General
Woundwort and My Friend Dahmer!?!?! – Harmless Horror Movies? - Purity 856
Purity 857 10/08/2022
Good
morning,
Today’s photo
of my neighbor’s mangy cat, driveway, and rustic barn with pumpkins adorning the
pathway to their home comes to us from yours truly as I decided to capture a
candid of my neighbor’s cat as I departed my countryside home on October 2nd,
thinking “this is the cat that hisses at you arrive at “the creepy place” in a
horror movie!”
But
seriously, ok I did think that, but my neighbor’s cat may look a little feral
and untrustworthy, I can attest to the fact that he is actually quite friendly
even though his outer appearance, with his matted fur and damaged ear, make him
look like the feline equivalent of “General Woundwort” from the 1978 animated
classic, Watership Down, (which is available to stream on HBOMax and YouTube.
Okay, the
cat doesn’t look that bad, General Woundwort still creeps me out. Who knew that
bunny rabbits could be so vicious!
Anyway, I
decided to share today’s photo because I thought that the cat, the barn, and those pumpkins were a
good visual representation of the month of October, Autumn, and the Harvest
season. Autumn is my favorite season and
October is in the heart of it as the fall foliage changes and people begin to
decorate their homes for Halloween.
I was and
am still am a fan of Halloween and, horror movies, but I have to admit that as
I have grown in my knowledge and experience of the reality of Spiritual warfare,
the spiritual forces of darkness, total depravity of man, and how it all ties
in together and results in suffering and the evil that men do, I am less
enamored with the macabre as I used to be and have increasing grown in my sensitivity
of spiritual discernment and no longer see these dark forms of entertainment as
“harmless”.
Ironically
as I have grown more sensitive to what I will allow to put in front of my eyes
and less tolerant of the things I can stomach, the horror genre and society in
general has become more desensitized to what disturbing images, subject
matters, and themes can be offered up as entertainment. One of the latest evidences to this trend is
the Netflix series: “Dahmer – Monster: The
Jeffery Dahmer Story”, starring Evan Peters.
In
recalling the details of Dahmer’s grisly crimes, I have to wonder why anyone
would watch this show.
But in my
limited research this morning, I realized that I was a huge consumer of and a
reason for the success of shows like this.
There was one article online that presented a list of the 26 best TV shows
about serial killers (https://tvshowpilot.com/fun-posts/best-serial-killer-tv-shows/)
. 26! I am somewhat ashamed to admit that of the 26
shows I had watched 9 of them in the years before and after I came to Christ.
I also
have to have to admit that I did watch the 2017 film: “My Friend Dahmer”, which
was a memoir of one of Dahmer’s childhood friends, graphic novelist Jack “Derf”
Backderf, that presented scenes from Dahmer’s life before his murders that
highlighted the serial killers “inner demons”, his victimization at the hands
of school bullies, and the neglect by the adults in his life. The film concludes with the victim of abuse
and neglect becoming a murderer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Friend_Dahmer)
.
But Backderf
was clear in his comments regarding his memoir that he in no way sought to
justify or excuse Dahmer for his evil actions but was only presenting his
recollections of what happened in Dahmer’s life prior to his crimes to show how
evil doesn’t necessarily just happen, that often atrocities have a back story
rooted in abuse and points to the cycle of the abused becoming abusers, or even
killers.
My education
in Biblical Studies and Christian Couseling, along my training as a Community
Ministry Freedom Associate for Freedom in Christ Ministries, helps me to see
these crimes and these macabre forms of entertainment in a new light that makes
them less palatable.
In the
realty of serial killers, while society and our justice system should never
excuse killers with a defense for demonic possession, demonization, or demonic oppression,
we should consider that spiritual forces of darkness could play a role in the
violence and grisly crimes we see.
The Bible
describes the world as being under the sway of the evil one. I am sharing a
link to an article on gotquestions.org that briefly touches on this subject (https://www.gotquestions.org/Satan-god-world.html)
and provides the scriptures that back it up.
So what’s
my point?
I guess,
my point is that as we go further into the month of October, many of us may
feel, like I did, that we want a good scare.
And while I think that we should all be free
to choose to do that, I think we should be aware of the spiritual realities of
the world and be highly concerned for our friends and family that don’t know
about the principles of spiritual warfare or don’t have a covenant relationship
with God through faith in Jesus Christ that enjoy these dark forms of entertainment.
I feel
that horror movies can be entertaining, and educational, but we should try to
instruct others in the supremacy of God over evil and be genuinely concerned about
people that don’t have faith in Christ and isolate and watch violent or horrific
films and TV shows.
According
to an article on Psychology.com (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201408/does-media-violence-breed-real-life-killing)
"In
thousands of scientific studies over the last six decades, researchers have
documented four basic negative effects from exposure to screen violence:
increased aggression, increased fear, desensitization to real-life and screen
violence, and increased appetite for more violence, on and off screen".
(p. 54)”
None of
those effects sound very good and without a Biblical basis of wisdom
considering evil, sin, the spiritual forces of darkness, and the God who stands
above it, our loved ones could suffer from negative mental, emotional and
spiritual consequences as our society will continue to only grow darker.
So we
need to know the truth, that God is sovereign, He is in control, and that He
provides eternal security and spiritual safety and power to those who put their
faith in Christ. Jesus reconciles us to God and provides us with a share of His
spiritual power and authority to confront and confound the works of the devil.
As
Christians we are to shun what is evil and to think upon what is good. We also have
freedom. So as Christians, we may choose to watch a horror movie, but if we do
we should do so in the context of our identity in Christ and be discerning of what
we watch and not quench the Holy Spirit in us if He convicts us to pull the
plug and not persist in our unwholesome habits in the name of tradition or
nostalgia.
As exposure
to violent media has the effect of desensitizing us and may lead to negative
actions, our exposure to the Word of
God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit will oppositely sensitize us to what is
evil and increasingly draw us to do good,
Even
though I am still a horror fan, I guess , I am a lot more discerning about what
I will watch as the Holy Spirit increasingly draws me away from things that do
not edify my spirit and quite frankly, as I have continued to walk in the
Spirit, I have a lot less desire to watch or listen to most secular forms of
entertainment, whether spooky or not, because my intense love of the Lord
causes me to want to use what time I have left in this life wisely, to pursue
things that will build me up rather than just occupy a few hours and leave me
with a thrill or a chill but nothing more.
So as we
go further into October and the nostalgia and pageantry that surrounds
Halloween, keep walking and talking with God and follow where He leads. When
you walk with Him. you may begin to discover that the desire to dabble in
darkness is replaced with conviction to live in the light.
___________________________________________
As always,
I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from
prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and
sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue
sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of
Discipleship”
As always,
I share this information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase
Bonhoeffer’s books for your own private study and to support his
work. This resource is available on many websites for less than
$20.00.
Chapter Six
The
Sermon on the Mount
Matthew
5
On
the “Extraordinary”
of Christian Life
The
Beatitudes – Continues
“Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The disciples are needy in
every way. They are simply “poor” (Luke 6:20). They have no security, no
property to call their own, no piece of earth they could call their home, no
earthly community to which they might fully belong. But they also have neither
spiritual power of their own, nor experience or knowledge they can refer to and
which could comfort them. For his sake they have lost all that. When they
followed him, they lost themselves and everything else which could have made
them rich. Now they are so poor, so inexperienced, so foolish that they cannot
hope for anything except him who called them. Jesus also knows those others,
the representatives and preachers of the national religion, those powerful,
respected people, who stand firmly on the earth inseparably rooted in the
national way of life, the spirit of the times, the popular piety
[Volksfrömmigkeit]. But Jesus does not speak to them; he speaks only to his
disciples when he says, blessed—for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The
kingdom of heaven will come to those who live thoroughly in renunciation and want for Jesus’ sake.
In the depths of their poverty, they inherit the kingdom of heaven. They have
their treasure well hidden, they have it at the cross. The kingdom of heaven is
promised them in visible majesty, and it is already given them in the complete
poverty of the cross.
Here Jesus’ blessing
is totally different from its caricature in the form of a political-social
program. The Antichrist also declares the poor to be blessed, but he does it
not for the sake of the cross, in which all poverty is embraced and blessed.
Rather, he does it with political-social ideology precisely in order to fend
off the cross. He may call this ideology Christian, but in doing so he becomes
Christ’s enemy.[12][1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our
“Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”, "Freedom in
Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can
also find it on Apple podcasts
(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The
mt4christ247 podcast is also available on Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts,
Spotify, iHeartradio, and Audible.com.
These
teachings are also available on the MT4Christ247 You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTxjSNstREpuGWuL0bF3U7w/featured
Email me
at mt4christ247@gmail.com to
receive the class materials, share your progress, and to be encouraged.
My wife,
TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook Group: Ask,
Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 )
and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship,
ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 102–103.
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