is it?

What are some things I may have missed? What are some movies with evil kid protagonists? In each movie, could each child have been saved? Share your thoughts.

Tomorrow is the US federal election day, or as many commentators have began to refer to it, the last day to vote in the “season of voting.” I’m of the mindset that the fixed election day provides the most fair manner for the election of our leaders, but as it happens, the Constitution, while setting the day for the Electoral College to begin its voting procedure, leaves the actual administration of elections up to the states.

Consequently, we see a wide variety of mail-in voting and early voting and absentee voting and the like. Here in California we basically have three means of voting. All registered voters received a ballot which we can then fill in and mail, fill in and drop off at one of the voting boxes in places such as libraries, or vote in person on “Election Day” using an electronic voting machine. This latter option is different from the past in-person voting. Instead of local precincts which were always in the community—places such as elementary schools or a neighbor’s garage or a high school or church—now we can vote in any place in the county. There are voting centers all over and one of the pieces of voting information we received was a booklet with the location of all those voting centers.

Nothing is simple any more, when it comes to voting.

All that aside, when the results are finally tabulated and the Electoral College votes assigned, we will have a winner—either a new President or a President entering his second term in office. Which means, all those who voted for the winner will rejoice and all those who voted for the loser will bemoan the direction in which the country will go in the next four year.

For years, Conservation voters, including many Christians, were known as the “silent majority.” But certainly Christians didn’t start out in a world in which they were the majority.

Rather, that first fearful band of followers huddled in an upper room, having recently seen the resurrected Christ, changed from perhaps several dozen, perhaps as many as 150, into a group of 3000 who responded to Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. They were known as the followers of The Way. Their number soon swelled, and as the Bible informs us, spread from Jerusalem as persecution set in. As the Apostle Paul and others took the truth about Jesus to the Gentiles—Romans, Greeks, people living in Asia Minor—the numbers grew much faster. But a majority? Not close.

Of course there’s serious doubt that Christians have ever been a majority, even in the Roman Empire when conquered people were required to join the church—as if by decree and obedience to a law someone could become part of God’s family. No, many, many throughout history have been “in name only” Christians.

So, too, in the US. But of course Christians aren’t the only citizens who believe in law and order and the rule of the Constitution and the rights preserved and protected in that document. Perhaps the majority of Americans still believe in those fundamental principles that have made the US, the US. We have a unique democratic Republic, and for most of our 200 plus years of existence, it has served us well.

All this to say, the way the government is set up with checks and balances and three distinct branches and the people being the ultimate responsible agent, we have not experienced insurrection. Unrest, yes, and some fear that if President Trump wins the election, the far left will expand their riots and protests to become a type of movement against the existent governmental structure.

For years, the political party of the losing candidate for President has dug in to make sure they don’t lose the next time. Incumbent legislators have historically been harder to remove from office, but Presidents are limited to two terms, so every four years, there’s the chance to replace a President who has not served the people well. And every eight years, there’s a guarantee a new person will be in that office.

In dystopian stories and many fantasy novels, the government can only be changed by violent overthrow. I mean, what person or group wants to give up power? So we have many stories about a group working underground, much like the French resistance did during World War II, in order to bring about change.

My belief is that Christians are not, and have never been, the silent majority, nor are we to be a minority underground.

We may some day have to go underground. The Cancel Culture mandate could one day apply to Christianity. As it is, to say that something society accepts, such as homosexuality, is a sin, marks the believer as “hateful.” Never mind that we believe God gave us laws to obey which are good for us. So it’s actually better for humanity not to murder, and as Jesus explained, not to hate. It’s actually better for us not to commit adultery, or as Jesus explained, not to lust after someone else. These are laws God gave to us because He loves us and knows our lives will be more fulfilled, happier, successful, more glorifying to Him if we obey them.

But a society that rejects God, says we can, and in some cases, should, ignore His laws. And those who want to follow them are hateful. It’s pretty convoluted thinking, but that’s the world we live in.

All that to say, there may be a day when Christians in America do become a minority underground. But unlike those in so many dystopian novels, the goal is not to establish an earthly kingdom. Jesus didn’t come to take over as an earthly King, and we His followers don’t exist to create an earthly government that follows God’s law either.

Yes, a free government that allows Christians to speak freely about our faith and to worship openly, is “easier.” But I don’t think the goal of the Christian life is “easy.”

To bring this to some kind of conclusion, Christians can rest assured that whether our country protects our rights as we know them, or not, we can know that God is still on the throne. He will not be caught off guard by the election results. Somebody will—either the media reporting Mr. Biden’s lead in the polls or the pundits predicting a “red wave”—but God will not be one of them. He will do what’s right, and we His people can be assured about that.