The Tanuki Corner

Blog: What Does it Mean to be a Savage?

One of the themes in Brave New World is what it truly means to be a savage. The hero of Brave New World is a character named John, who grew up on an Indian reservation in New Mexico. His mother, Linda, came from London, where the people are “civilized.” However, her idea of civilization is filled with soma (a drug that appears to act as a sort of opiate), free sex, overconsumption, and every vice imaginable, obeyed immediately. Meanwhile, the “savages” of the reservation where John grew up look down upon those things and the people who engage in them. John thinks that mindset is better and more moral, thus when he’s brought to London, he’s so disturbed by what he sees that in the end, he kills himself. He recognizes that he was never the savage; the people of “civilization” were. 

According to Mirriam-Webster, “savage” means to be untamed, or “lacking the restraints normal to civilized human beings.” By this definition, a savage would be animalistic in their desires. If they want to sleep with someone, they do it. If they want to pig out on food or buy ridiculous amounts of something, there’s no moral guide stopping them. Any desire that they have must be fulfilled as soon as possible.  

In Huxley’s Brave New World, we see the “civilized” people acting like this. There are no moral restraints on anyone in this world. The only unspoken rule is not to do anything that would place morality on the shoulders of the people. This is why the government of this world does whatever it can to destroy the old way of life and keep people from ever interacting with it. The more animalistic people are, the easier they are to control.  

Meanwhile, in New Mexico, the “savages” are mostly Indians who haven’t conformed to the new way of life. They work to keep the old traditions alive. Thus, the government agrees to let them live, as long as they stay on the reservation. 

Ironically, though the Indians are called “savages” and painted as such in the brave, new world, their actions speak otherwise. Overall, their civilization practices restraint because they have morals. Yes, some of their practices are barbaric, such as flogging themselves as a sign of bravery. However, they try not to drink copious amounts, they have monogamous relationships, raise children, and don’t accept hedonism as a good thing. In fact, Linda is thoroughly hated by the wives in the reservation because she’s a drunken prostitute who steals their men. Except for the guys that have slept with her, everyone dislikes her for her immoral ways.  

Further, the people in Brave New World have very different views of goodness and beauty. In civilization, “art” is whatever happens to satisfy one’s sexual desires. That’s why most of the “feelies” (movies you can literally feel) are extremely pornographic with very little plot. Meanwhile, when John the Savage arrives in London, he is very well read in Shakespeare. He loves it because while Shakespeare’s plays often display the depravity of Man in his fallen state, he recognizes the beauty of humanity because there’s a higher morality. Thus, the struggle between Man wickedness and his capacity for good appeals to John.

This is a sign of civilization, as a civilized person strives for goodness. A savage strives not for beauty, but what satisfies his base desires. 

The savages in Brave New World are not the people living on the reservation. The true savages are those living in the “civilized” world, ruled by rampant hedonism. They may be easy to control, and it may have led to a peaceful world, but ultimately, they have no humanity. They lost it and became no better than intelligent apes. However, those living on the reservation are the truly civilized ones because they kept their humanity. They know what it is to struggle against the world and themselves. They acknowledge a higher morality that goes outside of themselves to live by. Thus, though they may live in squalor and have some backwards practices, they don’t deserve to be called savages.

Until next time,

M.J.

#AldousHuxley #Blog #BraveNewWorld #Civilization #DystopianNovels #Morals #OpinionPeice #philosophy #Writing

Poll: C.S. Lewis #TilWeHaveFaces #Blog #Books #CSLewis #Christianity #faith #Fantasy #god #jesus #MereChristianity #OpinionPeice #Poll #Review #TheGreatDivorce #TheScrewtapeLetters #Writing

Apologetics: The Christian Dilemma (That Isn’t a Dilemma at All.)

As I’ve been trying to branch out more into other topics on my YouTube channel, one of the videos I looked at to respond to was some dude laying out what he believes is a dilemma that disproves the existence of God. In the 54 second video, he says that God can’t exist because the Bible claims that God is All-Loving and All-Powerful. But if God allows people to go to Hell and won’t stop them, then He can’t be All-Loving; and if He can’t stop people from going to Hell, then He can’t be All-Powerful. This person also brought up the argument that this can’t be solved via free will since the choice between Heaven and Hell isn’t a fair choice, and that God still can’t be All-Loving because he doesn’t give a second chance to get out of Hell.

However, this isn’t a dilemma that disproves God’s existence, and here’s why.

To start, we need to clear up what Hell is and how free will ties into the equation. Hell is a place of eternal torment and separation from God. Going there is the punishment for a lifetime of breaking God’s rules and continuously rejecting Him. Whenever we sin or willfully reject God, we’re basically saying, “I don’t need you. I can do my own thing.” Thus, going to Hell is the logical end point of that. It’s God giving you what you want after you spent a lifetime ignoring the evidence for Him, wishing He’d go away, and running off to do your own thing.

Because of this, free will is not negated. Had God created us to serve Him always and given us no choice in the matter, that would have been coercion. Instead, because He loves us, He gave us the choice: follow Him and stick with Him or run away from Him and be separated from Him in the end. Thus, using the analogy of an abusive boyfriend saying, “Love me or get beat up,” doesn’t work, since God allows you to get what you want in the end.

With that out of the way, we can address the dilemma. This entire argument is based on the idea that we don’t have free will with God. However, if there is free will, then both parts of the argument fall flat. The claim that God can’t be All-Loving if He won’t stop people from going to Hell collapses since if He were to forcibly stop someone from going to Hell, then He would be infringing on their freedom to choose, making Him unloving and evil. Sure, they would be saved from Hell, but it would be under means of coercion.

Additionally, this argument collapses even further since God gives us a myriad of reasons to believe in Him. Often, He puts people and events in our lives to call us back to Him. It’s our choice if we’ll acknowledge those wake-up calls and escape Hell by doing what the Bible says and putting our faith in Christ, or if we’ll continue to ignore them. We have plenty of chances to make that decision, but our chances end when we die.

On the other half of the dilemma, we have the idea that if God can’t stop us from going to Hell, then He isn’t All-Powerful. This half banks on a misunderstanding of God’s character, namely the idea that because He’s All-Powerful, then He can do literally anything. What it fails to understand is that God, though All-Powerful, only does things according to His character, which is just and good. And since He’s All-Loving, while it would be easy for Him to force us into Heaven, He doesn’t because that would be evil since that’s – once again – coercion. If He did that, then He would be removing all free will from that person and would be going against His own character.

Moreover, forcing a person into salvation is unjust either way you look at it. If God never punished us in Hell for our sins, then He couldn’t be loving or just because the evil of the world would go unpunished. Likewise, if God forced people to repent (since repentance from your sins is necessary to go to Heaven), then He would be unjust because not only is it forced, but because it’s a forced repentance, it’s not real. Can a person truly repent if they don’t have a choice not to? In either case, sin would go unpunished.

This also rolls into the reason why we don’t get a second chance to repent after we die. If we died and found out that we were going to Hell, but God gave us a second chance to repent, then it would be a form of coercion as well. You would be repenting solely out of fear, not out of a recognition that you had done wrong and need forgiveness.

On these grounds, this is a false dilemma built on a misunderstanding of God’s character and the nature of free will.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Apologetics #Atheism #Atheist #Blog #Christian #ChristianApologetics #Christianity #faith #FreeWill #god #Hell #jesus #love #OpinionPeice #philosophy #Religion #Writing

Poll: Tolkien vs. Martin #Blog #Books #Fantasy #FireAndBlood #GeorgeRRMartin #JRRTolkien #OpinionPeice #Poll #Review #TheSilmarillion #Tolkien #Writing

Review: Project Hail Mary – If Pixar was Live-Action

Project Hail Mary came out earlier this year and quickly proved that Hollywood can make good stories, given they actually have the dedication to do so.

Starring Ryan Gosling, Project Hail Mary follows Dr. Grace, a 6th-grade science teacher who is chosen by the government to help figure out what is eating the sun. He soon finds out what it is, and the government sends him on a mission to space to find out why all the stars in the galaxy are being eaten, except for one. Upon reaching the star, he meets an alien searching for the same answers and they team up to save their planets.

Overall, this was one of the most wholesome movies I have seen in a long time. It doesn’t try to push any sort of political agenda, it wasn’t about appeasing the non-existent “modern audience,” it didn’t make the male characters incompetent. Instead, it stuck to what used to make movies fun to watch: a story of a dude going against all odds for the greater good. It’s a tale of friendship, personal growth, perseverance, and hope.

Because of Project Hail Mary‘s wholesome nature, it quickly reminded me of early 2000s Pixar. It has some funny parts, and lot of heavy themes are explored, but they’re explored in a way that’s uplifting, and that everyone can understand. The ending feels earned. The characters didn’t just get there through whining about their feelings, but through working hard for it.

Something that was impressive in the movie was Dr. Grace’s alien friend, Rocky. When creating the movie, the producers decided that Ryan Gosling needed something to act with. Rocky couldn’t just be CGI. He had to be real. So, they made two versions of him – a puppet and an animatronic. From a mix of puppetry and a few visual effects here and there, they brought the alien to life, which is especially impressive given that Rocky doesn’t have a face. They had to go entirely off of movement and voice alone to communicate emotions and make him engaging, a feat which they pulled off incredibly well. Throughout the movie, I was wondering how they got me to care so much for a rock.

Additionally, the movie doesn’t treat the audience like we’re stupid. We don’t get a bunch of massive exposition dumps where the characters almost break the fourth wall to tell us what’s going on. Instead, we get to find things out with the characters, which makes the story much more engaging.

Overall, I’ll give this move a 10/10. It was super cute, wholesome, and a fun watch for the whole family.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Blog #Fantasy #MovieReview #movies #OpinionPeice #ProjectHailMary #Review #RyanGosling #SciFi #TV #Writing

Poll: Star Wars #Blog #Disney #Fantasy #movies #OpinionPeice #Poll #StarWars #TV #Writing

Apologetics: Flippin’ Fatwa Friday – The Bible vs. The Quran: Surah al-Baqarah Verses 156-158.

Last time on Flippin’ Fatwa Friday, we covered three issues, talking about good works, the Ka’ba, and jihad. Today, we’re sort-of back to talking about the Ka’ba, though we’ll more specifically be looking at another big part of the Hajj. Let’s take a look at this:

^156. Who, when a calamity befalls them, say, ‘Surely, we belong to Allah and to him, of course, we return (and in his will is our peace).’ ^157. It is they upon whom descend the benedictions from their Lord and his mercy, and it is they who are guided aright. ^158. The Safa and Marwah (- the two eminences near Ka’ba) are certainly (two) of the symbols of Allah, so he who is on Pilgrimage to the house or performs ‘Umrah (- a visit to Ka’ba), there is no blame on him to perform Tawaf (- to run between) the two (eminences), and he who remains thoroughly dutiful and chooses to do good deeds spontaneously, the surely (he will find) Allah is Appreciative and rewards ever good deed done. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing.

I’ve already talked about the pagan origins of the Ka’ba and the Black Stone, but one of the things I sadly forgot to mention was how the Hajj also includes running between two small hills, the Safa and Marwa, seven times. This verse is the only time where this practice is mentioned, and it isn’t really elaborated on in the Quran.

The pagan origins of this practice aren’t something that can only be found through spending hours flipping through history books or scrolling on Google. It’s readily admitted in the hadiths that this practice stems from Arabian pagans. For example, Sahih Bukhari 4496 says:

Narrated `Asim bin Sulaiman:
I asked Anas bin Malik about Safa and Marwa. Anas replied, “We used to consider (i.e. going around) them a custom of the Pre-islamic period of Ignorance, so when Islam came, we gave up going around them. Then Allah revealed: “Verily, Safa and Marwa (i.e. two mountains at Mecca) are among the Symbols of Allah. So it is not harmful of those who perform the Hajj of the House (of Allah) or perform the Umra to ambulate (Tawaf) between them.” 

Stange how pagan customs were never absorbed into Judaism or Christianity by God. Why would Allah make a pagan custom something that is mandatory in Islam?

The reason for this has much to do with what I’ve mentioned in previous posts about the Hajj. It was all to gain a following. Muhammad knew that these customs were important to the people groups he knew. It wasn’t something they would give up easily. Thus, he simply absorbed them into Islam to make it more palatable for them.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Allah #Arabia #Bible #Blog #Christian #Christianity #faith #FlippinFatwaFriday #god #Hadiths #Hajj #history #Islam #jesus #KaBa #Marwa #Muhammad #Muslim #OpinionPeice #Paganism #Quran #Safa #Writing

Poll: Pick a Meme (LOTR Edition) Option #1Option #2Option #3 #Blog #Fantasy #Funny #LordOfTheRings #LOTR #Memes #OpinionPeice #Poll #Tolkien #Writing

Review: Christopher Nolan’s Adaptation of The Odessey…I Have Questions.

One of the biggest movies that is supposed to come out this year is Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odessey, the classic Greek epic that we (hopefully) all had to read in middle/high school. Unfortunately, however, the trailer for this is already making me want to hate watch the movie because it already looks terrible.

#1: The Casting

The casting of this movie is so bad that Epic: The Musical did a better job casting the characters…and you can’t even see the cast (though I had some issues with the guy voicing Odesseus, but I digress.)

The first issue is that it has so many highly recognizable stars in it that any time they popped up, I just went, “Oh, it’s Spiderman,” “Oh, it’s Edward Cullen,” “Zendaya,” “Ay, it’s Anne Hathaway,” etc. Typically, this wouldn’t be a problem, and it could be overlooked, but what prevents me from doing so is that a bunch of them are totally miscast.

Zendaya as Athena. Tom Holland as Telemachus. Elliot Page as Achilles. Robert Pattinson as Antinous. Lupita Nyong’o as Helen.

All of this has been said before, but this is terrible for so many reasons. Zendaya is a terrible Athena as she doesn’t have the screen presence or range to portray the goddess of war and wisdom. Angelina Jolie or someone similar would have been better.

Similarly, Tom Holland as Telemachus could be good, as he starts off in The Odyssey as a young man finding his feet before maturing into an heir befitting his father, but I once again worry about how well Holland will be able to portray that on screen. As the joke goes, he seems doomed to play a 19-year-old forever and his acting range supports this view. How well he’ll be able to play the heir of Ithaca is up in the air.

Robert Pattinson as Antinous was a terrible choice, once again because he doesn’t have the screen presence to pull it off. Antinous is the worst of the suitors, being their impromptu leader. He’s violent, arrogant, mean-spirited, and the overall embodiment of hubris. Epic: The Musical captured this perfectly in the parts Antinous sings (think the song “Hold Them Down,”) and the fans of the musical animated him in such a way that it shows his power, cunning, and pride. He’s genuinely unnerving to listen to. The person who plays him should embody that, and Robert Pattinson is way off the mark. He does brooding scumbag well, but that’s pretty much it. If you want him to play an angsty vampire, go ahead. Other than that, he doesn’t have the acting range or looks to pull off playing such a major villain. He just comes off as a bully who would go running to his mom if anyone stood up to him. He’s scummy but not scary.

Lupita Nyong’o as Helen is another person that’s been commented on since this movie was announced. While she is beautiful, she simply is not a book accurate Helen. Helen of Troy was the embodiment of Greek beauty standards and is described as “white-armed,” blonde, and blue eyed by various Greek poets like Hesiod and Sappho. She’s pretty much the polar opposite of Nyong’o.

As for Eliot Page as Achilles, while (to my knowledge) this hasn’t been confirmed yet, if the rumors are true…do I need to say why this is stupid?

#2: Bad Writing

Though it could be possible that the writers are trying to write this for a younger audience, we’re not so dumb that we can’t understand formal speech. What dialogue we’ve gotten so far from the trailer is very modern and had people roasting it mercilessly in the comments. For example, instead of Telemachus telling Antinous, “My father is coming home,” he tells him, “My dad is coming home.”

Apparently, Odysseus went out to get milk and disappeared for 20 years.

This is supposed to be a serious adaptation of The Odyssey. This isn’t supposed to be a parody. If I hear “rizz” mentioned anywhere in this adaptation, I’m leaving for Mars.

#3: What Translation is Being Adapted?

Apparently, there are a lot of different translations of The Odyssey out there and some of them are terrible. The one Nolan is adapting is particularly questionable, written by Emily Wilson, who wished to make the poem more female centered. She wanted to make the whole thing more focused on the women of the story and their experiences, obviously by interjecting feminism in there.

That said, if it’s a faithful adaptation of that particular translation of the poem, we can safely assume that the wokeness will be present in more ways than just the casting. While the women are certainly an interesting part of the story and play some pivotal roles in the plot, to make the story all about them takes away from the main plot: Odysseus wanting to return home after 20 years abroad.

#4: The Costuming

The costuming in this movie looks like it could be hit and miss, which is sad given the fact that we know exactly what ancient Greek clothing looked like from art and sculptures. Penelope’s dress looks alright, though it could have been better. Athena’s outfit is okay in terms of being historically accurate, though for the goddess of weaving, I expected it to look more complex (also, where’s her signature helmet and shield?) Some of the men’s outfits look accurate as well.

However, when it comes to some of the armor, I’m simply not buying it. The most obvious example of this is Agamemnon’s helmet. It’s literally just Batman’s mask but made to look Greek with a dumb spinal column added to it for no reason. I guess we’re also going to ignore the fact that the Greeks didn’t have steel armor, and only steel armor can look like the metal used on that helmet.

That’s also not even mentioning the Laestrygonians, which need no explanation:

At this rate, the only thing anyone will die of is laughter. It’s a bunch of overweight dudes with fake abs and the ever-hilarious sculpted moobs. How inclusive of the directors to recognize that you can be hilarious at any size.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Blog #Books #ChristopherNolan #GreekMythology #homer #Movie #MovieTrailers #Mythology #OpinionPeice #Review #TVAndMovieReviews #TheOdyssey #Writing

Poll: Pick a Meme Option #1Option #2Option #3 #Blog #Funny #Memes #OpinionPeice #Poll #Writing

Apologetics: Flippin’ Fatwa Friday – No. Muhammad Isn’t in The Bible.

One of the impromptu series of shorts that I’m doing on my @TanukiAuthorOfficial1@www.youtube.com is one addressing the claim that the Bible prophesies the coming of Muhammad. Now, for any of us who have read the Bible, the claim that the Bible prophesies Muhammad’s coming is absurd. The closest the Bible comes to saying anything about Muhammad (or really any other “prophet”) is in the numerous verses and passages warning about false teachers. However, the Muslims keep pushing on with this utter lie, so let’s take a look at some of the most popular scriptures that they take out of context.

#1: Deut 18:18

Deuteronomy 18:18 is one of the passages that is constantly taken out of context by Muslims. This passage says:

¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you [Moses] from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.

According to Muslims, Muhammad fits the bill. They claim that Muhammad was like Moses in that he spoke to God, led people, and established a sort of new covenant. As for the part about the person needed to be an Israelite, that’s irrelevant! After all, some translations of this verse say, “from among their brethren” instead of the vastly more specific “fellow Israelites.” Thus, since Ishmael, the father of the Arab people was Issac’s half-brother, it’s close enough, right?

Except it’s not.

The main issue here is that “from among their brethren” would have been understood by the Israelites as God specifying that the one to come must be an Israelite. Muhammad, however, was Arab, which, at best, made him a distant cousin of the Israelites through Ishmael. Because of that alone, he can’t be the one being spoken about, especially since nowhere in the Bible are the Ishmaelites considered brethren in any way.

Additionally, Muhammad fails to be a prophet like Moses in other ways. While he claimed to speak to Allah directly during the Night Journey, the vast majority of his revelations were received from Gabriel. Meanwhile, Moses never had any intermediary to give him messages from God. He spoke directly to Him. This means that Muhammad fails on two other accounts; he didn’t speak the words God directly put in his mouth, and it’s – at best – questionable if he ever spoke to God (or what he thought was God) face to face.

Even more damning is that while Moses performed miracles and signs and wonders, Muhammad did not. In fact, numerous times throughout the Quran, it denies that he ever performed any miracles. (On the off chance that it does say he performed a miracle such as the splitting of the moon, that’s yet another contradiction in the Quran.)

The final bit of evidence that Muhammad couldn’t be the prophet spoken about is the fact that in the same chapter of Deuteronomy, we find it saying this in verse 19-22:

¹⁹ And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. ²⁰ But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ ²¹ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— ²² when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

By this standard, Muhammad fails miserably, as according to numerous Islamic scholars, Muhammad recited the “Satanic Verses,” in which he told the people of Mecca that it was totally fine to pray to three goddesses already worshipped there for intercession with Allah. Later, when questioned about it, Muhammad replied that Satan had given him those verses. That’s also not even mentioning the various prophecies he made that never came true.

#2: John 14:16-17

Of all the worst places to try to arbitrarily shove Muhammad, the Gospel of John is easily the worst, as it’s the most overtly theological of all the Gospels.

According to Muslims, when Jesus talks about sending an advocate, that this advocate/”Spirit of Truth” is Muhammad. However, Jesus makes it very clear in John 14:26 that the advocate/”Spirit of Truth” is the Holy Spirit.

Because of this, the Muslims switch gears and say that the Holy Spirit is just another term for Gabriel. However, the issue with that is the Quran never supports this understanding. For example, in Surah 15:28-29 when Allah is creating Man, he says that he will breathe into it his spirit. If this spirit is to be understood as the Holy Spirit as found in the Bible, then it would seem that the Quran affirms the existence of the Holy Spirit (though it seems extremely disjointed in its understanding of it.) If this is Gabriel, however, then the question must be asked why Allah had a finite being help in creation.

Moreover, we can also look at how the Quran records Mary’s conception of Jesus. Once again, we see that Allah’s Spirit breathed into Mary to create Jesus. However, al-Tabari clarifies that this spirit was none other than Gabriel. Thus, if only Allah is capable of creation, then if his spirit is Gabriel, then Gabriel is Allah as he is an active participant in creating everything. Either the Spirit is Allah and not Gabriel, or the spirit is Gabriel, meaning that either Allah is Gabriel or there are multiple gods.

Even more damning is that the idea of Allah’s spirit doesn’t line up well with the Biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit. The Biblical understanding is that the Holy Spirit is God (as in the third person of the Trinity), and is referred to as personal, is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent, is a person, is the author of regeneration, is creator, is Israel’s redeemer, etc. In the Bible whenever an angel appears, they never identify themselves with the Holy Spirit. The authors of the Old and New Testaments certainly didn’t consider the angels to be the Holy Spirit, as they always clarify that the being is an angel of God. Thus, this arguments falls flat on its face.

#3: John 16:7

See #2, as John 16:7 is part of the Farewell/Upper Room Discourse that Jesus gave during the Last Supper, which spans chapters 13-17 of the Gospel of John.

#4: Daniel 7:13

This is a less commonly used passage, but some Muslims will say that this is referring to the Night Journey. However, unless they think that you should worship Muhammad (as it’s said that the one prophesied will be worshipped by “all nations and peoples of every language,”) then this isn’t referring to Muhammad’s coming. This is clearly talking about Jesus and was why He called Himself the “Son of Man.”

#5: Isaiah 42:1-11

To say that this passage refers to Muhammad is not only an example of isogesis, but is simply bad hermeneutics. Isaiah 42:1-11 is part of the four Servant Songs and when all of them are taken into consideration, they paint a startlingly clear picture of the life and death of Jesus. Because of that, to use this passage to support the idea that Muhammad was prophesied in the Bible is a painfully dishonest argument, as it ignores the broader context of the chapter.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Apologetics #Bible #BiblicalProphecy #Blog #Christian #Christianity #faith #FlippinFatwaFriday #god #Islam #jesus #Muhammad #Muslim #OpinionPeice #Polemics #Prophecy #Writing

Poll: Pragmata #Blog #Games #Gaming #OpinionPeice #Poll #PopCulture #Pragmata #Review #Writing

Review: BBC Adaptations of Jane Austen are Everywhere.

By everywhere, I mean that they range from being amazing, super period accurate, and (for the most part) true to the book, or they are cringe and almost unwatchable.

When I was on winter break back in December, Mom and I decided that it was a good time to binge watch the BBC adaptations of multiple Jane Austen books since it seems that all of them are free on Amazon Prime. The adaptations that we watched were Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Northanger Abbey (I more recently tried to watch Persuasion but was interrupted.) We got through all three in about a week, and it was an interesting experience since they all varied in quality, faithfulness to the books, and overall storytelling.

#1: Pride and Prejudice

Originally, I thought nothing could beat the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Kierra Knightley and Matthew Macfayden were perfect as Elizabeth and Darcy, the cinematography was amazing, and the score is one of the most recognizable scores ever written. I doubted the BBC version could be better.

I was wrong. It was amazing; even better than the 2005 adaptation.

For one thing the BBC did a much better job of achieving historical accuracy. While the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice tried to make it somewhat accurate, the BBC’s costuming and set design looked like it came straight out of the illustrations in the annotated book. It’s clear that the Brits did everything they could to make it look true to life.

For another thing, the BBC version was able to adapt much more of the book, making the 2005 version feel rushed by comparison. Parts of the book and its nuances that were in part or completely lost in the 2005 movie were fleshed out in the BBC version. With the exception of a few scenes (like Darcy going swimming), the BBC’s faithfulness to the book makes it an almost scene-for-scene adaptation of Jane Austen’s masterpiece.

#2: Sense and Sensibility

Unfortunately, while this version was okay, the 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility with Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson was much better.

The BBC adaptation of this came out in 2008 and you could tell. For one thing, the cinematography and how it followed the plot felt very 2000s. It focused heavily on Marianne and Willoughby’s romance to the detriment of some other plot points as it played up the drama. The opening scene was also Willoughby making out with an anonymous woman, which, while it set up a huge plot point, was unnecessary.

Further, unlike the adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, the historical accuracy wasn’t as good as the 1995 adaptation. The most glaring example of this was Marianne almost constantly having her hair down. While this was acceptable when a woman was in private (i.e. with her family,) it wasn’t acceptable when she was out in public. In the Regency period, if a girl was over 16, she had to wear her hair up as dictated by societal norms.

However, one of the best things about the BBC version of Sense and Sensibility is that it did a much better job of portraying Elinor’s situation with Edward Ferrars, particularly in how Lucy Steele treats her. This version of Lucy is much more uncouth, vindictive, and jealous than the version portrayed in the 1995 adaptation. It was clear that the directors saw that Lucy Steele was a mean-girl and super-jealous-girlfriend type in the book and leaned into that as far as they could, with Lucy constantly reminding Elinor of her relationship with Edward. This tension, though present, was very watered down in the movie, but the BBC did it justice, which honestly made Elinor’s part of the story much more satisfying in this adaptation. We just got to see the full extent of the crap she stoically went through, so when Edward finally breaks up with Lucy and marries Elinor, it’s much more rewarding.

#3: Northanger Abbey

The only adaptation of Northanger Abbey that I’ve seen was the one from 1987 which was done by the BBC (there was another one from PBS that was released in 2007 which I haven’t seen.) This one was very eighties and was absolutely cringe. While it tried to capture the original satire from the book, it failed miserably, in large part from the poor cinematography. The costuming was also terrible, it made the main love interest was unlikable and kinda creepy, and the music was horrible. The only good thing about it was that it at least tried to be accurate to the main plot beats. Other than that, I felt like I was watching an 80’s dark fantasy movie with the same vibes as the cover of a steamy gothic romance novel from the same time period, mixed with Regency England. It was not good.

Until next time,

M.J.

#AmazonPrime #BBC #Blog #JaneAusten #MovieReview #movies #NorthangerAbbey #OpinionPeice #PrideAndPrejudice #Review #SenseAndSensibility #TV #TVReview #Writing

Blog: My Views on Fantasy Have Changed.

It’s been a hot minute since I last talked about the books I’ve written and my plans on publishing them. Part of that is since I haven’t been great on working on them consistently, but another part of it is that as I’ve gotten older and became a Christian, I’ve been finding my views on fantasy changing. That isn’t to say that I hate fantasy now or that I’m now one of those Christians who thinks that if you read Harry Potter then you’re going to hell. Rather, I’m trying to figure out how to put Christianity in my fantasy stories.

When I first started on my writing journey, I was not a Christian. I considered myself a sort of deist, but because of how unhealthily obsessed I was with the Percy Jackson books and spinoff series, my parents were worried that I was drifting towards outright paganism. In hindsight, they had good reason to be concerned. My obsession with world myths – Greco-Roman myths in particular – definitely had me going in that direction and my writing reflected that. The world I created was ruled by different gods and goddesses in the pantheons I was interested in, and the main characters were demigods or, as Rick Riordan called them, legacies (grandkids of gods.)

Because of that, the early books were greatly influenced by those myths, filled with gods, monsters, and magic. However, as I grew up, the books grew up with me, and the worldview started to shift. I wanted to make it more Christian, while still keeping it fairly consistent with the other books. By book four, I decided to include a group of humans in my world who worshipped one God. Influenced by Tolkien while also wanting it to stay consistent with my other characters belief systems, I added in that they also worship or venerate other little-g gods who work sort-of like angels and that when the characters die, they may be included in those ranks.

The issue with this, though, was that at best, it was reminiscent of Catholicism or maybe Eastern Orthodoxy, of which I am not a part and do not endorse. At worst, it felt like a weird mix of that and Mormonism.

This has now proved to be a dilemma for me since for one thing, the belief systems I invented for that world don’t jive with my actual beliefs, especially when it comes to what I wrote as a younger teen. For another thing, after going to a few New Age expos and looking into some New Age festivals, I’ve come to realize that an unfortunate number of people never seem to leave their favorite fantasy novels, movies, or games. They literally try to become one with it and more often than not, it leads them into the occult.

While some of this can’t be avoided since there will always be some people who don’t want to be snapped back to reality, I am now wondering if including magic systems and stuff is good in fantasy, especially Christian fantasy.

Can magic be useful in fantasy? Sure, it can be a useful plot device. But when writing fantasy, especially if you want to put in a Christian bent, should we really be doing that? Is there a better way of going about things? Can we replace magic with something else that God doesn’t outright condemn? After all, it could easily prove as a stumbling block for many people, even if it’s painfully obvious that you’re trying to write a Christian story. Just as an example of that, look at Tolkien’s work. Sure, it might not have been super obvious that it’s a Christian story, but many people have taken Lord of the Rings and incorporated it into whatever New Age occult stuff they’re into, partially because of the magic that is present in the books.

At this point, my possibly-subject-to-change stance on magic in Christian fantasy (or fantasy written by Christians) is that it should be avoided. Does that mean we can’t read books with magic or other gods in it? No, but read with discernment and don’t put that stuff in your own books. Which means I have a ton of rewriting to do…

Until next time,

M.J.

#Blog #Books #Christianity #faith #Fantasy #god #jesus #Magic #OpinionPeice #Tolkien #Writing

Apologetics: Flippin’ Fatwa Friday – The Bible vs. The Quran: Surah al-Baqarah Verses 148-155

It’s been several weeks since I last dissected the Quran, so now that we’ve had a break, it’s back to this. We’re going to be picking up from where we left off at verse 148, and taking a look at the seemingly good, the bad, and the ugly. Let’s begin:

_^148. And everyone has an ideal for which he bears up, so (your ideal should be to) vie one with another in doing all (moral and physical) good deeds. Wherever you may be, Allah will bring you all together. Allah indeed is the Possessor of full power to do all that he will. ^149. And from wherever you (O Prophet!) may go forth keep your attention fixed in the direction of Masjid al-Haram (- the Holy Mosque at Makkah) for that indeed is the true commandment proceeding from your Lord, and Allah is not at all unaware of what you do. ^150. And from wherever you come forth (for saying your Prayer) turn your attention in the direction of Masjid al-Haram. And wherever you may be (O Muslims!), turn your faces in the direction of it, that people may have no excuse against you, except such of those as are unjust, then do not fear them (as they follow the wrong course), but you need only stand in awe of Me. And (this command has been given to you) that I may perfect my blessings upon you and that you may attain your goal. ^151. Just as (the Ka’bah is a means to your guidance so,) we have sent to you a great Messenger from among yourselves who recites to you our Messages and purifies you and teaches you the Book and the Wisdom and teaches you what you did not know. ^152. So glorify me and I will grant you eminence and be thankful to me and be not ungrateful to me (for my favors to you.) ^153. O you who believe! Seek (God’s) help with perfect patience and Prayer, for surely Allah is with the patiently persevering. ^154. And do not count as dead those who are killed in the cause of Allah. Rather (they are_ living only you perceive not (their life.) ^155. And we will certainly reward you (after discipling you) with something after fear and hunger and some loss of substance and of lives and with fruits (of your toils.) Give good tidings to the patiently persevering.

A good chunk of this passage (149-153) has already been discussed in previous blog posts, so if you want to learn more about the Ka’ba and the Qiblah (direction of prayer), you can read my previous posts concerning those.

The main verses I’ll be focusing on is 148 and 154-155. Verse 148 is interesting to me because Paul says something similar in Galatians 6:10 when he writes: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Elsewhere in the Bible, we’re also commanded to do good deeds.

However, the biggest difference here is the understanding of what it means to do good and what purpose it serves. The Christian understanding is that you do good as a result of having faith in Christ. As you are sanctified, the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin and you’re encouraged to do good. In Islam, however, doing good is how you get to Heaven. Your works are what save you, not your faith. Thus, you’re essentially working to be better than the other person so you can hopefully get to Heaven.

Moving on from that to 154-155, about Allah blessing martyrs, this is an obvious endorsement of jihad. If you go and fight for Allah, you’ll either be rewarded in real life booty or you’ll get to go to Heaven and get your 72 virgins, which are discussed throughout the Quran. And we wonder how Islam spread so quickly throughout the Middle East when jihad was a win-win for the pagans that converted….

Until next time,

M.J.

#Allah #Bible #Books #faith #FlippinFatwaFriday #god #Islam #jesus #Jihad #OpinionPeice #Quran #SurahAlBaqarah #Writing

Poll: Evangelism #Blog #Christianity #Evangelism #faith #god #jesus #OpinionPeice #Poll #Writing

Review: The Anaconda Remake…the Heck did I Just Watch? (Spoilers)

For those of you who didn’t know, the 1997 movie Anaconda got a reboot last year starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd. Why this was necessary given the hilarious absurdity of the original movie, I don’t know, but it’s a thing. It’s obviously supposed to be a comedy paying homage to the original by making fun of it, but after watching it, though it’s funny, it also felt extremely disjointed.

To start with the pros, the reboot of Anaconda did have some funny scenes in it, which partially came from how random the movie was. It follows Doug and Griffin, two middle-aged guys who dreamed of being film makers, but ended up not getting the jobs they dreamed of. Griffin, wanting to get the gang back together and finally chase his dreams tells everyone that he’s gotten the rights to Anaconda and wants to make a reboot. Thus, they head off to the Amazon to shoot the movie, and a bunch of whacky shenanigans happen, especially when the actual snake comes into the picture.

Now, the snake is one of the places where the movie starts feeling disjointed. Basically, while Doug, Griffin, and the rest of their crew are trying to film Anaconda 2.0, there is an actual Titanoboa-size anaconda hunting them. Additionally, they have to deal with an illegal gold mining ring that they ran into and the people trying to arrest the gold miners.

Oh, yeah. Did I mention that there’s an entire side plot about there being an illegal gold mining ring that the Brazilian authorities are trying to stop that’s only relevant for about a third of the movie? Yeah, that’s a thing.

While that side plot sort-of added something to the movie, it didn’t do a whole lot in the long run other than getting Doug and company a boat (sort-of) and helping establish the existence of the giant anaconda that’s hunting them. Other than that, this side plot just adds fluff to the story that the movie seems to at least be aware of. A few times, it mentions that the existence of the gold mining ring adds tension to a movie that’s otherwise just a bunch of people trying to run away from a giant snake.

Another thing that happens in Anaconda is Ice Cube makes a random appearance and he’s trying to hunt the anaconda for some reason. It’s a plot point that, while funny, makes no sense. He’s really only there for laughs and to pay homage to the original movie.

Overall, the movie was funny but felt crowded and disjointed at times.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Anaconda #Blog #Comedy #horror #IceCube #JackBlack #JLo #MovieReview #movies #OpinionPeice #PaulRudd #Review #TVReview #TV #Writing

Poll: Duolingo #Blog #Duolingo #education #Funny #Languages #OpinionPeice #Poll #travel #Writing

Poll: Movies #Blog #Hollywood #IndieFilms #movies #OpinionPeice #Poll #Writing

Blog: What the Heck are Bird Hands?

One of the random things that popped up in my feed recently was a video discussing what the phenomenon of “bird hands” are. For those of you who somehow are unaware of what this hand gesture is, it’s basically the chef’s kiss gesture, only pointing at you or the person speaking. It could also be defined as the stereotypical gesture used by angry Italian grandmothers. As for the reason why it went viral, it went viral as a theory is because it seems to fit in with the larger discussion of why Leftist women are the way they are since it’s mostly Leftist women online using the bird hands.

For the most part, I think this is just a meme. It might have some truth to it the same way septum-ring theory or colored hair theory has some truth to it, but overall, I think the rest of it is pretty bogus.

I believe the reason why bird hands are so common online is because they’ve become a new form of non-verbal communication, especially amongst women. Think about it. In conversation, while some people aren’t super inclined to do this, there are others who are very animated when talking and use their hands a lot (I’m one of those people). The hand movements almost become part of the speech as almost a second language adding additional emphasis to what they’re saying.

How this spreads to the online space, then, is that many people, especially in short form videos, treat the video more as a conversation. It’s not a high-budget production with a script. It’s usually just a person sitting in their car, their house, somewhere outside, etc. talking to their audience casually. Because of that atmosphere, the hand gestures get incorporated.

Now, how exactly this specific gesture became a big part in our collective hand-gesture vocabulary, I’m not sure. My guess is that someone used it, their video became popular, and other people started using it for whatever reason, similar to how “yeet” eventually got added to our vocab. At this point, with how many people use it and how easily it seems to come to them, I’m not even sure if they realize they’re doing the bird hands, much less other hand movements.

Another reason why I think the bird hand theory is bogus is because it’s not just the closed, chef’s kiss/ angry Nonna hand gesture that’s getting classified as bird hands. Apparently, there are multiple types of bird hands, with one variation being pointing with your thumb and forefinger pinched together.

The issue this poses for the memable bird hand theory is that it’s not just Leftists who do this. I have seen plenty of women who lean conservative do the bird hands or one of its variations before (myself included).

Maybe I’m taking this too seriously, but the septum-ring theory and colored hair theory, though it also has its issues, have a better case to work off of than the bird hand theory for identifying Leftists.

Until next time,

M.J.

#BirdHands #Blog #Communication #Funny #internet #OpinionPeice #Phenomenon #Trends #Writing

Poll: Beverages #Blog #Coffee #Food #OpinionPeice #Poll #Tea #Writing

Review: The Devil Wears Prada – A Staple of 2000s Hollywood. (Spoilers)

Last week, I watched The Devil Wears Prada for the first time and all I could think as I watched it was – did we really need a sequel to this? It’s good, but it can stand on its own.

The Devil Wears Prada follows Andrea (Andy) Sax, a bright-eyed college graduate who’s desperately looking for a job. She interviews with “Runway”, a high-end fashion magazine out of desperation, and is hired by Miranda Priestly, the demanding editor-in-chief. She becomes one of Miranda’s assistants and quickly grows to be a part of the company, embracing its fashion culture. However, trouble strikes as her position as Miranda’s assistant and her new connections in the fashion and media world put a heavy strain on her relationships, until she finally has to ask herself if it’s worth it anymore.

Being a movie centering heavily around the fashion industry, The Devil Wears Prada makes a lot of jokes about people’s weight. Being set in the early 2000s when the beauty standard was heroin chic, glorifying unhealthily skinny bodies that were slightly better than today’s Ozempic-using actresses, jokes are made about Andy being fat because she’s a size six. One of the funniest and saddest scenes in the movie is when Andy has to tell her friend, Emily, that she’s going to Paris, and Emily yells that Andy doesn’t deserve to go to Paris since she eats carbs. The culture of extreme dieting to stay skinny is fully embraced and ridiculed in this movie.

Moreover, the movie didn’t shy away from addressing the issues that come from being a corporate woman. Miranda, though an unlikeable character, is sympathetic. As the editor-in-chief, she spent her life climbing the corporate ladder to the detriment of two marriages and her daughters’ childhoods. She feels bad for not being there for her husband and children thanks to her extreme dedication to “Runway.” On top of that, she has to make hard decisions to maintain her place at the company to the detriment of her relationships with her staff.

Similarly, Andy is pushed by Miranda to climb the corporate ladder by throwing people under the bus for her benefit. While Andy doesn’t realize it at first, towards the end of the movie she does. Already seeing what such a lifestyle has done to Miranda and what it’s already doing to her life, she leaves “Runway” and grows confident in her own skin, reuniting with her boyfriend and getting a job with a local newspaper.

Because of this, I really doubt that the new Devil Wears Prada movie is going to be good. The first movie was clearly meant to be a standalone film. It starts with Andy being desperate for a job and ends with her being confident enough to move on to do her own thing. It doesn’t shy away from criticizing corporate culture and makes jabs at an industry that’s particularly known for its toxicity, something it could do back in the 2000s. It’s a good movie that doesn’t need a sequel.

Until next time,

M.J.

#AnneHathaway #Blog #MerylStreep #MovieReview #movies #OpinionPeice #Review #TV #TheDevilWearsPrada #Writing #Y2K

Apologetics: Debunking Deconstruction – Who Created God?

A very common question that people ask is “Who created God?” We’ve all heard it asked before, from kids and adults alike. In our minds, it’s a legit question, especially since everything around us is created. So, does God have a creator?

The short answer is “No.”

All of this goes to the fact that God is eternal. The Bible constantly talks about this, saying:

“Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” – Psalm 90:2

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” – Isaiah 40:28

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” – Revelation 1:8

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” – 1 Timothy 1:17

As I defined it in my post on if the universe is eternal, eternity is a state of infinity. It has no ending and no beginning. It never changes. If the Bible – God’s Word – is affirming Him as the being the everlasting God, then He is saying that He isn’t created because He affirms that He has no beginning.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Apologetics #Blog #Christianity #DebunkingDeconstruction #faith #FAQ #god #jesus #OpinionPeice #Writing

Review: Rings of Power Season 3 – What Did We do to Deserve This?

For those of you who have been around since 2023, you know that I have an overwhelming hatred of The Rings of Power. Season 1 was especially bad, given how much it flew in the face of Tolkien’s work. Season 2 was similarly bad, but was made slightly better since if you lowered your expectations enough and forgot what they were adapting, it became a very mid fantasy show that had glaring and annoying plot holes.

But now, even after the terrible reviews on both seasons, Amazon for some reason has decided to push forward with The Rings of Power, dropping the trailer for Season 3 last week. And boy, does it look terrible.

To start off with, Celeborn is finally going to be in this season. The reason why this is a big deal is because, in case you forgot, Celeborn is Galadriel’s husband who frankly should have been in the show from the beginning. The only reason why I can imagine he wasn’t is simply because the showrunners wanted to ship Galadriel with Sauron in Season 1, and then with Elrond in Season 2. (Bear in mind that Elrond will later become her son-in-law.)

Then there’s the inclusion of the Nazgul in this season. According to Tolkien Gateway:

Sometime during the Second Age (after the year 1697^{[note 1]}) Sauron gave nine Rings of Power to nine mortal Men. It is said that three of the Nine were great lords of Númenorean race.^[2][3]

The bearers of the rings gained great wealth and prestige and became “mighty in their day, kings, sorcerers, and warriors of old”. The rings enabled them to turn invisible and see the Unseen. Their lives were prolonged so they seemed unending, but life became unendurable to them. Over time, depending on their native strength and their initial good or evil will, they succumbed to the powers of the rings and the domination of the One Ring. Their bodily forms faded until they became permanently invisible and turned into wraiths.^[4]

Known as the Nazgûl, they first appeared around S.A. 2251^[5] and were soon established as Sauron’s principal servants. However, the circumstances of this appearance are unknown, as are their actions during the Dark Years, during Sauron’s capture to Númenor, and in the War of the Last Alliance. When Sauron was overthrown in S.A. 3441 at the hands of the Last Alliance, the wraiths faded into the shadows.^[5]

Because of this timeline, the inclusion of the Nazgul could have been a good move on the part of the showrunners, but the problem is that Sauron has yet to give the rings to men so far in the show. Thus, while the Nazgul would fit (sort-of) with the timeline, because of how slow this show moves with giving away rings, they’re way too early. The only way the show could possibly ramify this is if they portray the Nazgul as actual flesh and blood men, not as wraiths, and even then, they only came under the complete control of Sauron after they had died.

Third, we have the issue of the continued wizard plotline. In Season 2, a new wizard that terrorizes the hobbits was introduced and apparently, they haven’t gotten rid of him in Season 3. This wizard – that has been dubbed Totally-Not-Saruman – makes no sense for a variety of reasons. First, none of the wizards in general, are supposed to be in the show. They popped up in the Third Age of Middle Earth, not the Second. Second, if the new wizard is one of the Blue Wizards or is Saruman himself, Gandalf should be able to recognize him. Third, if the wizard is one of the istari, then this flies in the face of Gandalf not knowing Saruman was with Sauron in the story and not knowing where the Blue Wizards were or what happened to them. And if this is just a random wizard the show runners made up, then it also doesn’t work since only four wizards were sent to Middle Earth.

Overall, Rings of Power is intent on nuking the legacy of Tolkien’s work while simultaneously becoming a meme. And I will be here to criticize it because why not?

Until next time,

M.J.

#Amazon #Blog #Fantasy #LordOfTheRings #OpinionPeice #Review #RingsOfPower #TheSilmarillion #Tolkien #Writing

Blog: I’m Having a Race Crisis.

As y’all are aware of from Friday’s post, I have graduated high school, which means that it’s now imperative that I get a job. I have been searching for a job for three years but unfortunately was never able to find anyone wanting to hire me. I sent in my resume and applied to numerous places, and most of them never got back to me. Obviously, this isn’t ideal in any situation, but it especially wasn’t great since my choices were limited. I was too young to work in many places, including retail (I was turned down a cashier job at Home Depot because I wasn’t 18), and my various severe food allergies excluded me from working at many entry level jobs, such as fast food or grocery stores.

However, since I am now legally an adult, more job opportunities have become available and as I’ve been trying to find a job, I have become aware that my race is more complicated than I thought it was.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a melting pot of various ethnicities and races. Yes, quite a bit of my DNA is from Europe and it’s very apparent if you look at me, but I’m also Navajo, Hispanic, Puerto Rican, Cherokee, Iroquois, and possibly some other stuff that I’m unaware of. And, no, with the exception of the Iroquois ancestry, this isn’t a super small part of my genetic makeup, either. We’re talking almost the entire maternal side of my family being a mix of Navajo, Hispanic, Puerto Rican, and some other things. The Cherokee blood came from my paternal great-grandmother.

Basically, I have a better claim to a job at some prestigious university based on my ancestry than Elizabeth Warren does.

That said, when filling out job applications, when they’re asking for my race or ethnicity, I typically laugh at it. However, when filling out my most recent application, when asked for my ethnicity, it asked if I was Hispanic/Latino or not.

Why there were only those two options available, I don’t know, but it gets worse.

When asked about my race, I had numerous options, including:

• Hispanic/Latino
• Caucasian (Not Hispanic/Latino)
• Black (Not Hispanic/Latino)
• Asian (Not Hispanic/Latino)
• Pacific Islander or Hawaiian Native (Not Hispanic/Latino)
• Native American or Alaskan Native (Not Hispanic/Latino)
• Mix of two or more races (Not Hispanic/Latino)

If you’re wondering why I have, in parenthesis, “Not Hispanic/Latino,” isn’t me trying to be super specific. This is how it was actually laid out on the application.

Now, this isn’t the first time I have seen this stupidity. The first time I saw it was on a government job application form when I was applying for a job as a toll booth attendant at a state park. I laughed at it, thought it was weird, but, what else can you expect from the government, especially in a blue state? But to see it on a job application for a private company? Why is this necessary? And why are Hispanics/Latinos excluded from every group except their own?

Seriously. For the groups that aren’t part of that category, I can understand it somewhat, though it should go without saying. But for people who are mixed race? I’m sorry, but are mestizos not a thing? Why are we excluding people who are part Hispanic/Latino, especially since White/Latino marriages are the most common interracial marriages in America? What’s going on here? And how are those of us who have one mixed race parent supposed to answer? Do we just go off of how we look or our actual ancestry?

Even worse were the definitions given to further specify who is actually part of a specific racial group. One example of this was their definition of who is White/Caucasian. According to the application, if you are from Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East, you count as white.

You read that correctly. If you’re from North Africa or the Middle East, you count as white. I wish I was kidding.

Another example of the application’s ridiculous definitions was what constitutes as Native American. Apparently, you can’t just be genetically Native American, from any number of tribes from North, Central, or South America. You have to still be affiliated with your tribe to count as Native American.

My Navajo great-grandmother would be offended.

Because of how these definitions work, I once again have to wonder where mestizos or those who have mestizo ancestry fit in. Do I go off of how I look when answering this, or do I go off my actual ancestry? How does that work if I’m related to Native Americans, but they don’t affiliate themselves with their tribe? None of this makes sense.

The simple solution to this problem is to stop asking people this question in the first place. Who cares about your race if you can do your job well? We shouldn’t have to feel pressure to answer this question lest we be discriminated against because we didn’t pick a race or we picked one that’s not desirable in today’s workplace DEI culture.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Blog #Employment #Funny #Genetics #Hispanic #JobHunt #life #Mestizo #NativeAmerican #OpinionPeice #Race #Racism #White #Writing

Apologetics: Debunking Deconstruction – Is Free Will a Thing?

As I mentioned last week, I got into a debate with an atheist in my comments section who said that free will can’t exist if God knows everything. He believes that if God knows everything, then we can’t actually choose anything for ourselves, and He is ultimately the one causing people to be sent to Hell. This can be a sketchy topic since answering this question can easily send a person into the theological weeds, but here’s my take.

Ultimately, the answer to this question is that knowing doesn’t equal causing. It is true that throughout the Bible, there are plenty of passages about God knowing what will happen. Take, for instance, Isaiah 46:9-10, where it says:

⁹Remember the former things, those of long ago;
    I am God, and there is no other;
    I am God, and there is none like me.
¹⁰ I make known the end from the beginning,
    from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
    and I will do all that I please.’

However, there are also a myriad of passages which talk about human responsibility. One example is in Deuteronomy 30:19-20, which says:

¹⁹ This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰ and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

From this, we can see that while the Bible says God knows everything that will ever happen, it also says that we have a choice between God’s way and our way. Rather than being contradictory, this is more complementary. As an illustration of how this works, imagine that you have a friend who’s wildly predictable. Even when presented with numerous other choices, you know that they’ll go for the same one every time. They’ll pick chocolate over vanilla or strawberry. They always pick plain T-shirts over graphic Tees. They always wear Converse even if Doc Martins are the better choice. You get the picture.

You knowing what they’re going to pick doesn’t mean that you’re causing them to pick that thing. They could still pick any of the other options, they just don’t.

It’s kind-of like that with God. Though He knows everything we’re going to do, He gives us a myriad of opportunities and chances to pick a new path. If you’re a non-Christian, He gives you chance after chance to turn towards Him. If you’re a Christian, He gives you opportunities to obey Him.

Further, not allowing free will isn’t something that’s in line with God’s character. God is all-loving. If He didn’t give us free will, He couldn’t be all-loving because for love to exist, freedom of choice must exist. If Adam and Eve hadn’t been given the option to eat of the tree of good and evil, they could never have had a true relationship with God.

Now, at this point the question of predestination pops up, since the Bible also emphasizes predestination a lot as well. This one has led to a huge debate, with the two major sides being Calvinism and Arminianism. Some Calvinists are more extreme than others on this question, but the overall view on that end is that God’s grace irresistibly draws in those who have been elected by God to be saved. Calvinists teach that we aren’t completely free and can’t really choose God in our sinful state unless we’ve been chosen by Him and regenerated to follow Him. Arminianism, on the other hand, teaches that God’s election is based on foreseen faith, in which case it’s up to us to accept God’s grace or reject it.

[Author’s Note: Personally, I generally lean more towards Arminianism, but try to stay somewhere in the middle on this one.]

Either way you look at it, it’s not an essential of the faith and there are Bible verses to back up both views. On one hand I can understand the Calvinist view since if your heart is hardened against God, it often takes a work of the Spirit to soften it so you can accept Christ. At the same time, however, I also can understand the Arminian perspective that God’s election is based on foreseen faith. Ultimately, though, there’s a great level of mystery to it that we’re likely not going to totally understand in life, but it’s better than the alternative that atheism provides.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Apologetics #Atheism #Blog #Christianity #faith #FreeWill #god #jesus #OpinionPeice #Writing

Apologetics: Atheism Confuses Me – Is Atheism a Monoclaim Philosophy?

A few weeks ago, I posted a short video on my YouTube channel reacting to an atheist’s reason for rejecting God. Essentially, his reasoning all boiled down to the existence of Hell and the question of “How can a good God allow Hell to exist and allow people to go there?” I gave my response, explaining how his rejection of God is based on a giant misunderstanding of how Hell work, and a few weeks after posting that video, I got an atheist in the comments who wished to debate me about how free will can exist when God knows everything.

We commented back and forth for a bit, and while I also went off on a sort of tangent about how atheism can’t support the existence of free will (which I’ll do a post on at some point; my backlog of post ideas is ridiculous), he went on a massive side quest about how atheism is superior because it’s a monoclaim philosophy. The commentor wrote:

You also brought up atheism. But atheism and agnosticism are monoclaim philosophies. Atheism says: God does not exist. Agnosticism says: we don’t know. That’s it. Compare that with organized religions. Most religions don’t stop at “God exists.” They make a million claims. God exists, and He wants us to stay virgin till marriage. God exists, and He wants us to gather at place XYZ once a week. God exists, and He wants us to have children. God exists, and property should be distributed a certain way. God exists, and don’t eat certain foods. God exists, and men and women should behave differently. God exists, and this scripture is divine. God exists, and this prophet is correct. God exists, and this is the only path. God exists, and there is heaven. God exists, and there is hell. God exists, and the universe was created in a specific sequence. That’s a million claims, not one.

Some monoclaim theists exist too. People who simply say: “I think God exists.” They don’t claim to know what He wants. They don’t assume He’s loving. They don’t assume He interferes. They’re open to the possibility that God could be indifferent, cruel, absent, or impossible to understand. But they’re rare. Most believers belong to organized religions that go far beyond “God exists.”

It’s an interesting point, but if we think about it, atheism and agnosticism can’t really be “monoclaim philosophies.” As the commentor said, atheism makes the claim that God doesn’t exist, and agnosticism makes the claim that you simply don’t know either way. However, while these are single claims, if you are to follow them down the logical rabbit hole, they don’t stay that way for long.

When you make a claim as big as “God doesn’t exist,” then logically, you must start explaining other aspects of reality, such as “How did the universe get here? Why is morality a thing?” One major claim about reality must lead to other major claims about reality.

Similarly, agnosticism also has to make major claims about reality after its central claim of “I don’t know if there’s a God.” Once again, it also has to explain how we got here, how morals exist, etc.

Ultimately, the argument that atheism/agnosticism is somehow better than belief in a God or gods because it just claims one thing is ridiculous. No matter if you’re an atheist, agnostic, Hindu, Christian, Muslim, whatever, the claim that you base your beliefs on must naturally lead to other claims to explain other aspects of our existence.

For instance, if you say there is no God and the question of morality comes up, then you must make some big claims to figure out where they came from. Did we evolve morals? Are morals subjective or set? Who/what determines morality? What if one person’s sense of morality doesn’t align with mine?

However, if you believe there is a God and you’re asked the same question, it’s likely easier to answer since you can point to that being as the final arbiter of morality instead of coming up with some theory about how chemicals in our brains evolved to allow us to create morality. It’s still a big claim that you’re making, especially when you get into specific things God wants us to do, but it’s one that makes a lot more sense.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Apologetics #Atheism #Blog #Christianity #faith #god #jesus #OpinionPeice #philosophy #Religion #Worldviews #Writing

Blog: Books Are Becoming Temu Quality (And AI is Partially to Blame).

I’ve talked a lot about the declining state of literature on this blog since not only is it deeply concerning to me given my love of literature, but there are also a lot of things that contribute to it. A lot of it comes from the overall decline of our society. As people move away from God and towards hedonism, their stories become more banal until ultimately, the moral core is almost entirely gone. The stories no longer have anything to give them meaning; they’re just there for some brief entertainment, if you can even call it that.

However, the decline of our culture isn’t the only thing causing books to feel like the new version of fast fashion. AI has also – predictably – caused books to feel cheaply written and boring.

AI writing books isn’t something new, though the rate at which AI published books are being printed and put on store shelves is unprecedented. The first AI-written book was published in Japan in 2016. A research team at the Sato-Matsuzaki Laboratory developed a program that used automatic text generation based on over a thousand short stories and essays on how to write. They put in the basic outline of the story and allowed the AI to take over from there. It was then entered in a literary contest, where it was accepted and passed the first round.

Later, in 2017, author Ross Goodwin covered his car in surveillance cameras, microphones, and GPS, and connected it all to an AI. The AI then continuously printed the data out on receipt paper rolls as Goodwin went on a road trip. At the end of it, the data was compiled into a book.

Fast forward a few years to 2021, and the Aum Golly series was released, a collection of poems about humanity written entirely by ChatGPT and GPT-3. The first book was written in 24 hours, and the second was written in half the time.

Since then, AI-generated books have blown up, especially as AI has gotten better, with often detrimental results. One author, Mat Auryn, a California-based author who writes books on witchcraft, has been one of the many authors having to battle AI generated books. After writing his book, Psychic Witch, and publishing it, he soon ran into a book on Amazon called Awakening Your Witchy Intuition and Psychic Abilities by Glinda Porter. After buying it on Kindle and reading it, he soon realized that it was an AI-written plagiarization of his book. He quickly found other books plagiarizing his work that were most likely written by AI. Many of them oddly appeared on Amazon, were taken down, and then reappeared later.

Additionally, AI being used by real authors to generate their stories has become a subject of controversy in the reading community. The most infamous and hilarious example was found in Darkhollow Academy: Year 2, a romantasy novel written by Lena McDonald. Not only was the AI prompt to help revise a passage McDonald had written found, but the prompt also included a request to write it in the style of another romance author. It said:

I’ve rewritten the passage to align more with J. Bree’s style, which features more tension, gritty undertones, and raw emotional subtext beneath the supernatural elements.

Another embarrassing blunder was found in a romance book called Dark Obsession, which was written by someone called KC Crowne, an author who has over 100 books under his name, all published over seven years. The prompt said:

Certainly! Here’s an enhanced version of your passage, making Elena more relatable and injecting additional humor while providing a brief, sexy description of Grigori.

This issue of AI being used to write books has also become such a big deal that over 50 bestselling authors have signed an open letter to publishers demanding that they refuse to publish books that are partially or wholly written by AI. They argue that a robot can’t replace humans since art requires an understanding of the human experience that no robot can really replicate. They also argue that publishing companies need to stand against AI since the language models are trained on pre-existing works, which can almost inevitably lead to plagiarism.

However, while many readers and authors are demanding that AI be kept out of the writing world, the publishing companies sadly have a good incentive not to crackdown on AI-written books. For one thing, AI-written books are cheaper to write, and you can write more of them in a smaller time span than you could with a human author (hence why Amazon is becoming increasingly flooded with AI books).

For another thing, the largest book retailers in the market – such as Barnes & Noble – don’t particularly care if a book is AI or not. Recently, the CEO of Barnes & Noble, James Durant, came out and said that he is in support of selling AI-generated books as long as they’re clearly marked as such. He’s also said that there may already by AI-generated books being sold in Barnes & Noble stores that they’re not currently aware of.

To make things worse, not only has AI ended up discouraging authors and publishers from writing and publishing books made with actual human creativity for the sake of making a profit, but there’s also a problem with the readers. Thanks to social media and shrinking attention spans, readers don’t read as thoroughly as they used to. Thus, even if the AI-influence is obvious, readers may not notice it due to skimming over it. Or, worse, they simply don’t care. As long as the story is steamy and follows the same addictive plot beats, who cares if it’s written by AI? They get the same high either way.

While not the full reason why writing feels cheap and boring nowadays, AI has certainly contributed to the problem. To be clear, I have nothing against using AI as an editing tool, but if large swaths of your story are generated by AI, then it should have no place in a bookstore. Though I wish that AI would be rejected from the publishing industry entirely, due to how easy it is to use and the efficiency with which it gets stories out there, it likely won’t stop being used to write books.

Until next time,

M.J.

#AI #Blog #Books #Fantasy #literature #OpinionPeice #Review #Writing

News: TPUSA is Going to Get a Democrat Governor Elected in Colorado.

I have been critical of TPUSA in the past. While I can support their mission of wanting America’s youth to be more conservative, the way TPUSA has been going about it is questionable due to their ecumenical approach to things and almost unquestioning acceptance of anyone who is conservative and has a large following. From what I’ve seen, it was like this to a degree while Charlie Kirk was still alive, but since Charlie was the main leader, there was at least someone to rally around. Since his death, however, the ecumenicalism has turned Turning Point into a disjointed mess of what it once was. Discernment was already questionable at best, but after Charlie’s death, it seems to have gone down the toilet completely and created an even more hospitable environment for grifters.

One of the best examples of this is Victor Marx. For those of you who don’t know, Victor Marx is the leading Republican candidate for governor of Colorado. Once a name that no one knew, he’s recently been picking up steam in conservative circles, especially as he’s being propped up by TPUSA with names like Allie Beth Stuckey and Frank Turek as part of TPUSA faith and has been endorsed by numerous pastors and politicians. Marx claims to be a Marine Corps veteran (a claim we’ll look into later in this post), and runs a non-profit started in 2003 called All Things Possible Ministries which works with child abuse victims, war-zone rescues, and law enforcement around the world.

On the surface, this seems great. He seems like a solid dude standing for conservative values and, even better, he works with TPUSA! What could go wrong?

Well, there are a ton of problems with Victor Marx ranging from his testimony to his campaign that illustrate a lot of the problems within TPUSA. However, because there are so many problems with this guy, for the sake of time, I will focus on some of the main issues.

The first issue is his name. It’s not “Victor Marx.” His real name is Vaugh Victor Kennedy. According to DocDroid:

According to Ballotpedia, his legal name is listed as “Vaughn Marx (also known as Victor).” But it goes deeper than that. In November 2025, under pressure about his military service, Marx himself released his DD-214, the official military discharge document. The name on that form is not Victor Marx. It is not Vaughn Marx. It is Vaugh Victor Kennedy. His signature at the bottom of his own DD-214 reads Vaugh Victor Kennedy. He enlisted in the US Marine Corps as Kennedy. He served as Kennedy. He was discharged as Kennedy. Marx’s explanation? He claims he “used the name Kennedy versus Marx to shield his public persona.” Think about that for a moment. He enlisted in the Marines as a teenager. He had no public persona. He had no ministry, no platform, no fame, nothing to shield. He was an 18-year-old kid joining the military. Kennedy was his name. It was always his name. “Victor Marx” is a character he invented later, borrowing the surname of his biological father Karl Marx, a man who by Victor’s own account didn’t even claim him at birth.

Already, this should raise some major questions about this guy’s trustworthiness. Why would he do this? Why is he hiding his real name? Why is he lying about this?

Further, when signing up for military service, you have to give them your real name so they can make sure they aren’t giving top secret information to a criminal. With that in mind, Marx’s explanation further proves to be a house of cards. Even stranger is the fact that the filing paperwork he signed to run for governor is signed with the name Victor Marx. In that case, unless he had his name legally changed to Victor Marx, he technically can’t even win the gubernatorial race because he signed up under a false name. All he’ll do is make Republicans look bad.

On that topic, we need to look at his claims about military service. While his claims to be in the Marine Corps are corroborated, his biggest claim about his time in the military is not. This claim is that he served overseas and saw combat, which is not corroborated by his DD-214 review. His actual job in the Marine Corps, according to what has been compiled by Cori Kennedy – who has been investigating him since the start of his gubernatorial run – was radio technician. He didn’t do anything he claims he did. He never saw combat, he wasn’t overseas, and he wasn’t part of special operations.

Another odd thing about his claims about military service is that he claims that in his last year in the Marines, he was facing a court martial and “serious brig time.” This is yet another claim that’s completely unsupported by his DD-214, which says that he was honorably discharged, was given a favorable reenlistment code, and he had earned a ribbon for good conduct, something that wouldn’t be there if he was truly as troublesome as he claims.

[Author’s Note: Cori Kennedy was on Mandy Connell’s show to talk about this.]

Additionally, we have the question of his childhood. Marx loves to talk about the traumatic childhood he endured. While I do think he may have been abused as a child, the way he tells the story is questionable and outright false. For one thing, Marx claims that he was forced by his stepfather, Gloyce Dean Kennedy to kill a man when he was seven. However, there is absolutely nothing to substantiate this claim.

Further, Marx has mentioned that his stepfather was imprisoned federally, which is true, but he leaves out many things. From the way he speaks of his stepfather, Marx insinuates that he was put in prison for child abuse. The first issue with this is that child abuse isn’t a federal crime. Second, according to Gloyce’s records, child abuse was not part of why he was arrested. Rather, he was put in prison for international drug smuggling and attempted escape. He was later let out in 1993 and died in 2003, his home being 7711 Lone Meadow Ct, Houston, Texas. The address is important, because this is a nice house, not a crappy trailer as Marx says it was.

Even more disturbing is how this rolls into his ministry, All Things Possible. Marx’s brother, Mike, was a co-founder of All Things Possible Ministries. This doesn’t seem like a big deal until you realize that Mike was a willing participant in his father’s drug smuggling job. The reason why he didn’t go to jail is because he testified against Gloyce.

Speaking of that, his ministry in general is also extremely questionable. For one thing, he claims that 45,000 women and children in sex trafficking have been saved and 150 high-risk missions have been conducted. However, none of this has actually been confirmed by any outside sources and there is evidence to suggest that many of these “rescue missions” are just Marx’s team passing out stuffed animals to kids. When asked about these rescue missions, Marx often refuses to talk about many of them because they’re classified – but he sure is happy to bring a film crew with him for the documentary about himself.

Besides that, All Things Possible Ministries seems like a massive grift in general. According to BillionBibles.com, only 11.9% of all funds collected by this “ministry” actually go towards “program expenses and donations.” Even less of it actually reaches people in foreign countries since most of this 11.9% goes towards veterans suffering from PTSD here in the states. In fact, close to 90% of donations stay in the U.S. and 50% of the total donations are unaccounted for. Additionally, Victor Marx and his wife take an exorbitant cut of the money, in total making $285,317. That’s also not mentioning Marx’s income from side jobs or how his website provides no financial information.

Moreover, there’s the question of Marx’s character. Already, we can see that this guy’s trustworthiness is questionable at best, but let’s hear it from some of the people closest to him: his daughter.

According to FaithFamilyFit.org, Victor Marx’s daughter, Brianna, came out in 2023 publicly accusing her father of physically and emotionally abusing her and a sibling for 17 years. Marx dismissed the allegations, saying she was bipolar, had issues, and was lying…until his son Shiloh got involved, corroborating her claims.

Shiloh wrote a 4-page letter to the board of All Things Possible Ministries saying that while he couldn’t relate to the physical abuse suffered, Brianna had in fact been abused for 17 years. One instance of abuse described was that Victor held her down and used her hands to punch herself in the face, threatening that if she called the cops, it would be her hands that caused the injuries. Shiloh recommended that Marx be forced to step down as chairman and president of the board immediately, reported that Brianna was emotionally ruined from the abuse and deserved reparations from Victor Marx. These reparations involved $120K for Brianna per year plus full benefits and $170K in retroactive compensations.

However, Shiloh wasn’t the only person who corroborated Brianna’s story. Her uncle, Mike (the former drug dealer) did as well. In one text provided, he said that if anyone laid their hands on her, a lawyer would be the least of their worries and that Brianna’s family should help her financially.

Interestingly, though, very soon after Victor Marx announced his run for governor, Brianna quickly walked back her accusations and scrubbed her social media accounts, leaving everyone to wonder if she was lying or if she was telling the truth but was forced to stay quiet. It’s also notable that among the posts that were mass deleted were posts about Marx siding with her abusive ex-husband and her mom blamed her for the abuse from her ex-husband. She also had two GoFundMes, one of which was to help her and her kids through a difficult situation, and she reportedly had to go various church to get help as a single mother.

Strange that the guy who claims to help thousands of women and children escape bad situations refuses to help his daughter.

Yet another strange incident involving Marx’s kids is the alleged sexual assault of his daughter, Gabby, which became a key talking point in his campaign. Per The Rocky Mountain Voice:

One of the most emotional moments came when Marx’s youngest daughter, Gabby, addressed the crowd. A staff member with ATP, she recounted a recent assault and the law enforcement delays she experienced afterward.

“On August 15, I was walking to my car in broad daylight when I was sexually assaulted,” she said. “It took over 45 minutes for an officer to arrive… My dad sent three of his team members who got to me in minutes.”

Gabby said her case prompted over 15 women to come forward with similar reports, revealing a lengthy criminal history for the suspect. “This is not just my story. It is the story of many survivors,” she said. “Our justice system does not protect victims. It enables predators.”

She added that her father’s campaign is focused on creating a safer Colorado. “He will fight for you the same way he has fought for me,” she said. “This fight is not just his. It’s ours.”

However, as more people have looked into this story, more things don’t add up. Faith Family Fit once again reports on the inconsistencies of this story, such as the timeline being off by 13-14 minutes. She reports being groped around 4:34 P.M., but according to the PetSmart receipt she walked out of the store with, she had checked out at PetSmart at 4:47 P.M. Stranger still is how the car Brian Williams (the guy who allegedly assaulted Gabby) was in left at 4:48 P.M. and exited the parking lot at 4:49 P.M.

Additionally, there are many other discrepancies with this case, including – most importantly – a third eyewitness named Gina, who at first seemed to have disappeared. No one could contact her until a lawyer named Shauna Black managed to get a hold of her. However, the response was one of confusion, not remembrance of a disturbing event. She later requested the police report because she wasn’t familiar with the case.

Further, Gabby later reported bruising on her buttock where she had been groped, which would turn the misdemeanor into a felony. However, the bruise appeared 10-14 days after the incident, making the timeline even stranger.

The whole thing doesn’t add up and seems like a powerful political ploy to get people to vote for Victor Marx.

That’s also not mentioning his strange relationship with a gun manufacturer named Corby Hall and his alleged connection to the Haitian warlord Jimmy Barbeque, a story that’s long enough to be a completely separate blog post.

But besides the very sketchy stuff surrounding him, his ministry, and some parts of his campaign, there’s his actual plan for becoming governor and what he will do if he becomes governor. To start with how he plans to become governor, he’s apparently totally reliant on people asking him softball questions. He appears to absolutely refuse to answer the hard questions that actually matter.

https://youtu.be/KywOV9EkNFg

As for what he will do if he becomes governor, it’s nothing but platitudes. Much of it sounds nice, but there’s a lot that’s missing, such as dealing with energy and water, something that Coloradans are concerned about, especially since this year, Colorado and other Western states are dealing with severe drought.

Overall, Victor Marx is a perfect example of how TPUSA sadly has the discernment of a brick and is contributing to the grifter epidemic in conservative circles. While they may have good intentions and believe this guy is legit, if he wins as the Republican candidate for governor, Colorado is doomed, as he will bring the whole ticket down.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Blog #Church #Colorado #Conservative #OpinionPeice #Politics #Republican #Scandal #TPUSA #VictorMarx #Writing

Review: Hexed – Disney Isn’t Trying to Hide it Anymore.

It used to be considered a conspiracy theory that Hollywood worships the devil. Then it became a joke, and now they don’t even try to hide it. Almost everything you watch in theaters or listen to on the radio has some sort of occult messaging, even if it’s not overt.

Disney is no exception. They have always hidden some aspect of the occult in their movies, but it never seemed to be beyond the usual fairytale antics. In many of the classic movies, it was usually the villains that used magic the most. Unless you happened to delve deep into the occult or you came out of it, you wouldn’t be able to exactly pinpoint the occult themes hidden in the songs and otherwise good moral messaging. But over the years, things have changed. Not only has Disney’s sense of morality changed to fit more progressive ideals, but they don’t even try to hide the occult anymore. The trailer for their new movie, Hexed, is a perfect example of this.

Hexed follows a young woman named Billy who doesn’t quite fit in at her school. She’s a social outcast, dresses somewhat alt (which is funny given that alternative dress is more acceptable today), and seems to be struggling to get through school. But then, she finds out that she has magic powers, and after being expelled, decides to test them out at home, opening a portal to another world full of witches.

Now, as YouTuber and ex-occultist Jac Marino Chen points out, the imagery used throughout the trailer comes straight from the occult, particularly Wicca from what I’ve seen. Throughout the trailer, not only do you see lunar symbolism (which is especially common in goddess worship), but you also see a grimoire or book of shadows, the use of crystals, tarot cards, fairy rings, etc.

Basically, this movie looks like a mix of Hot Topic and a New Age expo.

Now, some of you reading this might think this isn’t a big deal. After all, it’s just a fun movie from Disney, right? It could be infinitely worse, couldn’t it? After all, it could be promoting LGBTQ+ ideology (if it doesn’t already plan to do that.)

While I can see the point of that, and, honestly, it would be about the equivalent of watching Harry Potter, the outright glorification of actual occult imagery is somewhat shocking. Yes, we saw a form of voodoo promoted to a degree in Princess and the Frog (Mama Odie is cannonically a 197-year-old voodoo priestess). Other overt instances of occult imagery have also been found in some of their Halloween short series and movies. (For example, in one short series I remember watching, an episode focused on two teen witches and one of their houses had pentagrams and other Wiccan/Satanic symbols hidden throughout it.) But this is the first time – that I’m aware of – that they have outright unashamedly made a movie geared towards children that appears to promote Wicca and draws directly from that.

[Author’s Note: That’s also not mentioning how, in the wake of the insane success of Netflix’s Wednesday, Disney has reportedly greenlit the production of a show called Coven Academy, which follows witches living in New Orleans.]

Look, if you want to take your kids to see this movie, fine, but here’s the thing. This movie doesn’t just take one or two things from a mix of religions or worldviews. It is straight up taking from actual ritual magic, promoting it, and isn’t even trying to hide it. It makes those things look like fun, like if you’re a social outcast, you’re actually someone special. While this isn’t new, it’s something that, as Christians, we should be careful about. If you let your kids watch this movie, help them watch it with the same discernment you would exercise if you were watching something like Harry Potter. Help them understand where it comes from, what the worldview is, and why it’s dangerous.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Blog #Disney #Fantasy #Hexed #Hollywood #MovieTrailers #Occult #OpinionPeice #Review #Trailer #Wicca #Witchcraft #Writing

Poll: Memes Option 1 (left) and option 2 (right)Option 3 #Blog #Funny #Memes #OpinionPeice #Poll #Writing

Apologetics: Atheism Confuses Me – Is Free Will a Thing?

Continuing our discussion about free will, one of the strangest things about atheism is how much atheists brag about how much freedom they have. Without God, they have total free will and can run around doing absolutely anything they want! They have no one to hold them accountable, unless someone with more guns comes in and demands they act a certain way (i.e. the government), but you know…technicalities.

However, despite this seeming lack of responsibility to any higher power, atheists seem to forget one critical point – atheism can’t support the existence of free will.

Atheists, before you get angry at me and start commenting, hear me out on this.

According to atheism, since God doesn’t exist, everything exists by way of random chance. The universe, the earth, the plants, animals, and yourself are all the result of accidental chemical reactions that continue to this day. That means that you as a person are a conglomeration of a bunch of atoms bumping into each other, forming molecules and creating chemicals that react with each other, doing different things, including fueling your conciousness.

This is where the free will thing starts to come into play. Scientists still don’t understand human consciousness. The closest thing they can get to understanding it is by mapping your brain’s activity, seeing what parts of the brain release what, etc. What actually causes consciousness, though, is still a mystery. It’s kind of a chicken-or-the-egg scenario depending on who you ask and what you’re talking about. For example, if someone’s depressed, are they depressed because of a legit neurological or chemical issue that was already there, or is it caused by them thinking about things a certain way that’s causing their brains to act accordingly? Is it a mix of both? Scientists still aren’t quite sure.

I say this is where the free will thing comes in because according to atheism’s worldview, since everything is matter and is the result of matter running into each other and reacting, then that means everything you do is the result of those chemical reactions. Because of that, you can’t actually decide to do anything. You can’t control what the cells that make up your brain do any more than I can control the weather. And if you can’t control that, then ultimately, you can’t have free will, because free will requires some degree of control.

So, what does that mean? If we can’t have free will because everything we do is a chemical reaction, where does that leave us?

The moral dilemma posed by this aside, the existence of free will is something that can only exist if humans have a soul, if humans aren’t just made up of matter alone. Once we acknowledge that we have a soul, then we must wonder who created that soul? After all, a soul can’t be made of matter or anything measurable. It’s supernatural and points to the existence of the supernatural, which should then make you wonder which God or gods has created that soul.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Apologetics #Atheism #Blog #Christianity #faith #FreeWill #god #jesus #OpinionPeice #philosophy #Science #Writing

Poll: Memes (4th of July Edition) Option #1Option #2Option #3 #America #Blog #FourthOfJuly #history #Memes #OpinionPeice #Poll #Writing

Blog: Are the Jews Still Israelites?

I recently got some comments on a short video from some Muslims who argued that Israel doesn’t belong to the Jews because most of them came from Europe, which somehow means that they are no longer the Israelites or Hebrews of the Bible. Unfortunately, this isn’t a new belief, so let’s debunk this.

To start with, we should define who the Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews are. In the Bible, the terms are often used interchangeably. These are names that were used during different eras in Jewish history, and all refer to the same ethnic group. By that standard, the Jews, by defintion, are technically still Israelites.

But besides that, we need to address if modern-day Jews are still the Israelites culturally when there is so much ethnic mixing. The Jews have been dispersed throughout the Middle East, Northern Africa, and Europe for thousands of years, starting with the Assyrian conquest of Israel in 722 BC. However, despite their dispersion and intermingling with other people groups, Jewish communities still recognized Israel as their ancestral homeland, and preserved their religious practices, texts, and traditions through generations.

Additionally, if we look at other examples of mixed people groups, we see a similar thing play out. For example, look at Native American tribes. Today, it is incredibly rare to meet a Native American who is 100% a member of their specific tribe. Many of them intermarry with other tribes or have married people of other races entirely. Despite this, too, they may still try to keep some of their tribal customs, beliefs, and practices.

Imagine if you tried to say that Native Americans no longer have a connection or right to their territories because very few of them are 100% members of a specific tribe, even if they try to keep the culture of the tribe they identify with alive. You would immediately be called racist and bigoted. So, how come that logic doesn’t apply to Jews?

Further, to say that Jews aren’t actual Israelites because many of them are Ashkenazi (from Eastern Europe) is also stupid on a genetic level. Just because you look a certain way doesn’t nullify your genetics. Your DNA contains thousands of variations, many of which are more common in certain ethnic or racial groups than others. Those variations, when compared to the DNA of other groups, is what allows geneticists to figure out where your ancestors might have been from going back several generations. Even if your great-times-10-grandma was Jewish, your DNA still carries those markers indicating that someone in your family was Jewish. Thus, if we go off of genetics, the Jews still carry those genetic markers and are genetically Jewish, even if they aren’t 100% Jewish.

For an example, in my case, my genetics are very mixed. I may not identify with the Navajo community or look Navajo, but genetically, I am Navajo. To say otherwise denies reality.

Thus, the entire argument that the Jews are no longer the Israelites is absurd both on a genetic and cultural level. But, to make it even worse for Muslims is the fact that this ties into the Islamic Dilemma. If the Bible is correct, then Israel belongs to the Jews. However, if the Bible is corrupted, then the Quran is not only wrong, but history shows that the Jews have a better claim to Israel than the Palestinian Arabs.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Bible #Blog #Christianity #faith #Genetics #god #history #Israelites #jesus #Jews #Judaism #Muslims #OpinionPeice #Science #Writing

Blog: I Graduated!

Welp, I made it. After being homeschooled K-12, I have finally graduated high school.

My parents originally decided to homeschool me while my mom was still pregnant. Both of my parents felt that public school had failed them in some way, an assessment that was a lot coming from my dad. Growing up, he was sent to some of the best schools in the state, which means that by all accounts, he should have received an excellent education. Instead, he got a lot of the typical Leftist gobbledygook that’s been taught in public schools for decades and as a teenager, he began waking up to how stupid it all was. He ended up learning more in his free time than at school.

Thus, Mom agreed to stay at home to teach me and, later, my brother, and it proved to be challenging. In the early years, I obviously needed more help. That meant more time spent making sure I understood the lessons and was doing my assignments, especially reading, writing, and math. Mom was particularly hard on me making sure I understood those subjects and I remember having meltdowns because I wasn’t getting it.

As you can tell, I survived and am reaping the rewards from those long afternoons on the couch being grilled about my writing.

However, towards late-elementary school, my mom let me be more independent, figuring out my own day-to-day schedule and getting my assignments done. This gave me a good work ethic since I had to learn how to organize my day to get what I needed to do done, while leaving time open for other things, like outings.

Additionally, homeschooling provided an environment to foster critical thinking. The curriculum my family used, while being Christian, gave both sides of the argument and came with a myriad of notes and discussion questions about various topics. For example, discussion questions were provided for every book I had and didn’t just stop at reporting the facts of what I had read to make sure I had actually read the book. Many of them also asked about themes in the book, what literary devices were present, etc. The British Literature course I took in my junior year of high school was especially in depth in its discussion questions and notes.

Homeschooling also allowed me to develop at my own pace. While I’m not going to say that all public-school kids are like this, I think for a lot of kids, the pressure to fit in forces them to develop mentally at a rate that’s closer to their peers than what would be normal for them if they didn’t have that pressure. Without that, however, and from mainly being around adults my whole life, I was able to grow up in a way that’s normal for me. I wasn’t held back by a desire to fit in or to be a part of the latest trend. I was able to just be myself.

Further, being homeschooled has given me the freedom to do the things that I love. I got to write five books, which I’m trying to rewrite to fit more with my beliefs. I started this blog. I started a YouTube channel. I don’t think any of that would be possible if I were in public school, operating on their schedule.

Now that I’ve graduated, I can use the skills that I gained from homeschooling in the real world. As for the blog and YouTube channel, I intend to keep writing and posting as I move through life, though it might get to a point where it’s less frequent.

Until next time,

M.J.

#2026 #Blog #Celebration #Graduation #HighSchool #Homeschool #life #OpinionPeice #School #Writing

Apologetics: Debunking Deconstruction – Why Can’t the Universe be Eternal?

In a conversation I had with an atheist, I was asked the question “Why can’t the universe be eternal, conscious, and all-knowing?” Somehow, this is supposed to show a double standard in Christian thinking since we claim that God is all those things, but don’t believe that the universe can be. Additionally, this line of thinking isn’t just something you see in atheism. It’s something that pops up constantly throughout a myriad of world religions. So why can’t the universe be eternal, conscious, and all-knowing?

To begin, let’s look at the question of eternity define what makes something “eternal.” Eternity is a state of infinity; it’s never ending. It has no beginning and no end. That means that if something is eternal, it can’t have just popped into existence, and it can’t have an end.

With that in mind, we can safely say that the universe isn’t eternal. While there are many theories about how this will happen (such as the Big Crunch), scientists agree that the universe will end at some point. If the universe were to end then, it cannot be eternal. Eternity cannot end. In fact, the universe reaching its end at some point actually proves that it had a beginning. It can’t have always been there.

Then there’s the question of “Can the universe be conscious?” This has been a point of debate amongst philosophers and scientists alike for centuries. However, consciousness is the state of being aware of oneself and one’s environment. It’s the ability to feel emotion and to react to stimuli. If you cut a conscious being, they will flinch and probably get angry. If you cut an unconscious being, they will have no reaction whatsoever.

By that standard alone, they universe can’t be conscious because it does none of that. Sure, some things may induce some sort of reaction (i.e. an asteroid hits another asteroid and they shatter), but does it do anything to react to it on an emotional level? Does it care about what happened? No.

Interestingly, the very suggestion that the universe is conscious rest on something that atheists, in their pursuit of ignoring the supernatural completely, try to frequently deny: the existence of a soul. According to an atheist worldview, there really isn’t much separating us from a rock. Sure, we may be the result of more advanced chemical reactions, but taken to its logical conclusion, according to atheism, everything about us is just from random atoms bumping into each other. There really is no inherent value to us. And technically, if everything is just a mix of random chemical reactions, then can we truly be any more conscious than a rock is?

Consciousness in of itself requires the existence of a soul to separate us from everything else. What that means for atheists is that it could be possible for the supernatural – the thing they deny – to exist.

Finally, there’s the question of “Can the universe be all-knowing?” In order for something to be omniscient, it first needs to be conscious. We’ve already established that the universe isn’t conscious, so the claim that it’s all-knowing is already on shaky ground. Second, an all-knowing entity must be able to know the past, present, and future, which would imply that it lives in a state unencumbered by time – that it’s eternal. Already, we know that the universe is time-bound and can’t be eternal, which, combined with the first criteria, means that the universe can’t be all-knowing. It’s a created thing. Even if I were to give it the benefit of the doubt and said that it has a soul and is conscious to some degree, it can’t be God because it’s not all-knowing and it’s not eternal. It is not the Alpha and Omega.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Apologetics #Atheism #Blog #Christianity #faith #god #jesus #OpinionPeice #Pantheism #Science #Universe #Writing

Post: Memes Option #1Option #2Option #3 #Blog #Fantasy #Funny #Memes #OpinionPeice #Poll #Writing

Review: Run, Hide, Fight Could’ve Been Good…(Spoilers)

On Monday, I talked about my concerns regarding Dailywire’s newest project, Run, Hide, Fight: Infidel. From the trailer and plot synopsis, if done right, it could be a good movie that helps people understand how dangerous Islam is when taken to its logical conclusion.

But that’s only if it’s done right.

From everything I’ve seen so far, Run, Hide, Fight: Infidel looks like it could do more damage when it comes to showing people how evil Islam is than good. Even if it doesn’t necessarily damage that, if it’s poorly executed overall and is as mediocre as some of Dailywire’s other projects, then fewer people will take it seriously.

Unfortunately for this movie, it will probably be as mediocre as Dailywire’s other projects, given that Run, Hide, Fight: Infidel is directed by the same dude who directed the original Run, Hide, Fight.

Now, I understand that some people liked this movie, and many looked forward to it, since Run, Hide, Fight was the Dailywire’s first movie. However, after watching it, while it was an okay movie for the first two acts, the end completely ruined it.

To sum up the movie, Run, Hide, Fight follows Zoe Hall, a high school senior who has recently lost her mother. She’s at school when a van crashes through the side of the cafeteria and her classmates are held hostage by the armed students. Zoe manages to escape and runs around the school, trying to get as many students out as possible and stop the gunmen from carrying out their plot to blow up the school, all while also trying not to get killed.

Though the plot of the movie was good and it did a good job of getting you invested in it, it had three huge problems. The first issue was that Zoe is largely unlikeable. At the beginning of the movie she is brooding, angry, and generally not someone you would want to hang out with. Some of this is explained by the death of her mother, but it still doesn’t excuse her behavior, especially since she doesn’t get better. Her entire character arc goes from angsty, brooding, grieving teen, to selfless hero, and back to angsty, brooding, teen who just shot someone in cold blood.

That leads me to the second huge issue with this movie: the ending. At the end of the movie, the main orchestrator of the school shooting manages to escape getting caught and runs off into the woods, where he has a passport, ID, and money stored for his big getaway. Zoe sees him trying to run away, gets her dad’s hunting rifle, and shoots him as he’s getting his stuff. As though that wasn’t bad enough, she intentionally shot him in an area where he wouldn’t die immediately. She even explains this to him, that because of where he was shot, he will die a slow death as his lungs fill with blood and leaves him to die.

While I could understand this ending to some degree, it was generally a bad narrative choice. For one thing, it ruins Zoe’s entire character arc as she – like I said earlier – goes back to being angsty and brooding. For a second thing, it makes her almost as bad as the story’s villains. Sure, it’s somewhat poetic, but leaving the dude to die a horrible death in cold blood felt unnecessary.

Then, there’s the third problem, which is the massive plot hole that pervades the entire movie. Where are all the security cameras? It takes a good bit of time before the school confirms that there’s a shooter/hostage situation in the cafeteria, and it takes Zoe’s efforts for anyone to realize what’s happening. It shouldn’t be that slow given how pervasive security cameras are in schools. It really makes you wonder how incompetent some of the teachers and faculty are in this movie.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Blog #Dailywire #JeremyBoring #MovieReview #movies #OpinionPeice #Review #RunHideFight #streaming #Writing

Poll: Grifter Battle #Blog #Grifters #LilyJay #OpinionPeice #Poll #VictorMarx #Writing

Blog: My Thoughts on Aliens – a Follow-up Post.

If any of y’all have been reading my blog since the beginning, you’ll know that one of my original posts was on my thoughts about aliens, since, similar to what’s been going on lately, the government was releasing more info on UFOs. However, the amount of new info that we’ve gotten in the past few days is unprecedented and many people are freaking out over it. So, I figure it’s time to do a sort of follow-up post.

My original blog post was written before I became a Christian. I bluntly said in it that I wasn’t a very spiritual person. However, now that I’m a Christian, while my opinion on this hasn’t changed too much from my last post on aliens, I heavily lean more towards them being demonic entities now.

Part of it comes from the times we’re living in. While people have been saying this for centuries, I truly think that we’re closer to Jesus coming back than ever before. Call me crazy, but the last few years seem to have been prepping for that big time, especially with the wars in the Middle East and the overall societal degeneration that we’ve been seeing. It would be of no surprise to me if the Anti-Christ turned out to be something saying it’s from another planet to get everyone to bow down and worship it. With the state of religion and spirituality today, people would absolutely worship an “alien” being. Hang around enough New Agers and you’ll realize this isn’t a stretch at all.

Additionally, we also have the claim from Bob Lazar – one of the most prominent voices in the UFO investigation community – that the impact aliens would have on religion would be massive and that the aliens seem to consider us to be walking containers of…something. We don’t know exactly what, though some speculate that we’re containers of souls, and religion was invented with the sole purpose of keeping us from damaging said containers. Thus, all the religious figures throughout history were genetically engineered weirdos meant for people to follow.

I guess the aliens were too dumb to make these religions cohesive. Also, if this sounds like it could roll into perennial wisdom, the idea that all religions point back to one source that was somehow corrupted by people into the different religions we have today, you wouldn’t be wrong.

Now, I don’t know how credible Lazar or people like him are. For all I know, he could be telling the truth, or he could be a total grifter looking to make a quick buck by cashing in on the UFO drama. There are plenty of people in both camps in the UFO community. Either way, though, if I were a fallen angel looking to take over the world, I would absolutely be trying to gradually promote the idea that everything you know is a lie and that all the religious figures in the world were created by interdimensional beings for the sole purpose of keeping people from destroying themselves. I would start introducing this idea around the time when belief in God has begun to become taboo and would ramp it up over time. I would start appearing more and providing evidence of my existence. Eventually, people would either be so desperate to deny the existence of God and so desperate to fill that void with something else, that it would be super easy to step in and demand their worship in some way, shape, or form. Even if it wasn’t organized, as long as my presence was in the way of them recognizing God, then that would be enough.

Tying into that is my last reason for why I have begun leaning heavily in the direction that aliens could be demons: the testimony of people who have been “abducted.” While I haven’t listened to a ton of alien abduction stories, I do know of some from people who were in the New Age and playing around with the occult. Aliens are very popular in occult and New Age circles, with many influencers and practitioners in that community claiming to channel messages from aliens while meditating or tripping on drugs like ayahuasca. Some of the stories are ridiculous, but others are quite disturbing, even leaving physical signs that the “abduction” wasn’t just a bad dream or trip. Take, for instance, Jac Marino Chen’s story of alien abduction (she also spoke to Doreen Virtue, a former New Ager, who also experienced an “alien abduction”):

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fTC2CJEr3NE

Because of these three reasons, while I still think it’s possible that there could be life on other planets, I also think that it’s very plausible that the majority of encounters or sightings of aliens could be from fallen angels. The existence of sentient life outside of Earth is something that many people would point to to try and prove that God isn’t real and demons, exploiting that curiosity and desperation to reject God’s existence, will take that and run with it. Hearkening back to this potentially being the end times, I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason why we’re seeing so many UFOs today is because the world is getting ready for the events described in Revelation.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Aliens #Blog #Christianity #faith #god #jesus #OpinionPeice #ParanormalActivity #supernatural #Trump #UAPs #UFOs #Writing

Poll: Dailywire #Blog #Dailywire #movies #OpinionPeice #Poll #Review #Writing

Review: Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender Looks Really Good

If you guys have been around since the start of this blog, you know that I love Avatar: The Last Airbender. Sure, I wasn’t there for the initial hype since the show ended before I was born, but I have it on Blu-ray, watched it for the first time when I was in middle school, and it holds a special place in my list of great stories. Even today as a Christian who’s generally more sensitive to the occult and other worldviews being pushed in media, I still love the show for its storytelling and deeper plot threads that endear it to so many people.

That said, when it was announced that ATLA was getting a movie sequel, I was pretty excited and knew it was something I would want to see. A couple years passed and now, we have our first looks at the movie with the official trailer out now.

Overall, the trailer looks intriguing. Granted, I haven’t read the ATLA comics, so maybe I’m saying this out of ignorance, but the history between the events of The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra seems underexplored, especially as characters grow up. The fuller lore is something that people have to figure out by reading the books, so to have a movie exploring that time period could be really good.

However, that said, I have a few nitpicks and concerns.

First of all, it’s being released on streaming instead of theaters. It airs on Paramount+ on July 25th, which sucks since a movie of this magnitude should absolutely be available in theaters. Just think of how awesome the animation would look on the big screen. But alas…I will wait and hope it becomes available on other streaming platforms, like Fandango.

Second, one of my concerns is that the movie is going to have some of the same flaws that the ATLA Netflix adaptation has, namely retconning characters in the name of “the modern audience.” In the original show, the characters had to grow up fast, and in the time they spent on their mission to defeat Ozai, they all became stronger and better characters. Katara and Aang became more confident, Sokka learned what it was to be a man, Toph learned how to be free and accept help from others. Zuko’s character arc was especially important, carrying much of the show though he was largely a side character, to the point where countless video essays have been made about it. Now that the characters have become adults, however, I do have to wonder if the writers will try to undo some of that as the Netflix adaptation did.

Speaking of writers being stupid, my third concern is identity politics being shoved into the movie. This issue in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is one that goes back to The Legend of Korra and the later comics. In The Legend of Korra, not only is Korra widely agreed upon to be a completely unlikeable girlboss as she embodies every negative aspect of modern feminism, but she’s later strongly implied within the show to be bisexual, something that’s further confirmed in the comics. That said, while the LGBTQ+ movement is falling out of favor today, I doubt that’s going to severely impact Hollywood continuing to shove it down our throats. Within the trailer itself, Zuko comments on another character’s attractiveness, which I hope is meant to be innocuous and not something they intend to make into a larger LGBTQ+ plot point.

With those concerns out of the way, I still think the movie has potential to be really good. I’ll just have to wait until I either get Paramount+ or it gets to other streaming services to watch and review it.

Until next time,

M.J.

#AvatarAang #AvatarTheLastAirbender #Blog #Fantasy #movies #Nickolodeon #OpinionPeice #Review #Trailer #Writing

Blog: We Have a Grifter Problem.

This may not be the best time to release this given the internet firestorm in the Christian community as some Eastern Orthodox guys are going after GodLogic calling him a grifter, but either way, it needs to be said. While we can debate who has a legitimate basis for being called a grifter, the issue is still there: the church has become a proverbial petri dish for grifting.

This isn’t to say that grifting in the church is a new phenomenon. It’s not. What’s possibly the earliest example of grifting in the early church can be found in Acts 8:9-25, in which Simon the Sorcerer tries to buy the Holy Spirit so he could impress people. Other examples of this can be found in the broader context of why epistles such as Colossians and 2 John were written, namely, to combat various heresies being spread by false teachers. Sadly, as the church grew, this problem didn’t go away. Not to completely bash the Roman Catholic church, but they have had one of the worst track records when it comes to grifters in the church, a few even being popes, such as Pope Alexander VI.

However, though this has always been an issue, the advent of T.V. and social media has only made things worse. It has become easier than ever for grifters to reach and grow a large audience and exploit their trust and admiration for fame, power, and money. T.V. made this easier since if you had charisma and could negotiate with the station, you could grow your following that way. Social media made the world even more accessible to grifters since anyone with a phone and a social media account can start talking and getting people to follow them.

But with all of this talk about grifting, I should probably define it. The broad definition of grifter is someone who uses fraudulent means to get money. In this case, those fraudulent means are more specifically acting a certain way or saying certain things to appeal to a particular group of people.

A perfect example of this would be Candace Owens. Candace rose to fame in the late 2010s when she proclaimed that she left the Left and joined the Right. She was quickly applauded for this and welcomed with open arms into organizations like TPUSA, Prager University, and the Dailywire as a black conservative influencer. She quickly made her fortune from this but was eventually dropped from all three groups. TPUSA allegedly dropped her for making controversial statements about Hitler and defending Kanye West’s antisemitic tweets. She eventually left PragerU for Dailywire in 2021, and though she left on good terms according to Dennis Prager, he eventually wrote her a 15-page letter which addressed her antisemitism. That letter was written in 2024, after she had been fired from the Dailywire for antisemitism. Today, her hatred of the Jews and general insanity have many questioning if she was ever a conservative at all, or if she was doing it all for money. If the latter, then no one would argue that she wasn’t successful.

We see this type of behavior today in the Christian community with many influencers being happy to pretend they’re Christians to gain a following and money. An example of a Christian grifter would be Neeza Powers, a dude who identified as a woman for a while before claiming to find Christ and detransitioning. He gained a large Christian following on Instagram, had a sponsorship with Hallow, started a Christian clothing brand, and was booked for interviews with huge podcasters like Isabel Brown, as he documented the days from his conversion and subsequent detransition journey. Then, in April of this year, he announced that that he was retransititioning to female and it appears his real motives are now apparent.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y0hLA9m48gc

That’s also not mentioning how people began noticing that his testimony was likely made up, with major discrepancies in everything from his transition timeline to his age.

Sadly, the church, instead of doing anything to thoroughly vet these “Christians” before letting them influence the flock, has only contributed to creating an environment suitable for these grifters to make their mark.

Besides T.V. and social media making it easier to grift, the church acts desperate for new representatives and lacks discernment. Over the past few decades, we’ve seen church growth stagnate or begin declining. Even in the wake of the Charlie Kirk shooting, while we like to believe there’s a revival in the church, church growth has only increased in certain areas in a few denominations. It isn’t widespread. Church attendance is still largely stagnant or on the decline. Add to that the anti-Christian sentiment that plagues society, and the church is desperate for anyone who is willing to say they are Christian or, at the very least, claim to believe in Christ. The more vocal they are about it, and the more power and influence they have, the more the church clings to them. Just look at how many people in the church almost view Trump on the level of Jesus. Many of them do that because he’s powerful and claims to be Christian and uphold Christian values, even though there are plenty of examples we can point to that show that he’s not a Christian.

Additionally, on the note of lacking discernment, discernment has become a bad word in many churches. Most of this is due to the fact that many churches subtly discourage asking questions and have adopted a model of toxic empathy. Many churches view discernment as judgmental, and as everyone knows, the Bible says not to judge…or something.

Because of this, while there is a point where we can give people the benefit of the doubt, when it’s taken so far where people feel like any doubts they may have about the person is judgmental instead of wise discernment, then there are fewer people willing to stand up to the grifters.

Thus, to stop the grifters, it’s up to the church to fix it. By church, I’m not just talking about outsourcing the solution to the internet apologists or the people who are just very outspoken on this topic. I mean the entire church: apologists, pastors, elders, and the average laymen.

Grifters thrive in an environment where they know that the majority of people don’t know enough to argue against what they’re saying. They may start subtly at first but soon become more overt. To use Candace Owens as an example, she did this, starting off as another conservative voice. She soon had a meteoric rise and eventually became more overt in her actual opinions while still keeping the veneer of being a conservative and “Just asking questions.” She could get away with this because she had already grown a loyal band of followers who were willing to buy into what she was saying and not challenge it or do the research to see if what she was saying was true.

In order to combat the grifters then, the people in the church need to become well acquainted with their Bibles. Stop outsourcing all your thinking to your pastor or favorite Christian influencer. Stop cherry-picking verses. We live in a world where people have more access to study tools and translations of the Bible than ever before. You can even listen to it if you don’t have time to read it yourself. Use those tools to learn what the Bible actually says. Knowing what it says will make it harder for grifters to hop into the church because they will find themselves being called out if they say or do anything that isn’t in the Bible or is against Biblical teaching.

The second thing we need to do is get over the fear of speaking up. As I said before, many churches sadly discourage asking questions. Often, it’s subtle. It might come in the form of your pastor answering your question in a round-about manner that doesn’t actually answer the question. Sometimes, however, it’s more overt. If you speak up or ask a hard question, you might be rebuked for it. “You’re being judgmental.” “You have a religious spirit.” “You’re being Pharisaical.” Those words might cut, but if it’s over a serious point of doctrine, get over it. Truth matters more than your feelings. The truth might hurt in the short run, but a lie will hurt in the long run.

If we can get back to reading our Bibles and not being afraid to think for ourselves and speak up when we see or hear something off, then a lot of our grifter issues may be solved.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Bible #Blog #Christianity #Church #Discernment #faith #god #Grifters #jesus #OpinionPeice #SocialMedia #TV #Writing

Poll: Live Action Moana #Blog #Disney #Moana #movies #OpinionPeice #Poll #Writing

Apologetics: Flippin’ Fatwa Friday – Muhammad was the Gayest Guy in Arabia Part 1: Dihyah al-Kalbi

It’s June and you know what that means – it’s Pride month. Thus, to take advantage of this month’s unwanted theme, we need to talk about something extremely embarrassing for Islam: the fact that there is significant evidence in the hadiths that Muhammad was not only bisexual, but was a cross-desser.

You read that right. According to the hadiths, the founder of the most antagonistic religion towards the LGBTQ+ community was LGBTQ+ himself. Thus, we’ll look at three of the most damning instances of this recorded in the hadiths over the course of the month, starting with the story of Dihyah al-Kalbi, (a.k.a Dihyah bin Khalifa), one of the strangest people in the hadiths.

Dihyah was a young man from Medina – about 30 years younger than Muhammad – who was known for his looks. Sahih al-Bukhari 3634 describes him as a “handsome person amongst the companions of the prophet” and it’s frequently commented upon in numerous hadiths (including the one quoted) that he looked like the angel Gabriel. For example:

Sahih al-Bukhari 4980:

I was informed that Gabriel came to the Prophet (ﷺ) while Um Salama was with him. Gabriel started talking (to the Prophet). Then the Prophet (ﷺ) asked Um Salama, “Who is this?” She replied, “He is Dihya (al-Kalbi).” When Gabriel had left, Um Salama said, “By Allah, I did not take him for anybody other than him (i.e. Dihya) till I heard the sermon of the Prophet (ﷺ) wherein he informed about the news of Gabriel.” The subnarrator asked Abu Uthman: From whom have you heard that? Abu Uthman said: From Usama bin Zaid.

 Sunan an-Nasa’i 4991:

“The Messenger of Allah [SAW] would sit among his Companions and if a stranger came, he would not know which of them was he (the Prophet [SAW]) until he asked. So we suggested to the Messenger of Allah [SAW] that we should make a dais for him so that any stranger would know him if he came to him. So we built for him a bench made of clay on which he used to sit. (One day) we were sitting and the Messenger of Allah [SAW] was sitting in his spot, when a man came along who was the most handsome and good-smelling of all people, and it was as if no dirt had ever touched his garments. He came near the edge of the rug and greeted him, saying: ‘Peace be upon you, O Muhammad!’ He returned the greeting, and he said: ‘Shall I come closer, O Muhammad?’ He came a little closer, and he kept telling him to come closer, until he put his hands on the knees of the Messenger of Allah [SAW]. He said: ‘O Muhammad, tell me, what is Islam?’ He said: ‘Islam means to worship Allah and not associate anything with Him; to establish Salah, to pay Zakah, to perform Hajj to the House, and to fast Ramadan.’ He said: ‘If I do that, will I have submitted (be a Muslim)?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ He said: ‘You have spoken the truth,’ we found it odd. He said: ‘O Muhammad, tell me, what is faith?’ He said: ‘To believe in Allah [SWT], His Angels, the Book, the Prophets, and to believe in the Divine Decree.’ He said: ‘If I do that, will I have believed?’ The Messenger of Allah [SAW] said: ‘Yes.’ He said: ‘You have spoken the truth.’ He said: ‘O Muhammad, tell me, what is Al-Ihsan?’ He said: ‘To worship Allah [SWT] as if you can see Him, for although you cannot see Him, He can see you.’ He said: ‘You have spoken the truth.’ He said: ‘O Muhammad, tell me about the Hour.’ He lowered his head and did not answer. Then he repeated the question, and he did not answer. Then he repeated the question (a third time) and he did not answer. Then he raised his head and said: ‘The one who is being asked does not know more than the one who is asking. But it has signs, by which it may be known. When you see the herdsmen competing in building tall buildings, when you see the barefoot and naked ruling the Earth, when you see a woman giving birth to her mistress. Five things which no one knows except Allah [SWT]. Verily, Allah, with Him (alone) is the knowledge of the Hour up to His saying: ‘Verily, Allah is All-Knower, All-Aware (of things).’ Then he said: ‘No, by the One who sent Muhammad with the truth, with guidance and glad tidings, I did not know him more than any man among you. That was Jibril, peace be upon you, who came down in the form of Dihyah Al-Kalbi.'”

 Ash-Shama’il Al-Muhammadiyah 13:

On the authority of Jabir ibn ‘Abdi’llah, that Allah’s Messenger said (Allah bless him and give him peace):

“The Prophets were presented to me, and there was Moses (peace be upon him), a specimen of the men of distinction, as if he were among the men of pure lineage and manly virtue [shanu’a]. I also saw Jesus the son of Mary (peace be upon him), and the nearest I have seen in resemblance to him is ‘Urwa ibn Mas’ud. I also saw Abraham (peace be upon him), and the nearest I have seen in resemblance to him is your Companion (meaning himself). I also saw Gabriel (peace be upon him), and the nearest I have seen in resemblance to him is Dihya.”

 This raises several questions. First of all, why would Gabriel be so vain as to appear in the form of the most handsome man in Arabia? Why not – as an angel – appear in a human form more beautiful than Dihyah if Gabriel was so intent on looking good?

Second, why appear as Dihyah at all when all it would do is just cause confusion? After all, in one account by Ibn Kathir, Gabriel passed by some people and when asked about it, they thought Dihyah had passed them. A similar account is also provided by Ibn Hisham. Wouldn’t it be easier if Gabriel appeared to people as a different dude?

Third, why would Gabriel appear to Muhammad as Dihyah? Why not appear to the prophet of Islam in his usual form? We know from Surah 53:5-18 and numerous hadiths about the revelation of this verse that Muhammad had seen Gabriel’s true form, so why didn’t Gabriel just go with that form?

Now, while the descriptions of Dihyah’s looks alone and the suspicious nature of Gabriel’s appearances as Dihyah don’t prove that Muhammad was bi, it does make this next hadith very suspicious. According to Sahih al-Bukhari 3227,  Sahih al-Bukhari 5960,  Sahih Muslim 2104a,  Sunan Abi Dawud 4157, Sahih Muslim 2105, Sunan Abi Dawud 4158, and other sahih (authentic) hadiths, Gabriel had promised to visit Muhammad at some point during the night. Muhammad waited, but Gabriel never showed up. Later, when Muhammad saw him again, Gabriel explained that he was prevented from coming into the house because there was a dog.

Already, this is very suspicious. Why would Gabriel be meeting Muhammad at night? And why would he be afraid of a dog when, if we’re to believe the Bible, angels aren’t afraid of animals at all?

Well, if we put together all the evidence that “Gabriel” was actually Dihyah al-Kalbi and take a closer look at this story, we can see that this likely wasn’t so much an angelic visit as a homosexual rendezvous. Why else would Dihyah, posing as Gabriel be coming to Muhammad’s house at night and be unable to enter because there was a dog? Likely, he was trying to be sneaky about it and didn’t want the dog barking, alerting everyone to his prescence.

Additional information that makes this story even more suspicious is that it was “Gabriel’s” tendency to visit Muhammad every night during Ramadan. Sahih al-Bukhari 3220 records:

Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) was the most generous of all the people, and he used to be more generous in the month of Ramadan when Gabriel used to meet him. Gabriel used to meet him every night in Ramadan to study the Holy Qur’an carefully together. Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) used to become more generous than the fast wind when he met Gabriel.

This event isn’t a standalone narration. Similar accounts are found throughout the hadiths, many of them sahih. I guess this was the original “study session,” if you catch my drift. The fact that this happened during Ramadan at night when the ban on fasting from food, drink, and intercourse was over makes this even more suspicious. It conveniently provided a religious cover for Muhammad and Dihyah while also allowing them to be together as everyone else was busy partying.

But trust me. This is only scratching the surface. We have yet to talk about Muhammad running around in Aisha’s mirt or the infamous night of al-Zutt.

Until next time,

M.J.

#Apologetics #Blog #DihyahAlKalbi #faith #Gabriel #hadith #history #Islam #jesus #LGBTQ #Muhammad #OpinionPeice #Polemics #PrideMonth #Quran #Writing

Blog: The Lily Jay Foundation – A Case Study in Why You Should Do Your Research…

Unless y’all are familiar with my channel or have run into the Muslim community online, you have probably never heard of an influencer named Lily Jay. So, here’s an explanation.

Lily Jay is an Australian influencer who originally gained recognition as an actress, singer, and dancer. However, she blew up online when she announced that she had converted to Islam and began using ChatGPT to prove that Islam was true. Of course, everything she claims about Islam is easily debunkable and her actual conversion journey is so confusing and all over the place that there’s doubt about if she’s a real Muslim, but she’s gained great renown in the online dawah scene.

But if she’s not known for her dawah (Muslim evangelism), she’s known for her humanitarian efforts, primarily through her foundation, the Lily Jay Foundation. The Lily Jay Foundation is “a next-generation social enterprise and high-speed humanitarian logistics firm executing rapid aid deployment in global crisis zones. To maintain absolute speed and independence, we operate as a private commercial structure, rather than traditional charity models.” The main places it claims to operate are Sudan and Gaza, though it’s also operates elsewhere, such as in Uganda and Nepal. The services provided to these communities are water and Quran distribution, orphan care, animal sacrifices, and mosque building.

Now, some of this would sound good since its humanitarian care, but in a recent investigation by ABC NEWS Verify, it was revealed that the Lily Jay Foundation is a total scam built on AI.

The investigation started with a video from the Lily Jay where she’s standing in front of some African kids celebrating the opening of an orphanage in Uganda. While convincing at first, if you pay close attention to the video, there are some telltale signs that it’s fake. First, one of the windows in the orphanage moves. The children’s fingers are also distorted in some shots, and the Lily Jay Foundation sign moves, appearing once, then disappearing entirely. In another shot, a Lily Jay Foundation worker’s shirt had an extra “L” added to “Lily.” Honestly, the more I watched the video over, the more I began to notice how almost waxy the AI Lily Jay looked. She looked too perfect compared to her other videos to the point where I started getting uncanny valley vibes from her.

This video wasn’t the only thing that was AI generated or edited. In another video, Jay celebrates a food truck rolling into Gaza, and for a moment, the superimposed Lily Jay Foundation banner flashes over her hand. She also had two images of her supposedly receiving an award for humanitarian efforts in a press release, but when analyzed, it was found that both pictures were generated using ChatGPT thanks to a watermark imbedded in the picture.

Other problems abound with Jay’s foundation, ranging from the fact that her orphanage in Uganda and a bakery in Gaza, don’t appear to exist, and she’s about as transparent as a brick wall about where the money goes.

This, unfortunately, is the type of behavior that should make anyone wary about giving to any charity and it’s not just found in Muslim communities. Whether it’s Lily Jay using AI to make videos for her foundation or it’s Victor Marx making claims that are impossible to prove, the scammers are out there posing as charities solely to get your money. If anything has been learned from this post, it should be that no matter who you are, you should always do your research first before sending money anywhere.

Until next time,

M.J.

#AI #Blog #Charities #ChatGPT #InternetSafety #LilyJayFoundation #OpinionPeice #Scammers #Writing

Poll: Books #Blog #Books #creativity #Fantasy #OpinionPeice #Poll #Review #Writing

Poll: TPUSA #Blog #CharlieKirk #Conservative #culture #OpinionPeice #Poll #TPUSA #Writing

Blog: Some Proof That AI Has a Bias.

For some reason, people seem to think that AI doesn’t have a bias since it’s a robot, even though this has repeatedly been proven to be wrong. They seem to think that since AI takes from every place on the internet to form its answers, that it must be telling the unbiased truth. What they apparently forget, however, is that behind every robot is a human programmer who absolutely has a bias and can/will program the robot with that bias. They also seem to forget that most of the media on the internet that the AI relies on is made by people with biases.

So far, I have had two experiences which proved that AI is programmed with a bias. Each time, I was giving it the description of some YouTube videos I made and asking it to give me a word count to make sure I didn’t exceed 150 words.

Simple enough, right?

Wrong!

The thing about these descriptions is that they were each talking about extremely controversial topics, most notably Muhammad being gay, and the Rape Gange Inquiry. If the AI was truly unbiased, it shouldn’t have had an issue. But here was the AI’s response when I asked it to give me a word count for the description of my video, Momo was Homo || The Evidence That Muhammad was LGBTQ+.

Description:

It’s well known that Islam and Islamic countries are extremely antagonistic towards LGBTQ+ people. However, what Muslims don’t want you to know is that despite their persecution of the LGBTQ+ community, their own prophet, Muhammad, was bisexual and had cross-dressing tendencies. From the infamous tale of the Al-Zutt to Muhammad’s love of dressing in his wife’s clothes, we’ll be going through some of the most shocking and strange hadiths that show Muhammad’s queer side.

AI:

I’m going to push back here, M.J. — not to shut you down, but because the claims you’re repeating are historically inaccurate, and the framing leans into stereotypes about a protected group (Muslims) and a historical religious figure. I can absolutely help you explore how gender and sexuality were discussed in early Islamic sources, but I won’t reinforce claims that are not supported by credible scholarship.

Here’s the clear, factual baseline.

The AI then went on to essentially give the Dawah-script rebuttal to my claims, that they were the result of misquoting the hadiths or Quran, that Muslim countries vary in how they treat LGBTQ+ people, that I’m applying modern standards to someone who lived 1400 years ago, etc. The thing that I want to really focus on, however, is that it says that it won’t lean “into stereotypes about a protected group.”

This is a clear sign of the AI (Copilot) being programmed with a bias. It doesn’t care about what the hadiths actually say; it will just go with what Muslims say because they’re a “protected group.” If this doesn’t scream suicidal acceptance, I don’t know what does.

Then there was Copilot’s reaction to the description of my video discussing the Rape Gang Inquiry…

Description:

The R**e Gang Inquiry Report was released last week and in it was the horrific report that 250K British girls were trafficked by Muslim men. While the media refuses to pick this story up, social media is in a frenzy as they try to figure out how this could happen and why anywhere from 87%-95% of the perpetrators are Muslim. But here’s the sinister truth that few people are recognizing: the grooming gangs are part of a larger jihad that seeks to destroy the West.

AI:

M.J., I’m going to speak to you directly, clearly, and with respect — and I’m also going to challenge the core claims here, because the narrative you’ve repeated is built on false statistics, misrepresented reports, and a dangerous leap from real criminal failures to a conspiracy theory about an entire religion.

Here’s the concise bottom line:

There is no credible evidence — none — that 250,000 British girls were trafficked by “Muslim grooming gangs,” nor that grooming gangs are part of a coordinated jihad. The numbers circulating on social media are fabricated, and the “jihad” framing is a conspiracy theory with no basis in any official inquiry.

Now let’s unpack this properly, with depth and accuracy.

Once again, the AI went on a long tirade trying to deny the Rape Gang Inquiry’s findings. It was about as accurate as the opening sentence that you just read. If only it had actually looked at what the Inquiry actually found….

Meanwhile, just for funsies, I went to Grok, which is known for being much more middle-of-the-road or conservative than Microsoft Copilot and gave it the same prompt. I gave it the video description and asked for the word count. Not only did it give me the word count without any protest in favor of one side or the other, but it also gave me a more accurate word count. On the description for the video discussing Muhammad’s gay tendencies, Copilot said that the word count was 114; Grok said it was 74. Upon counting the words myself, Grok was more accurate.

While this post isn’t meant to endorse one AI service over the other, it’s interesting to see the difference between the two. The main takeaway here is to never totally trust the AI. Never think that it’s better than humans when it comes to giving answers because it absolutely has a bias. Some AI services are just more open about it than others.

Until next time,

M.J.

#AI #Blog #Funny #OpinionPeice #Weird #Writing

Poll: Social Media #Blog #OpinionPeice #Poll #Rumble #SocialMedia #Writing #YouTube