Month: March 2016

Trump and “Christians”

BibleTrump

A great number of people in this country who insist on labeling themselves as “Christians” have finally confirmed something I’ve suspected for a while now:

They’re faking it.

Why do I say that? Because the same people who wanted Bill Clinton booted from office for his infidelity have thrown in their lot with a twice-divorced, unapologetic, serial adulterer.

Because they ignore candidates who talk of working with their enemies toward the common good of the people who live in this country in favor of a guy who refuses to engage in civil discussion and instead goes straight to hurling insults a 5th-grader would find immature.

Because they have put their vocal support behind a crass racist who unironically quotes Benito Mussolini and talks in circles when asked if he will disavow the KKK (oddly enough, just before Super Tuesday). THE ACTUAL KKK.

Because, if they ever took a second to read the book of Proverbs (ya know, the one right near the middle of the book they claim to believe is the inspired and holy word of an omnipotent, loving creator), they would notice that just about every time it uses the word “fool” to describe someone you should avoid becoming, the descriptions of said fool fit Donald Trump almost eerily well.

Because the willful ignorance of scripture and theology that so many “Christians” have entrenched themselves in has gotten us to the point where the label of Christianity has become a foxhole for spiteful, bitter fools to scurry into, hoping it will mask the hate and darkness in their own hearts.

So I’ve got a request for those people: could you please start being honest with yourselves? Could you please just come out and admit that the driving forces behind your voting choices and political opinions are your own comfort and prejudices, and that it has nothing to do with what’s right, nothing to do with the Bible, and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Jesus? Because there are some of us out here who have actually read the Book and treat it like it means something. Because some of us are actually trying to model our lives on Jesus’. Because some of us are actually Christians, and we’re getting REAL tired of the rest of you slapping that label on yourselves and using it as a reason to vote for a self-aggrandizing pathological liar who doesn’t even know how to say 2 Corinthians right.

Or maybe there’s a better option.

Maybe we could do some introspection. I get it, we all have parts of ourselves that we’re terrified to confront. Prejudices, bitterness, rage, it’s all very uncomfortable to think about. But if you’re old enough to legally vote, that makes you an adult, and adults confront their problems, even internal ones, and we DEAL WITH THEM. That’s the only way we can grow as people. So if you support Trump and call yourself a “Christian,” take a second to really, honestly think about the yuuuuge disconnect between those two things. Take a second to ask yourself why you REALLY support Trump. And if it’s because “he says what’s on everyone’s mind,” honestly take a second to ask yourself:

Is my heart like Jesus’, or is it like Trump’s?

Because frankly, it can’t be both.

Batman V. Superman Review (NO Spoilers)

Bats v Supes

Alright, so after taking a couple of days to let the movie kind of sit in my brain a bit, here are my thoughts on Batman v. Superman Dawn of Justice. We’ll start on the positive side.

*The Good*
As usual, Zack Snyder has crafted something here that is beautiful to look at. A number of the shots had me thinking I was looking at a moving comic book panel (something also done well by, oddly enough, Netflix’s Daredevil. And thus the snake consumes its own tail). If the man does one thing well, it’s design. Everything in this movie looks awesome, and this applies especially to anything bat-related. The Batcave, Batman’s costume, Batman’s other costume, Batman’s OTHER other costume, his weapons, the Batmobile, all of it. Everything about Batman is great, and that includes our man Ben’s performance, o ye of little faith. He’s intense, he’s brutal, and he finally does some solid detective work. Yeah, remember when he used to be billed as “the world’s greatest detective?” That element is blended darn near seamlessly with what is, I would venture to say, some of the best Batman action scenes ever put to film. Quick warning though: you can’t go into this with the silly idea that Batman has some kind of no-kill policy. If you know even a little about Batman’s history, you know that that whole notion is really a fairly recent invention and that, over the course of his illustrious bat-career, Bruce has racked up a body count higher than some third-world dictators. So be ready, because he definitely ends some dudes.

Beyond Batman (heh) and the visual spectacle of the whole thing, I also really liked Wonder Woman. She has very few lines and fairly limited screen time, but I still felt like I had learned a surprising amount about her character by the end.

*The Really-Not-So-Good*
As it pertains to characters, many of their motivations were left pretty foggy. Like, I have a general idea of why most characters are doing what they’re doing, but for the most part their motivations really aren’t explored in much significant depth at all, Superman and Wonder Woman being notable exceptions. Story-wise, this film felt a little jumbled. If you saw Watchmen, you’ll have a feel for what I’m talking about: seemingly random instances of non-linear narrative, abrupt and strange editing, dream/vision/flashback(???) sequences with pretty much no warning, and just a lot of moments that left me sitting there going, “Ok, so…but, like…what?” Don’t get me wrong, I love unreliable narrator style movies where you’re never quite sure if what you’re seeing is real, but the tone of this movie doesn’t really allow for that, and plus: it’s a movie in which Batman fights Superman. I don’t need that cerebral nonsense in this movie, Zack. But maybe that’s just me. And speaking of…

*Stuff I Liked That You May Or May Not Like*
This movie was not made for the general public. This movie was made for fans, for people who were into the comic books and cartoons growing up. This movie is for nerds, guys, and that shows in all the Justice League setup bits. It’s fitting that this movie came out when it did, because holy easter eggs, Batman; at the introduction of [REDACTED], as well as [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], I got all kinds of giddy, I’m not gonna lie. I also appreciated the nods to possible future villains. This franchise may, optimistically, have a bright future ahead of it (not literally, of course; nothing in these movies is bright in a literal sense). Lastly, I’m just gonna come right out and say it: I liked Eisenberg’s manic, obnoxious Lex. He’s still deeply sinister and clearly just barely containing a simmering psychopathic rage, and I felt that his annoying awkwardness actually worked well as an element of this villain. He’s a very new kind of Luthor, but give the guy a chance; you may actually end up enjoying yourself.

*Final Verdict*
It’s aggressively alright. I tend to view movies as existing on two different spectrums: the awesome/lame spectrum and the good/bad spectrum. For example, The English Patient is very good but pretty lame, the Transformers movies are kinda awesome but no good at all, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy is both good and awesome. That being said, here’s about where this movie falls on both those spectrums:

Lame———————|–Awesome
Bad—-|———————-Good

TL;DR: Tons of fun while simultaneously being deeply flawed on a couple of levels. Batman is awesome in every way possible and, fittingly, easter eggs abound. See above scale. Worth seeing in theaters once.

Well, Here I Am

Beardy

I remember when I first heard the word “blog.” I was 12 years old watching TV in the kitchen (as one does), and heard it spoken by a reporter desperately trying to fill time between events at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

I thought it was a really dumb word.

That being said, here I am 14 years later, officially stepping into the vaunted “blogosphere” (also an incredibly dumb word). For the most part, this is happening because every now and then, I’ll have a thought or two that take a few more words to explain than Twitter’s character limit or the attention span of the average Facebook user will allow. This is where those thoughts will live. As such, there likely won’t be much of a connecting thread between posts. Some may be lengthy “rants” about political or social issues, while others may be movie reviews, and still others light-hearted anecdotes. Basically, if I don’t want to bother my wife by jabbering incessantly about something in particular, it’ll probably show up here.

That’s really all you need to know. The first few posts will be kind of a backlog of some of my longer Facebook statuses from recently; beyond that, I guess we’ll see. Now, on to the jabbering!