My wife and I recently visited the Big Island of Hawaii. The island is often divided between Kona, the drier, more bustling West side, and Hilo, the wetter, more bucolic East side. True to its depiction, upon arrival to Hilo, we were greeted by a downpour. A small rainforest bordered our rental property. We fell asleep that night to the croaking of frogs and the patter of rain amidst fern groves and mutant philodendrons.  

The next day, Sunday, we had a road trip planned along the Southeastern coast of the island. However, the rain still hadn’t let up. Knowing the erratic nature of the Hilo weather, and having a limited number of days to explore the island, we packed our ponchos and drove over an hour south to Kehena, a black sand beach which would serve as the starting point to our coastal drive. However, with the rain pelting our rented minivan, our hopes of enjoying the rugged beauty of the Big Island’s Eastern coast was quickly dissolving.

When we arrived at the gravel parking lot for the beach, it was still pouring. A few houses sprinkled the forest along with several juice and bread stands and an open-air community center. We turned around in the parking lot, and sat idling there, deciding what to do. We didn’t want to hike in the rain. But in Hilo, the rain comes and goes, so we sat there debating. Maybe the rain would let up. Or maybe not. Suddenly, Lisa said, “Do you hear that?” I did. It was music. Faint acoustic music. And singing.

It was worship music.

However, we couldn’t immediately identify where this worship music was coming from. We checked the car radio. Then our cell phones. Nope. Nothing was streaming on our devices. Finally, Lisa opened her window. Amidst the pattering rain, we could now clearly hear the sound of worship music, and voices, somewhere nearby. I backed the car up. That’s when we noticed a couple dozen people sitting under the open-air structure with their hands raised in worship. Apparently, it was some sort of church service.

Lisa turned to me and said, “You wanna go?” I said, “Sure.” So I parked the car and we hurried through the rain.

Several dogs greeted us. Elderly women in colorful dresses, flower leis, and flip-flops fanned themselves with palm fronds. A disheveled man with long hair and a wandering eye smiled as we approached. Tins of food were heating on several picnic tables. Three young women stood on the stage. One played an acoustic guitar. Another, a ukulele. They were singing Brandon Lake’s song, “Gratitude.” The lyrics go like this:

All my words fall short
I got nothing new
How could I express
All my gratitude?

I could sing these songs
As I often do
But every song must end
And You never do

So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah
Hallelujah
And I know it’s not much
But I’ve nothing else fit for a King
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah

Rain pattered the banana leaves behind us, keeping time to the rhythm. I stood next to my wife worshiping God in a tropical rainforest amongst strangers.

The moment was quite humbling, quite special.

After several more songs, the pastor, an older Hawaiian gentleman, took the pulpit. Apparently, he’d recently started teaching through the Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” he read, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The pastor proceeded to talk about humility and spiritual poverty. We are blessed, he said, when we realize we are spiritually destitute. We need God. We can’t do life on our own. But this requires that we humble ourselves. Admit our frailty and sin. Jesus will not force Himself upon us. He is not a bully. Then the pastor said this,

“Jesus is pure aloha.”

This brought a big smile to my face. Not just because it was a cute, memorable saying, but because it was loaded with meaning. You see, the term aloha is a common phrase among Hawaiians. It is a term of greeting, as well as an expression of kindness or affection. But there’s much bigger cultural significance to the idea of “aloha.” Some note that the term “represents a profound spiritual philosophy encompassing love, compassion, and mutual respect. At its core, aloha describes a deep connection between people, places, and the natural world that extends far beyond casual interactions. As defined by Native Hawaiian tradition, aloha embodies a comprehensive worldview that guides human behavior and relationships.” 

“Aloha describes a deep connection between people, places, and the natural world that extends far beyond casual interactions.”

The term ‘aloha’ has roots that date back to the end of the 18th century in Hawaii. Etymologically, the term is derived from “the Proto-Polynesian word qarofa, which means ‘love, pity, or compassion.'” While the term ‘aloha’ was not developed with biblical or ‘Christian’ intent, it nevertheless intersects with deeper spiritual meaning consistent with Christianity.

Many non-Christian and/or pagan cultures have myths, customs, and traditions which reflect deeper Universal Truths. In his book Eternity in Their Hearts, anthropologist Don Richardson asserts that God has given prior witness of Himself to all peoples — even pagan peoples. Because of this, primitive myths, legends, and traditions often pre-figure and foreshadow the Gospel. Richardson goes on to highlight stories and prophecies from numerous cultures — Burmese, Chinese, Incan, African, even North American Indian — that reflect biblical concepts. The concepts of One True God, a universal Fall, Heaven, Hell, a Sacrificial Lamb and a sacred Book, have existed for centuries in hundreds of cultures… even cultures with no previous knowledge of the Gospel.

The term ‘aloha’ is another example of how God’s love and truth intersects so many cultures. Aloha reflects the biblical concept of grace, blessing, love, and mercy. It “embodies a comprehensive worldview that guides human behavior and relationships” and represents “a deep connection between people, places, and the natural world that extends far beyond casual interactions.” To say that ‘Jesus is pure aloha’ is to recognize that Christ is the perfect embodiment of the spirit of grace and goodness that the term represents. 

Uncoincidentally, as that service ended, the clouds broke and the rain stopped. The parishioners prepared lunch and invited everyone to share a meal together. We sampled some of their homemade macaroni salad before leaving a donation, thanking the pastor, and heading off to sight-see the Southeastern coast of Hilo. We hadn’t planned on going to church that Sunday. But God had other plans. It was one of the most memorable worship services I’ve been to in a long time. And it left me with a phrase I will likely never forget.

“Jesus is pure aloha.”

The post Jesus is ‘Pure Aloha’ appeared first on deCOMPOSE.

The classic Frankenstein story, like its Monster, has undergone many dissections. In fact, Mary Shelley’s classic has become a deconstructionist’s mother lode. On its surface, the novel is simply about the dangers of Man Playing God. But thanks to literary theory and unbridled postmodern analysis, Frankenstein is now about so much more. 

While some attribute themes of race and prejudice to the novel, others interpret the story as a political warning for our times. Immigration, entitlement, disability, and even colonialism are alleged to populate the novel. Queerness in Frankenstein is now a common trope among literary theorists, with social justicians and political activists regularly hailing the story’s inherent queer undertones. While some see Frankenstein as a metaphor for repressed queer identity, others see the Monster as giving voice to body dysmorphia. Which is why more recent interpretations of the novel even portray Frankenstein as a “transsexual icon” and a metaphor for the transgender experience.

Perhaps it’s no wonder then that feminist re-readings of Frankenstein are all too common. Feminism and activism are viewed as prevalent themes in Shelley’s novel, with some even describing the book as a “feminist masterpiece.” Whereas some see the tale as articulating a fear of femaleness, others go so far as to see the story as a declaration of “female resistance” in which “agency can be reclaimed through renarritivization and resistance.” On the outskirts of this interpretive fringe are those who even describe the novel as a proto-ecofeminist text.

Now, from this swamp of literary overreach, another beast has emerged.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride” released, not coincidentally, on International Women’s Day 2026. This contemporary reimagining of the 1935 classic, “The Bride of Frankenstein,” is described (by womentainment.com, no less) as the Perfect Movie to Watch for International Women’s Day. Why? As Variety puts it, the movie is “the Latest Example of a New Wave of Feminist Horror.”

Yes, “feminist horror” is a thing. 

Feminist horror is a sub-genre within the “woke horror” canon. While the horror genre has long been a vehicle for social and moral commentary, the radicalization of social justice causes has subsumed the arts. The horror genre is just one of many pop cultural commodities now being analyzed and co-opted by a new breed of ideological activist. As such, an emerging category of “woke horror” has lumbered into the light. For example, IMDb has compiled 99 “Woke Horror” films. There’s also a list of filmmakers leading the rise of woke horror. Some describe it as “a growing phenomenon,” while others suggest that Woke Horror has Always been a Thing.

“Woke horror” has spawned a number of identitarian-coded sub-genres including Gay Horror, Queer and Homoerotic Horror, LGBTQ+ Horror, Black Horror, and Trans Horror. Apparently, The Bride! unequivocally populates the Feminist Horror category.

Gyllenhaal has made no secret about her film’s message. After watching the original Bride of Frankenstein, she was put off by the bride’s lack of agency. According to PBS:

Gyllenhaal had never seen the Universal monster classic but was inspired to revisit the story after seeing a tattoo of [Elsa] Lanchester’s Bride on a man’s arm. Only then did she watch the 1935 film. Gyllenhaal did not approach this project out of a love for the original or Shelley’s novel. Instead, she saw the iconic Bride as a mute character and urgently wanted to give her a voice … along with a feminist agenda.

In fact, during one interview the director admitted that Trump’s election is what motivated her to make films like The Bride!.

Apparently, Gyllenhaal’s political and ideological motivations are explicit in the film. The Bride! is being called “a feminist reinvention,” a “feminist clarion call,” and “a bold, bloody, feminist Frankenstein freakout.”

However, the film’s messaging has, apparently, not bolstered its box office reception.

Variety mag bemoans, 

Director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!,” a feminist reimagining of “The Bride of Frankenstein,” has collapsed in its box office debut with $7.3 million from 3,304 North American theaters. Since the Warner Bros. film cost $90 million to produce — a staggering price tag for the horror genre — and audience scores are downright scary, it’s shaping up to be the year’s first big bomb.

Or to put it another way, ‘The Bride!’ Was Dead on Arrival at the Box Office.

While some are scrambling for explanations, even offering 5 Reasons why the film tanked, many cannot bring themselves to admit “Heavy-Handed Messaging” might be one of those reasons.

For example, Peter Suderman, writing for Reason magazine describes the film as A Feminist Frankenstein That Plays Like a Lost Remnant of Woke Culture. In Woke ‘Bride!’ Feels Like Blast from Cancel Culture Past, Christian Toto, host of The Hollywood in Toto podcast, explains:

Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal goes for broke on her second film, taking Mary Shelley’s classic tome and turning it into a MeToo lecture.

It’s a garishly beautiful lecture, but the film’s core themes are redundant and dull.

Men bad. Women good … and oppressed … and angry.

Business Daily corroborates:

Every male character is villainized, they are either abusers, gangsters, incompetent policemen. It’s a blunt, lazy approach to writing a character. Elevating female characters doesn’t necessarily require reducing men to caricatures. 

…male figures are uniformly terrible, and the feminist messaging becomes heavy handed.

IGN adds, “The Bride! is guilty of overindulging in feminist buzzwords and girl power imagery. But it never lives up to the radical display of female autonomy it promised.” Even the notoriously Left-leaning IndieWire describes the film as a “a wokified… feminist opera” which “feels caught in the drain somewhere between 2017 and 2020, a tale of female oppression curiously behind the times.”

As is par for the course, some are blaming the film’s bad reviews and poor box office on… misogyny. In fact, Gyllanhaal featured Phantasmag’s gushing review — Misogynistic Reactions Can’t Stop Feminist Frankenstein Reinvention The Bride! From Being One of the Boldest Studio Films Ever — on her IG page. 

Cultural commentary is a necessary mainstay in storytelling. But when a film or book shifts from storytelling to preaching, criticism is valid.

Writing for MovieWeb, in his article entitled Movies Where a Cultural Agenda Killed the Plot, Neville Naidoo writes,

Cultural agendas in movies seems to be the new normal in the age of wokeness (which may or may not be dying out). While filmmaking as a social commentary device isn’t new, there seems to be excessive amounts of cultural agendas and social activism these days masquerading under the guise of filmmaking.

When used effectively, social commentaries in films can often highlight and bring attention to divisive and serious issues, sometimes sparking much-needed dialogues about them…However, when films feature so much wokeness by forcing cultural agendas down audiences’ throats, they can often kill the plots of such movies, or at least draw attention away from what could’ve been a gripping narrative.

Feminist themes are indeed worth mining in art and literature. However, attempts to force “cultural agendas down audiences’ throats” should be justifiably reproached. Blaming “misogyny” on a film’s reception is a lazy way to deflect legitimate critique in favor of ideological insulation.

In the case of The Bride!, this cinematic cadaver appears to require less preaching, and more lightning.

The post “The Bride” is the Latest Example of ‘Woke Horror’ appeared first on deCOMPOSE.

However, some 40 years later and Cockburn now refuses to perform the song, claiming that audiences misinterpret it as a “call to violence.” According to his website:

Cockburn recalls the ‘scary’ experience of playing the song for 2,000 Christians at a music festival in England in the 1980s, and everyone enthusiastically singing: ‘If I had a rocket launcher … some son of a bitch would die.’

For reasons like that, he is not comfortable with people singing along to the song.

‘There’s nothing joyful or celebratory about it. It’s truthful, but that’s not a pleasant truth to me. I don’t like reliving it.’

So were the fans wrong in singing along to the chorus? Had they completely missed the meaning of the song? Of course, Cockburn is justified in not wanting to celebrate revenge. However, his song also reflects righteous indignation against injustice. And correcting injustice sometimes requires violence. So despite pushback against his audience, Cockburn’s song still resonates. It expresses a valid sentiment and a reasonable response.

Bruce Cockburn is not the first artist to take offense at a perceived misinterpretation of his art’s meaning. In fact, such ‘misinterpretations’ happen all the time.

Recently on X, author Autumn Christian noted how Frank Herbert, author of the Dune saga, was frustrated that his readers did not understand the series’ message. 

Read more…

Frank Herbert often corrected the prevailing interpretation of Dune as an heroic, space-fantasy epic. Instead, Herbert stressed that it was a cautionary tale against charismatic leaders. But while Herbert intended his series as a check against charismatic leaders and “messianic figures,” Paul Atreides, the protagonist, is commonly seen as a reluctant, but heroic leader. He is not the villain of the story. In fact, as Christian summarizes, “Dune is an awesome story about the triumph of heroes.”

Of course, sequels in the Dune series further develop Herbert’s anti-hero motif. This, however, does not prevent many fans from still seeing Paul as “a tragic hero, but a hero through and through.”

Which is why Christian concludes, “You can’t ignore the rules of reality just because you insist they are wrong.” And in the case of Dune, the “reality” is that the lead character is far more hero, than villain.

Cockburn and Herbert’s pushback illustrates a rather common artistic pitfall. Despite an author’s objection, Truth will always out itself.

This is especially true of heroes and the heroic.

In their essay on The Matrix trilogy, Christian Research Institute (CRI) explores the prevalence of a ‘universal heroic journey’ in myth and storytelling.

Mythologist Joseph Campbell sought to bring to light what he called the ‘monomyth,’ the universal heroic journey common to all religions, which resides in the collective unconscious of humanity. The similarity of so many ideas and images in different religions is because they are ultimately diverse symbolic projections of the same physical and mental processes that are within all of us.

Campbell would go on to develop The Hero’s Journey. This is a narrative pattern first developed in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Campbell identified “a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world’s mythic traditions.”

Perhaps even more interesting is the profound occurrence of this narrative pattern in storytelling. For example, one Star Wars fan page includes a nifty chart explaining how both Star Wars and The Matrix films follow the Hero’s Journey pattern in detail. This IMDb list includes over 60 films which trace the Hero’s Journey motif — from Fight Club, to Gladiator, to Kung Fu Panda, to Avatar.

This thematic reoccurrence of a “universal heroic journey” in art and story is reflective of “the rules of reality.” One of those “rules” involves heroes and heroism. We instinctively yearn for heroes and aspire, ourselves, to be heroic. In many ways, this pining ultimately culminates in Christ. Jesus is the ultimate hero and all our aspirations to heroism coalesce in Him. (I’ve written at length about this in The Hero’s Journey as Divine Blueprint.)

The thematic reoccurrence of a “universal heroic journey” in art and story is reflective of “the rules of reality.”

The Matrix is a good example of this. CRI summarizes how Neo, the central figure in The Matrix, represents a Christ figure:

The Christ symbolism woven into the story also is obvious. Morpheus, like John the Baptist, heralds the prophesied coming of ‘the One’ (Neo), who will free people from their bondage to the Matrix. Neo is sought by the satanic gatekeeper (Agent Smith), is betrayed by a Judas (Cypher), is killed, is resurrected by the breath (a kiss) of Trinity, and ascends into the clouds as he heralds his and his followers’ intention to preach their ‘gospel’ to all creation. 

However, like Frank Herbert, the Wachowskis (directors of the Matrix trilogy) inevitably deconstructed the film and their heroic character. In a brief interview, they explained,

…the first movie is sort of classical in its approach, the second movie is deconstructionist and an assault on all the things you thought to be true in the first movie…and the third movie is the most ambiguous, because it asks you to actually participate in the construction of meaning.

So rather than build upon the biblical / traditional hero motifs, the directors deconstructed them in the following films. It’s no wonder that others concluded, “the sequels pretty much destroy the idea that Neo is a messianic archetype.”

Nevertheless, the first Matrix film, and the response of its directors, remains a fine example of how authors and creatives, perhaps inadvertently, reflect the “rules of reality” and rush to deconstruct them.

Another film series that followed a similar arc was Star Wars. Not only did George Lucas incorporate thematic elements of The Hero’s Journey into the space opera, but there are numerous religious allusions in the saga. One of the most predominant allusions is its protagonist, Luke Skywalker, whom some have compared to a Christ-figure. One author writes, “it’s impossible to ignore the mythological embodiment of the story of Christ in the figure of Luke.”

Skywalker, however, nearly suffered the same fate as other heroes. The Last Jedi (episode VIII of IX) is often considered one of the worst Star Wars films ever made. There were numerous reasons why fans hated the film. One of the main reasons was that Luke was portrayed as “a jaded, pessimistic dick who want[ed] to forget about all the Jedi stuff.” Ben van Welzen writes:

Formerly an unshakable defender of goodness and hope, the Luke we see in The Last Jedi has become jaded, haggard, and cynical, isolating himself on a private island to die along with the Jedi faith. A now-infamous image sums up Luke’s transformation: after Rey (Daisy Ridley) hands Luke a lightsaber with seven movies’ worth of history and reverence, a history that resonates with the fans as much as it should with Luke, he carelessly throws it behind his back and silently trudges away.

After significant backlash by Star Wars fans, the studio hired JJ. Abrams to helm the final episode of the trilogy in hopes of correcting course. Writing for Forbes, Paul Tassi summarizes, “It isn’t just that JJ Abrams spent the entire first hour of Rise of Skywalker ‘fixing’ The Last Jedi. When you actually view the trilogy as a whole now it’s…almost not even a trilogy at all. It’s a duology… Abrams didn’t just try to correct The Last Jedi, he flat-out obliterated it.” This included Luke’s return as a Force Ghost in The Rise of Skywalker, catching the same lightsaber he’d chucked in the previous episode, saying, “A Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect.”

So despite the director’s attempt to deconstruct the undisputed hero of the series, Truth outed him. And once again, the “rules of reality” remain undefeated.

Another example of this odd little dance between authors / creatives and the “rules of reality” can be seen in Alan Moore’s classic, Watchman. The central narrator of the story is Rorschach, a socially awkward and ruthlessly fair superhero. He’s a broken man who’s been permanently warped after encountering child murder. Rorschach’s costume is black-and-white, as is his approach to life. Yet despite his flaws, Rorschach remains the most unbendingly ethical of his superhero companions. 

In Reason Magazine, Brian Doherty views Rorschach as “the moral center” of the story. In Rorschach Doesn’t Shrug, Doherty describes Rorschach’s worldview this way:

There are good guys and bad guys, and the bad guys deserve to get it, good and hard. Rorschach’s mission, from which he will not diverge, is to give it to them, no matter what the demands of law, government, or social mores. He lives by his objective understanding of right and wrong.

At the story’s end  — spoiler alert —  upon learning of a deceptive plan to frame another superhero for mass murder, Rorschach pledges to tell the truth. He will not lie to save face. However, his unyielding commitment to justice leads to his execution… at the hands of his fellow superheroes. Or as Doherty summarizes it, Rorschach “sacrifices himself in the name of avenging the deaths of millions who he doesn’t know. He does it for another reason as well… the truth, the facts of reality.”

Because of his sacrifice and unbending integrity, Rorschach became the most popular character in Watchmen. 

But apparently the author, Alan Moore, didn’t like this. Sound familiar?

Apparently, Moore intended Rorschach to be a bad guy. But to his dismay, he became a hero to fans. In his interview with LeJorne Pindling of Street Law Productions in 2008, Moore explained, “Rorschach became the most popular character in Watchmen. I meant him to be a bad example, but I have people come up to me in the street saying, ‘I am Rorschach! That is my story!'”

But despite Alan Moore intending to make Rorschach a “bad guy,” Truth outed him. Rorschach’s “unshakeable moral principles” and willingness to sacrifice himself for truth makes him a hero, a good guy.  

Sadly, this pattern is not unique to the authors and artists, songs and stories, mentioned above. There are many, many other examples. Truth exists and all good storytelling reflects that Truth… despite its author’s potential objections. 

I still recall seeing the film Juno (2007) after hearing about its pro-life message. The story’s about Juno, a 16 year-old girl who, after a one-night stand, discovers that she’s pregnant. However, Juno decides to forego an abortion and give her child up for adoption. The film was enthusiastically embraced by pro-life advocates. Even the official National Right to Life page has recognized the movie for its “undeniable pro-life message.” Of course, this didn’t sit right with its creator. Diablo Cody, the screenwriter of the film, relentlessly pushed back against that interpretation. She is described as “vociferously pro-choice,” even telling The Hollywood Reporter that “she was horrified when her Catholic high school thanked her for writing a pro-life film.” Her response: “I was like, ‘I f***ing hate all of you.'” Over decade after the film’s release, Cody now regrets it, saying she probably wouldn’t write the film today.

But perhaps even more revealing is the statement the screenwriter made to the Hollywood Reporter saying, “My objective as an artist is to be a traitor to that [pro-life] culture, not to uplift it.”

Diablo Cody, and her relationship with her own art, is a painful reminder of an important precept — We can’t ignore the “rules of reality.” The fact that an audience sees the Truth behind a certain film, book, or song, only pains those who live in denial of that Truth. Authors who “leave the interpretation up to the reader” often betray their intentions when they object to a given interpretation. If the truth resides in ANY interpretation, then ALL interpretations are valid. However, such an approach denies the “rules of reality.” The reality behind Juno is that abortion ends a human life. Thus, giving a child up for adoption, rather than aborting it, is the right thing to do. Sadly, Diablo Cody, and many other artists, seems less concerned with what is right and true, than she does producing agenda-driven content.

Dallas Willard said, “Truth reveals reality, and reality can be described as what we humans run into when we are wrong, a collision in which we always lose.”  The “rules of reality” will always win. Even when the author denies that reality. Truth will always out itself… no matter what the author’s intends.

 

The post Truth Will Out Itself… No Matter What the Author Intends appeared first on deCOMPOSE.

The audiobook version of Christian Horror: On the Compatibility of a Biblical Worldview and the Horror Genre is now available on Spotify. Brian Godawa, screenwriter and author of Chronicles of the Nephilim and Cruel Logic: The Philosopher Killer says this about the book:

Frighteningly profound. Duran’s balanced reasoning and sound biblical exegesis provides a sure foundation for a theology of horror for Christians. He shows with great literary and storytelling insight how both the Bible and other stories use horror as a genre to communicate God, goodness, truth and beauty.

“Christian Horror” is now available at Spotify.

The post “Christian Horror” Audiobook Now Available on Spotify appeared first on deCOMPOSE.

Most trace the origins of “cozy fiction” to the emergence of “cozy mysteries.” Emily Martin writes, “Cozy mysteries are still a fairly recent development in the mystery genre. The term ‘cozy mystery’ was coined in the late 20th century at a time when contemporary writers were trying to recreate the feel of the mystery novels from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.” Tirzah Price adds, “The cozy mystery genre has its roots in early 20th century British mysteries (think Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers)… and as a response to the hardboiled crime fiction that became popular in the U.S. in the mid-20th century.” So “cozy fiction” was both an attempt recreate the classic “whodunits” of the Golden Age while also distancing itself from the grittier, hardboiled noir of the postwar era.

The contemporary “cozy mystery” genre is incredibly popular. A search for the term on Amazon lands over 60,000 results. In fact, the “cozy” genre has spawned numerous subgenres. For example, now you can find subgenres of “cozy romance,” “cozy fantasy,” “cozy westerns,” and even “cozy science fiction.” 

So what is “cozy fiction”? Author Karen Cioffi notes several features of “cozies,” as they are oft-called. The books exude “comfort, warmth, and light-heartedness.” They transport readers “to peaceful settings” and offer storylines “that emphasize community, simpler times, and emotional resolution.” These stories offer “nostalgia and simplicity,” and provide “escapism” and “finding relief.”

She concludes:

In an unpredictable world, cozy literature’s structured and predictable narrative style is soothing. Readers know what to expect: a slow, leisurely build-up, a connectable-to protagonist, and a satisfying resolution.

There’s a kind of security in knowing that everything will work out in the end; it’s quite the contrast to the often unresolved, cliff-hanging nature of modern news or the unpredictability of life itself.

This predictability, where everything will fall into place, provides a sense of control and stability for readers.

Which brings us to the latest iteration of cozy fiction — “cozy horror.”

At first glance, the very nature of cozy storytelling appears antithetical to the horror genre. Horror is rarely characterized by “comfort, warmth, and light-heartedness.” Readers of the genre are not looking for “peaceful settings” nor “finding relief.” Not only are horror tales often “unpredictable,” there’s no guarantee that “everything will work out in the end.” Nevertheless, despite these dissimilarities, “Horror” is the latest iteration of the “cozy” genre. 

At first glance, the very nature of cozy storytelling appears antithetical to the horror genre.

So what is “cozy horror”?

Well, this is where things get sticky.

A recent episode of the horror podcast, Books in the Freezer, describes cozy horror as having “spooky elements,” but also being “low stakes” and knowing you’re going to have “a happy ending.” Or as the Porter House Review puts it, cozy horror is fiction which follows the general conventions of the horror genre but “with a happy ending, or low stakes…or even if the stakes are big, it’s surrounded by humor, or a love interest, or things that kind of negate those big stakes.”

In her article on the subject, Kate Stallworth explains:

The perils of cozy horror are far enough from reality that readers are in no danger of experiencing them, and so we are free to enjoy the romp through a ghost-filled graveyard, a towering Gothic castle, a witch’s cottage with a crackling fireside hearth.

Likewise, in their article Frightfully Delightful: A Guide to Writing Cozy Horror, the folks at the Campfire Team summarize, 

Cozy horror strikes a balance between spine-tingling tales and lighthearted enjoyment, offering a reading experience that can best be described as ‘comfortably scary.’ In other words, it’s equal parts frightful and delightful.

Imagine stories where the supernatural or otherworldly is imbued with a sense of humor and familiarity—think socially anxious vampires and sentient jack-o-lanterns rather than bloodthirsty killers and gory deaths.

Settings are spooky but there is a certain inherent coziness to them—’homey’ haunted houses and cottages, candlelit school hallways, and misty forests that feel a bit scary, but also familiar. Characters still have to face their greatest fears, but they get to walk away (largely) unharmed. Bad things might happen, but good things happen, too.

In a way, cozy horror has an added sense of realism to it as well—it pokes fun at all the classic horror tropes, and it gives characters hope.

But while genre-blending is a common practice in the world of literature, melding cozy fiction with the horror genre has not been without pushback.

In her article at The Mary Sue, Julia Glassman categorizes this pushback. She notes that some objectors claim that “cozy horror is an oxymoron.” Others see it as “infantilizing.” Still others claim that “coziness is gentrifying horror, or that cozy horror robs horror of its essence.” She argues, “Terror is the only metric by which horror is judged, and the more terrified a viewer or reader can stand to be, the better a horror fan they are.”

In this sense, cozy horror can’t be scary enough to be real horror. By ensuring “lighthearted enjoyment” and a “happy ending,” any terror — which is a central metric of the genre — is thus negated. 

Stallworth elaborates on these objections, suggesting that “the way cozy horror has been defined” proliferates a fundamental “misunderstanding” of the genre. 

Western horror fiction as we know it today originated in the 1790s when a handful of authors began to blend elements of 15th century fairy tales and then-modern Gothic literature. One of those authors was Anne Radcliffe, who also coined the dynamic on which the genre’s foundations are built in her essay ‘On the Supernatural in Poetry,’ published posthumously in 1826. Terror, Radcliffe proposed, was the discomfort of anticipation, the tension of a held breath. Conversely, horror was the moment of release, where the reader is confronted head-on with a disturbing idea.

While stories that evoke “terror” and the head-on confrontation with “a disturbing idea” may contain many different literary and tonal distinctives, “tension and confrontation are the central forces of the story.” Because of this, “the tense balancing act of shock and suspense, is the defining element of successful horror literature.”

Which is why Stallworth maintains that cozy fiction and the horror genre are mostly incompatible:

A story that provides its audience a reassuring, insulated distance from discomfort and conflict is not terrifying; you cannot remove the primordial unease from the horror genre and expect it to retain its shape.

This idea of “remov[ing] the primordial unease from the horror genre” appears essential to the conceit of “cozy horror.” The reader of that genre delves in knowing the “discomfort and conflict” of the tale will be sanitized; “primordial unease” will be “imbued with a sense of humor and familiarity” and thus rendered only “comfortably scary.” 

By neutering horror of its essential elements, real-world evils are also inadvertently trivialized.  

But removing the “discomfort and conflict” of the genre undermines its requisite objective. For by neutering horror of its essential elements, real-world evils are also inadvertently trivialized.  

In his article on this emerging genre, Nicky Cammarata asks Why Is This Hitting Now? In other words, what about our present culture has facilitated the emergence of cozy horror? A fascinating question, to be sure. He answers thusly,

Because we’re tired. Because the real world is already a dumpster fire. Because sometimes we want to be unsettled, not undone.

Cozy horror thrives in a cultural moment where:

Traditional horror feels exhausting

Trauma fatigue is real

The aestheticization of doom feels more bearable than its brutal realism

It lets us explore the shadows without getting dragged under. It gives us emotional permission to feel creeped out while still staying safe.

It is oft-noted that horror stories provide a type of catharsis for their fans, with some even suggesting that imbibing the genre can be therapeutic. In this sense, scary stories offer a safe space to confront our fears. Some have even described this practice as “exposure therapy.” One academic analysis concluded,

…horror films provide a safe space for confronting existential fears, including death and the unknown while offering emotional release through intense fear and moral resolution.

That such confrontations correlate to real “existential fears,” whether it be random deaths, supernatural evil, or apocalyptic dread, is inherent to the genre. The Exorcist scares us (as do many exorcism tales) because it draws from real-world parallels. The author, William Peter Blatty, was explicit about his belief in both God and the Devil. To “cozy” such a tale would be to trivialize its essential message. 

While the “aestheticization of doom” may be intended to help us cope with life’s terrors, it only minimizes them. Toothless vampires are little threat. So while fictionally de-fanging the nocturnal beast might make for an easier read, it also unwittingly downplays real-life monsters. And those who fight them.

While the “aestheticization of doom” may be intended to help us cope with life’s terrors, it only minimizes them.

Chesterton famously said, “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” Likewise, the horror story tells us Darkness is real. Of course, we needn’t be told this. Each one of us knows, to varying degrees, the reality of sickness, death, violence, madness, madmen, and spiritual Darkness. In other words, dragons are real. By framing dragons as harmless kittens, we not only undermine the existence of real evil, but we demotivate dragon slayers. When real “existential terrors” are neutered, catharsis becomes a walk in the park. Such “dragons” needn’t be killed, only mocked.

So while the “aestheticization of doom” may help “brutal realism” seem more bearable, it also inadvertently makes “doom” appear more trivial. But can doom truly be beautified or minimized? More importantly, should it?

So, for me, cozy horror still gets the side-eye. Of course, I’m all for genre splicing and creative storytelling. But “removing the primordial unease from the horror genre” is akin to featuring toothless vampires. Better to frame moral and spiritual Darkness as something actually scary, than something without bite.

The post ‘Cozy Horror’ and the Aestheticization of Doom appeared first on deCOMPOSE.

Childhood is full of horrors. Which is why the horror genre is full of children. Films like It, the Babadook, The Sixth Sense, Poltergeist, and many more, all feature children grappling with real, or imagined, terrors. Indeed, growing up in a fallen, evil world is a horror every child must face. It’s no wonder, then, that so many stories blend horror with the angst of childhood.

The latest film from Angel Studios, Sketch, does just that. It’s a departure from the studio’s previous films containing overt faith-based content. Which, apparently, concerns many of their core audience.

Sketch is about a widower and his children who are wrestling with the grief of their mother’s passing. The creative daughter, Amber, begins drawing monsters as a way of processing her pain. Through unusual circumstances, those sketched monsters come to life and begin terrorizing the community. The family races to stop the monsters they inadvertently released, while processing their loss and grief. 

While “Sketch” has received relatively positive reviews among mainstream reviewers (the “family horror-comedy” currently stands at 96% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes), many Christian parents have objected to the film’s content.

Terry Mattingly, writing for Religion Unplugged, described some of the parental backlash Angel studio executives received to the film. 

One Angel Guild member said: ‘This movie is demonic. I pulled my family out within 10 minutes.’

Others shared concerns about demons, and [Angel Studios co-founder Jeffrey] Harmon said ‘dozens and dozens and dozens’ said the movie needed a PG-13 rating because of language and horror issues.

One supporter bluntly asked if Angel is still a ‘Christian-based platform.’ Harmon stressed that its motto is that it seeks to ‘amplify light,’ but that also means ‘demons are real’ and believers must defeat them.

However, parent reviews of Sketch on the Common Sense Media page were largely mixed, many expressing anger at the “family-friendly” labeling of the film which contained mild profanity and darker content. For example, commenter GranolaMom wrote, “We naively trusted the Angel Studios label (which will now change) and Common Sense Media… There was nothing in this movie that spoke to Christian values. If you plan on watching this, please know that the movie will likely be disturbing and troubling – even for teens.” Michael W gives the film one-star, simply saying, “This is a horror movie.” Another reviewer said the film has “demonic… extremely dark spiritual undertones.” Similarly, Emily B wrote, “My kids left the theater crying. Dark and ocultic (sic)” and concluded that Common Sense Media’s endorsement of the film was “big time bait and switch” writing, “I accidentally exposed my kid to her first demonic horror movie. What a massive disappointment by Angel!!!”

Even popular influencers Damien and Kenady, who boast over 84K TikTok followers, called the film “satanic,” suggesting it contains “demonic overtones” and “a demonic spirit.” Their video review cites one-star ratings from disgruntled parents who left the theater with their children and chastises the studio for caving to worldly voices. 

Of course, the backlash against Angel Studios did not go unnoticed by secular media sites, some of which gleefully mocked parents concerns about the film’s darker subject matter. The reviewer at Bloody Disgusting writes,

Concerned parents, many of whom identify as Christian moms, have taken to social media to express their disapproval — with some even calling for a boycott. These inflammatory remarks have been perpetuated by conservative voices who seemingly haven’t seen the movie.

A recent post from the film’s official Facebook page highlighting audience reviews only stoked the flames, contrasting five-star praise with one-star condemnations.

‘This movie is demonic. I pulled my family out within 10 minutes,’ reads one review. Another warns, ‘PARENTS BEWARE. Do not be fooled by the PG rating.’

So is the film worthy of such kickback? Perhaps partly. At least some of the audience response to Sketch seems to be the result of poor marketing.

One reviewer at Hollywood in Toto described this as a “what-were-they-thinking moment” for Angel Studios. “The marketing materials are sugar coating how unsettling it is,” Barry Wurst writes. Whereas the studio is selling the film as “a dark family fantasy,” the audience response is that “it’s much, much darker than that.” For one, Sketch contains frequent occurrences of mild profanity, a bugaboo for many Christian audiences. Furthermore, the film contains no overt faith elements. In fact, writer-director Seth Worley never “meant for this to be a faith-based film.” Compounding all this are the horror elements of the film, which include insinuations of bloody violence and demonic entities.  

As a result of pushback against the film, Angel Studios released a statement instituting a new Recommendation rating. As Jeff Harmon, Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer for Angel put it, “The MPA, while helpful, is not precise enough for our families.” According to the updated guidelines,

Think of SKETCH as landing somewhere between PG and PG-13. The movie has a mix of thrilling moments, light peril, a few sharp words, and some pretty intense (but very colorful) monster scenes. This is a movie designed to thrill, make you laugh, and pull at your heart—but it’s not made for toddlers.

The studio’s update is, at the least, an admission of a marketing mishap.

Nevertheless, some elements of parental reaction are clearly over-the-top. In his article, Mattingly cites Steve Taylor, Christian musician and producer of the film:

‘This movie asks if children can be trusted to handle death and grief or should we try to shelter them from that,’ said Taylor, reached by telephone. ‘Some people — the new term is ‘snowplow parents’ — try to clear everything out of the way for their children. That’s an issue for Christian families and lots of other people. ‘But scary things happen in life. We have to be honest with children about that.’

Christian parents do well to monitor the media intake of their children. Like it or not, some things can be a “demonic gateway” to sin and evil. However, Christian parents are notorious for pop-cultural overreaction, often seeing all forms of fictional magic, scary images, and even profanity, as explicitly evil. Taylor is correct in the need for Christian parents to not always shield our kids from the “scary” aspects of life. While the ‘snowplow parent’ seeks to “clear everything out of the way for their children,” biblical parenting means helping our children process evil and grief in the light of the Gospel. 

One Christian reviewer summarized:

There’s a moment in the film when, after seeing the shockingly dark and violent content of his troubled daughter’s sketchbook, a father encourages the girl, ‘I think life is all about balancing the good and the bad. If you don’t carry the good with you too, it will only make the bad stronger. I’m not saying get rid of the bad. I’m just saying you might want to include a little bit of the good.’ Sketch internalizes that message, balancing light and dark with an honesty that doesn’t do a disservice to either.

…Sketch allows space for some darker elements, but the emphasis is on finding light through that darkness.

The backlash to Sketch provides a unique window into contemporary Christian art and evangelical culture. On the one hand, the audience for “family friendly,” Christian content, is a devoted group. Angel Studios has, to a degree, earned that devotion. Nevertheless, this same audience can be rather unforgiving in its tolerance for PG-13 content. This makes marketing a rather tenuous affair, especially as it concerns darker thematic elements. Sadly, reactions to Sketch are a reminder of evangelicals’ Fundamentalists roots. Depicting monsters becomes perilous for the Puritan; at worst, portraying the demonic becomes a “demonic gateway.” Even if said monsters are simply stand-ins for real-world grief.

So while it’s good to see Christian studios developing darker, more “mature,” content, it’s troubling that this particular attempt was met with such disdain from so many believers. Yes, the studio is right to self-correct. Marketing matters. Nevertheless, rather than shielding our children from darkness, we Christian parents should equip them to grapple with evil and grief through the Gospel. Snowplow parenting is not biblical parenting. Because if we truly want to raise a generation of “knights,” banning “dragons” will not help.

The post ‘Snowplow Parents’ Overreact to Angel Studios’ New Family Horror-Comedy appeared first on deCOMPOSE.

The Church is not immune to scandal. Christians, like everyone, are sinners. Nevertheless, many Christians suffer disappointment, even abandon their faith, when a prominent Christian leader is exposed as a liar, pervert, or thief. What can Christians do to prevent their faith from being swayed by the un-Christian conduct of trusted pastors, leaders, or friends?

***

“The Church is like Noah’s ark,” said Reinhold Niebuhr. “If it weren’t for the storm outside, we couldn’t stand the stink inside.” 

Anyone who’s been a part of the Church for any amount of time, is familiar with the “stink” of religious life. People let you down, they disappoint. Some abuse their power. Others connive and deceive. The Church, like every other institution, suffers from the humans who comprise it.

Nevertheless, like Noah’s ark, the answer is not to leave the boat. Yet sadly, many do.

Statistics tell us that church attendance has declined in the United States. Likewise, spiritual deconstruction has resulted in an exodus of exvangelicals from the church. While some of these “leavers” have simply transitioned into new denominational affiliations, many have drifted into some form of DIY spiritualism, untethered to organized religion, and awash in pagan thought and practice. The reasons for this religious decline vary. Some report political differences, while others note intellectual doubts and philosophical objections. However, most surveys recognize that “spiritual trauma” or religious “abuse” play a part, often citing institutional scandal as a factor. Why identify with an institution that has so many flaws and failures?

The existence of scandal, hypocrisy, fraud, and deceit in the Church is validation of its message — humans are sinners in need of a savior.

Nevertheless, as painful and disappointing as religious scandals can be, there are very good reasons to remain a Christian. In fact, the existence of scandal, hypocrisy, fraud, and deceit in the Church is validation of its message — humans are sinners in need of a savior.

Author Frederick Buechner wrote that God chooses “…for his holy work in the world… lamebrains and misfits and nitpickers and holier-than-thous and stuffed shirts and odd ducks and egomaniacs and milquetoasts and closet sensualists.” Scripture never portrays the Church as sinlessly perfect. It is comprised of extremely flawed, broken people. In fact, it is our confession of spiritual brokenness, not spiritual perfection, that grants us admission into the Body of Christ.  

While Christians are called to live holy and blameless lives, they are never portrayed as perfect. The apostle James wrote, “We all stumble in many ways” (Jam. 3:2). John said, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (I Jn. 1:8 NIV). And the apostle Paul put it bluntly, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). 

Contrary to what some believe, religious works and good moral living is not what makes someone a Christian. The prophet Isaiah declared that “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Is. 64:6). No amount of “good deeds” can cure us of our condition. The Old Testament sacrificial system, steeped in the blood of animals, could not permanently satisfy the penalty for sin. “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins,” said the writer of the Book of Hebrews (Heb. 10:4). In the fullness of time, Jesus made atonement for His people (Heb. 2:17-18). Scripture said of Christ, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Cor. 5:21 NIV). The apostle Peter echoed these words saying, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (I Pet. 3:18 NIV). Because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), no amount of charity or good deeds can make us right before God. The Christian must look to Christ, and His atoning sacrifice, to be made “right.” 

This is why confession of sin plays such a huge part in spiritual health and growth. The Christian must live in a constant penitent state, acknowledging their sinfulness, and regularly turning to Christ for forgiveness. “If we confess our sins,” said the apostle John, “he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I Jn. 1:9). The writer of Proverbs put it this way: “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Prov. 28:13 NIV). In fact, confession of sin even extends to others. James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Jesus articulated this two-way forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He taught us to pray, “Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” (Matt. 6:12 NLT). Scripture is filled with commands, not just to humbly seek forgiveness from God, but to extend forgiveness to each other (Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13; Matt. 6:14).

In this sense, the Christian faith is not dependent upon Christian perfection. Sin is the great equalizer. Both the mega-church pastor and the lowliest parishioner are sinners, in need of God’s forgiveness. No Christian celebrity or spiritual leader is above the need for forgiveness.

This is why the Bible reveals its heroes darker sides. None of the saints are untouchable. Noah got drunk (Gen. 9:20-21). King David committed adultery (II Sa. 11). Rahab was a practicing prostitute (Josh. 2:1-24). The prophet Elijah suffered depression and suicidal thoughts (I Kings 19:4-8). Jonah ran from God’s call (Jonah 1). Moses was a murderer (Ex. 2:11-15). The apostle Paul hunted Christians (Acts 22). Peter denied Christ before others (Lk. 22:54-62). Scripture does not paint a pretty picture of its heroes. 

Because of this, we must take care to cultivate realistic expectations of other Christians, especially those in positions of power or celebrity. Yes, Scripture is clear that spiritual leaders will incur greater judgement (Jam. 3:1). Indeed, revelations of public scandal may be part of God’s promise to hold spiritual leaders to account! Meanwhile, the Christian layperson must avoid the temptation to venerate celebrity figures. There is no surer way to disappointment than to cultivate unrealistic expectations for our leaders. “All have sinned” (Rom. 3:23) said the apostle. Both the eloquent evangelist and the charismatic worship leader are sinners in need of forgiveness. Of course, low expectations can be equally debilitating. Striving to be Christlike and live with integrity are not unrealistic goals. However, acknowledging people’s quirks, idiosyncrasies, human fallibility, and unrighteousness, allows us to enter into far more realistic relationships with them. Knowing that my senior pastor is a sinner, like me, tempers my expectations. 

We must take care to cultivate realistic expectations of other Christians, especially those in positions of power or celebrity.

Another point to consider here is that the validity of the Christian faith does not rest upon the integrity of its representatives. Fallen men can argue persuasively for the existence of God. Why? Because evidence for the existence of God does not depend on any one person’s moral virtue. Indeed, a holy person can be a persuasive witness for the Almighty. But that person’s defection would not render God non-existent. The existence of God, the Resurrection of Christ, and the reliability of Scripture are not dependent upon the absence of church scandal. Christ’s Resurrection stands or falls on His claims and the historical evidence. The fact that a prominent evangelist or a charismatic worship leader are revealed to be manipulative sex addicts does nothing to change evidence for the Resurrection.  

The person whose faith is shaken because some professing Christian is revealed to be a liar or a pervert demonstrates a misplaced or under-developed faith. Biblical faith rests in God and His promises, not upon His followers. As such, the Christian must learn to personally develop a healthy relationship with God. Learning to hear God’s voice and apply His commands helps one develop such an autonomous relationship. Habits of prayer and Bible study can also help one grow spiritually. Furthermore, being firmly persuaded of our beliefs, the intellectual and philosophical undergirding of the Christian religion, can be tremendously assuring during times of emotional crisis. Frankly, many of those who defect from Christianity because of scandal or disappointment were never properly grounded to begin with! The believer who questions God and His promises just because a popular pastor defects, has not properly grounded themself in God and His promises. 

Frankly, this is one of the terrible fruits of celebrity culture. Even the first-century church was not immune to this phenomena. For example, the apostle Paul scolded the Corinthian Christians for cultivating schisms around popular ministers (I Cor. 3:4-9). Likewise, rather than revering the behind-the-scenes servant leader, Western Christians tend to segregate around “personalities.” We idolize charismatic speakers, media-savvy ministers, and musical performers. Mega-church services now often resemble concerts with smoke machines and multi-media presentations. While such churches may engage spiritual seekers, they also cultivate a celebrity-centricity, elevating Style above Substance, and conditioning members to be spectators rather than participants. 

For this reason, the young Christian must learn to get their eyes off of Man. No, this doesn’t mean we should forsake Christian fellowship and not seek out good teachers and healthy churches. The Bible commands us to remain in close fellowship with other believers (Heb. 10:25). Neither does it mean discipleship and mentoring are unimportant. Being taught by someone more mature in the faith can be invaluable. However, the foundation of the Christian faith is Christ, not Christians.

As the hymnist said,

“My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”

If a Christian’s “hope” is “built” on something other than Christ, no matter how “sweet the frame,” then it isn’t biblical faith.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be deeply disappointed and bothered by scandals. We SHOULD mourn when a prominent, influential Christian publicly confesses sin and/or is exposed. Some breeches of trust are so profound and so sinister, that spiritual discipline is necessary. Holding a fallen spiritual leader to account is not a violation of forgiveness. In fact, protecting abuse victims is a necessary part of such accountability. Being unshaken by scandal does not mean dismissing the culprits or ignoring the victims.

Nevertheless, our faith in God is not dependent upon the absolute integrity of His children. The Church does not stand or fall on the virtue of its members.

This is why, when Christ spoke of the Church, He spoke highly of it, proclaiming that even “the gates of hell will not overcome it” (Matt. 16:18). T.S. Eliot imitated the exuberance of Jesus’ statement when he said, “The True Church can never fail. For it is based upon a rock.” [mfn]T.S. Eliot, The Poems of T.S. Eliot Volume I: Collected and Uncollected Poems, Faber & Faber (2015), p. 524 [/mfn] Whereas some use the reality of scandals as evidence that the Church is compromised and failing, Jesus still described it as triumphant. In spite of the “lamebrains and misfits and nitpickers and holier-than thous…” the Church will never die. Even at its worst, “the gates of hell will not overcome it.” This is not a license for laziness and bad behavior. Rather, it is a sober reminder that the strength and vitality of the Church rests entirely in its Maker.

Scandal is a sad reality of our times. No one is immune from it. There is no spiritual leader or charismatic celebrity that is above sin and evil. For this reason, the Christian’s faith must rest in God, not Man. We must be careful to cultivate realistic expectations of other Christians, especially those in positions of power or celebrity. Conversely, this means developing a healthy relationship with God, being firmly persuaded of our beliefs, and finding assurances in God’s truth rather than the promises and performance of others. In this way, healthy Christian faith is always scandal proof.

The post How to ‘Scandal-Proof’ Your Faith (or Staying True to God when Others Don’t) appeared first on deCOMPOSE.

YA Fiction has become a valuable tool for educators, activists, and LGBTQ+ advocates seeking to indoctrinate young adults into progressive ideologies and aberrant sexual lifestyles.

This wasn’t always the case. Some suggest that Young Adult literature started as far back as Aesop’s Fables and the Canterbury Tales, with stories of adventure and morality. In the 1940s and 50s, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys “paved the way for modern YA which began to blossom in the 1960’s.” S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, is often considered one of the earliest identifiable YA novels, featuring a more realistic portrayal of then-contemporary adolescent issues. In A Short History of Queer YA Fiction, Daisy Porter suggests that the appearance of homosexuals in stories (around the late 1970’s) was a reflection of the times. Disapproval of gay lifestyles was still the consensus (though changing). Thus, portrayals of gays were often unflattering. But by the late 80’s and early 90’s, gay characters came into their own. Porter calls these books “gaytopian” novels, “where coming out and bullying weren’t really issues for the gay characters.” From this era, Queer YA Fiction moved to openly celebrating gay novels. During the 2000’s, LGBTQ+ acclamation merged with multiculturalism and critical race theory, producing a spate of “international gay characters.” Asian, Middle Eastern, Indian, and even “American queer teens of color” began to make regular appearances.

 

Now, more than a decade after the writing of Porter’s essay, LGBTQ YA books published by mainstream American publishers have exploded in popularity, experiencing a 300% increase. USA Today noted that LGBTQ book sales have soared, nearly doubling sales (as of 2022). That growth was spearheaded by YA titles.

• “A classmate’s unwanted advances lead 16-year-old Ivy on a cross-country road trip to get an abortion. [The author’s] examination of the stigma surrounding abortion, small-town conservative attitudes, and support from sometimes unlikely places make Ivy’s journey a must-read for all young adult readers.”
• “Two neurodiverse teens find love together over the course of a summer internship in Europe. Tilly’s spunk, quirky attitude, and search for understanding in this opposites-attract rom-com make this a perfect match for fans of happily-ever-afters and realistic fiction.”
• “Transmasc Gem moved to small-town Georgia—closer to their Seminole roots—but fears they’re losing their mind, until the new girl informs them they’re both reincarnated gods—and soulmates. Intersectionally diverse with strong Native representation…”
• “Over the course of 10 dates, Ryan and Avery fall in love. Fans of Levithan’s Two Boys Kissing will recognize Ryan and Avery and rejoice in learning more about their story. A swoonworthy romance that will have readers reminiscing on their first love.”
• “Manny, a queer teen cast out of his devout religious family, is determined to reunite with his younger sister, who is still living with their adoptive parents. [The author] uses a nonlinear time line to tell a compelling story that explores trauma, abuse, and white saviorism.”
• “Vanja’s been a hero and a villain, but when her newest con accidentally wakes a sleeping goddess, she’ll have to work with new and old friends to keep from becoming a martyr. Thoughtful representation of asexuality and consent is woven in as Vanja and Eimeric’s romance evolves.”

We Need Diverse Books was created to fight for more diversity in children’s and young adult book publishing at every level, among authors, editors, marketers, agents, publishers, and more. First and foremost, they wanted authors from marginalized communities to be given opportunities to have their voices heard in the overwhelmingly white, heterosexual, cisgender industry. And the results have been clear.

Pushing Back Against a Culture of Grooming

Scholastic’s resource page for Educators, Caregivers, and Advocates, a page since deleted by the group, is up-front about their goals and methodology:

Books and literature are never neutral; by engaging with queer literature for children and young adults, you are disrupting the status quo that implies being cisgender, heterosexual, and allosexual are the default. You are showing children an expanded way of thinking and being that validates all children and all people.

Please notice: Scholastic is prescribing specific reading material for children that is designed to “disrupt the status quo” and “expand their way of thinking.” Though many hedge against the label of “grooming,” this is a textbook definition of the process. Academics, educators, and media are producing content for our children that is designed to destabilize and disrupt traditional family values and moral norms and reprogram their thinking regarding themselves, society, and human sexuality. 

One result of such blatant indoctrination has seen the emergence of groups like Gays Against Groomers, “a 501(c)4 nonprofit of gays, lesbians, and others in the community who oppose the sexualization, indoctrination, and mutilation of children under the guise of radical ‘LGBTQIA+’ activism.” According to their website, the group asserts that such intentional indoctrination is “mass-scale child abuse being perpetuated on an entire generation.”

The emotional and physical wreckage suffered by victims of this “sexualization, indoctrination, and mutilation of children” is tragic.

Take Chloe Cole. Cole is part of a growing movement of detransitioners (detransitioning is “the process of stopping or reversing a gender transition”). At the age of 13, Cole was put on puberty blockers. By 15, she’d had top surgery, an elective mastectomy. By 16, she realized she’d been misled. Her testimony before the U.S. congress is both riveting and gut-wrenching.

“I speak to you today as a victim of one of the biggest medical scandals in the history of the United States of America,” she began. Upon recommendation of a medical professional, she was given puberty blockers and then testosterone. Her body underwent violent changes. “My voice will forever be deeper, my jawline sharper, my nose longer, my bone structure permanently masculinized, my Adam’s apple more prominent, my fertility unknown. I look in the mirror sometimes, and I feel like a monster.” She mourned never being able to breastfeed a child, but instead having massive scars across her chest and skin grafts where her nipples used to be which weep fluid. Cole concluded, “So what message do I want to bring to American teenagers and their families? I didn’t need to be lied to. I needed compassion. I needed to be loved. I needed to be given therapy that helped me work through my issues, not affirmed my delusion that by transforming into a boy, it would solve all my problems… This needs to stop. You alone can stop it. Enough children have already been victimized by this barbaric pseudoscience.”

Thankfully, Cole, and other detransitioners, are leading victims of this “barbaric pseudoscience” to heal. Meanwhile, publishers of YA fiction continue to celebrate and advocate this dangerous and destructive lifestyle choice, while ignoring these “marginalized voices.”

In fact, the same vocal sources which indoctrinate youth into aberrant sexual lifestyles, abandon them when they finally come to their senses. The authors of How Big Tech Turns Kids Trans noted, “research shows that the majority of those who transition were persuaded to do so online through social media, blogs, and YouTube.” Conversely, in Detransition-Related Needs and Support: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey researchers found that detransitioners experienced a “major lack of support… from medical and mental health systems and from the LGBT+ community.” In other words, the same networks and groups which encouraged gender exploration and “coming out,” are notoriously silent when the same individuals were “going back.” It’s why some are calling detransitioners The Silenced Victims of the Transgender Movement.

Pushing back on such forces of grooming means supporting and platforming those courageous individuals who have detransitioned. Another similarly courageous group is ex-gays.

Individuals like Becket Cook are a good example. Cook was a very successful gay man, working in Hollywood, when he became a Christian and left the LGBTQ+ lifestyle. Cook’s podcast now regularly features other ex-gays and detransitioners, along with celebrities, apologists, and clinical professionals. Rosario Butterfield is another important figure. Once, a leading lesbian activist at a popular university, Butterfield surrendered her life to Christ. Her testimony as told in  The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert is a fascinating account of a deeply militant LGBTQ+ activist and her change of heart. Then there’s groups like the Changed Movement which highlights testimonials of LGBTQ+ individuals who struggled through their brokenness and found their way to spiritual health through Jesus Christ.

***

The “sexualization, indoctrination, and mutilation of children” is a terrible reality of our world. Sadly, much of this process is conducted in plain sight, by adults, educators, and caregivers. Perhaps the most important response of the concerned parent to this reality is simply being informed about the forces at work to shape your kids lives and thinking. As the folks at Scholastic correctly noted, “Books and literature are never neutral.” The same is true of films and art. Thus, being aware of the content your child consumes, and its messaging, is a critical step in educating them and guiding them into truth and health. In part, this means recognizing that YA fiction is not always just entertainment or an innocent diversion. Sometimes it’s a tool for political activists, anti-racists, and LGBTQ+ groomers that will permanently scar your child.

The post YA Fiction as a Tool for Political Activists, Anti-Racists, and LGBTQ+ Groomers appeared first on deCOMPOSE.

“This is the most serious problem within Protestant Christianity that I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

Pastor Derek Kubilius, vicar of Uniontown United Methodist Church in Uniontown, Ohio, shared these cautionary words with Vice Magazine back in October 2021. Kubilius hosted Crossover Q, a now-defunct podcast that aimed to prevent the spread of QAnon conspiracies among evangelical Christians. Despite the prevalence of issues like child trafficking, poverty, violent crime, drug abuse, family disintegration, and moral decline, Kubilius believed QAnon was “the most serious problem within Protestant Christianity” in his lifetime.

Q (as QAnon was called) originated sometime in 2017. Supposedly, an insider within the Trump administration who had “Q clearance,” a high level security clearance, began anonymously posting info to 4chan, an English-language imageboard. The posts, called “Q drops,” consisted of an amalgam of conspiratorial claims, mostly centering around the belief that “President Donald Trump [was] waging a shadow war against a cabal of Satan-worshipping, child-eating pedophiles who [were] conspiring to obstruct and overthrow him.” A fringe following began, soon fueled by media reports of crazed “alt right” devotees with cultish allegiance. It wasn’t long before evangelicals were indicted in these claims. 

The reportage was emphatic: 

• Will Christian America Withstand the Pull of QAnon?
• Evangelicals need to address the QAnoners in our midst
• Is QAnon the new Christian right? With evangelicals fading, a new insanity rises
• Why QAnon has Attracted So Many White Evangelicals
• QAnon conspiracies infect American churches
• Why So Many Evangelicals are Susceptible to QAnon Craziness
• QAnon has merged with white Christian evangelicals, experts say – and the results could be lethal
• Survey Finds Wide Acceptance Of QAnon Ideas Among Evangelicals

The assertion that evangelicals were disproportionally susceptible to QAnon, and other potentially dangerous conspiracy theories, was a repeated claim made by legacy media and many evangelical influencers. However, the claims made me curious.

I’m an active participant in an 8,000+ member SoCal mega-church. As an ordained minister and former pastor, I travel in many religious circles and have lots of friends in ministry. However, at that time, I’d never even heard of QAnon; I didn’t know a single person who claimed to believe in Q nor did any of my ministerial friends ever confess to having a problem with the spread of QAnon in their church. So the claims that the evangelical church was overrun by rampant Q infestation left me not a little dubious.

It led to some investigation on my part. As a result of that research, I wrote Christians & Conspiracy Theories: Investigating Alternative Truth Claims without Buying in to Fear, Fanaticism, or Tribalism. What I eventually discovered was that much of the data being cited to corroborate the claim of evangelical Q adjacency was sloppy and quite exaggerated.

For example, defining exactly what Q adherents believed was all over the map. Take the Southern Poverty Law Center which described Q as an “umbrella term for a sprawling spiderweb of right-wing internet conspiracy theories with antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ elements.” Some saw the network as a “rebranded Nazi cult,” while others believed that “QAnon-linked beliefs have inspired violent acts and have eroded trust in democratic institutions and the electoral process.” Beliefs as far-fetched as that President Joe Biden was “a malfunctioning robot disguised as a human” and that “lizard people control the world” were even attributed to Q followers. The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) described the incorporation of numerous conspiracies into Q as a “kitchen sink approach.”

This convolution of multiple claims and theories prompted the BBC News to admit “there are so many offshoots, detours and internal debates that the total list of QAnon claims is enormous—and often contradictory.”

Further compounding my suspicions about the claims were the ambiguous analytics often attached to such findings. For example, detailed polling forced one author at Wired magazine to admit that “only a fraction” of those labeled QAnon adherents actually believe the group’s most outlandish claims. In QAnon Supporters Aren’t Quite Who You Think They Are, Gilad Edelman wrote,

Until now, polling on QAnon has generally gone no further than asking people how they feel about the movement. This left unexplored what it actually means when someone says they believe in QAnon. Brian Schaffner, a political scientist at Tufts University, recently sought to find out. In September [2020], he conducted a nationally representative online poll asking respondents not just whether they support QAnon, but also whether they believe in eight specific false claims, including four that are central to the QAnon worldview. The poll was funded by Luminate and published by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The results suggest that most ‘QAnon supporters’ have never even heard of, let alone believe, some of the most outrageous claims associated with it. (italics mine)

At one point, the author even admitted that some data tended to “heavily overstate the level of belief” among actual Q followers.

“Most ‘QAnon supporters’ have never even heard of, let alone believe, some of the most outrageous claims associated with it.”

But not only did I learn that Q was a tangled thicket of conspiracy claims with marginally devoted adherents, but that evangelical attachment to the group was equally nebulous. 

For example, an article at RNS (Religion News Service) attempted to nail down some actual numbers. In More than a quarter of white evangelicals believe core QAnon conspiracy theory, the author, using data from The Survey Center in American Life (sponsored by American Enterprise Institute, AEI), summarized

27% of white evangelicals — the most of any religious group — believe the widely debunked QAnon conspiracy theory is completely or mostly accurate.

That number was repeated incessantly across the mainstream press. However, once I began parsing the data, an entirely different picture emerged. For one, the 27% figure was based on an extremely small sample size of “white evangelicals” (343 individuals, to be exact). Of those 343 individuals, 93 (27% roughly) believed or “mostly” believed in some variation of a claim associated with Q (“Donald Trump has been secretly fighting a group of child sex traffickers that includes prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites”). It is estimated that America is home to around 100 million evangelicals. Which led me to ask, Is a survey of 343 evangelicals enough to indict 27% of 100 million evangelicals with believing in QAnon? Furthermore, in the AEI survey, even higher numbers were found in the “Not Sure” category. In fact, of the highest number of any group, 50% of “Hispanic Catholics” claimed that they were “not sure” if Pizzagate (a central Q claim) was real. Nevertheless, Hispanic Catholics were never charged with dangerous levels of Q adjacency.

Due to these and much more interesting data, I was forced to conclude that the numbers used to indict evangelicals as Q adherents were largely inflated and misapplied. (I go into much more detail in On Conspiracy Theories and Why Christians SHOULD Be Interested in Them and in my book.)

Fast-forward to 2025 and Evangelicals and QAnon are a non-issue. A simple Google search for “Evangelicals and QAnon” reveals a steeply declining address of the topic, with most links dating back to the 2020-22 period. The claim the QAnon was rampant in the Church, “the most serious problem within Protestant Christianity” in our lifetime, proved to be wildly inflated. But the exaggerated charges did more than just produce unnecessary concern — they piqued interest. I would not have even taken interest in evangelicals and Q-adjacency, much less spent a year writing a book on conspiracy theories, had the media not amplified the topic. 

A similar pattern is in play today.

Take, for example, the continued decline in institutional trust. Much has been made about the decline of trust in government and science due to the pandemic. One detail often ignored in such metrics is the mainstream media’s complicity in amplifying dis/misinformation. Of course, media outlets have been in steep decline for several decades. Nevertheless, COVID accelerated the process. 

Just like the Evangelicals and QAnon claims, mainstream media outlets have continued to platform questionable and/or misleading information. Perhaps one of the best recent examples is the COVID-19 “Lab Leak Theory.”

Early during the coronavirus pandemic, speculation as to the virus’ origins were quickly squelched. Despite the fact that Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, is home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a biosafety level 4 laboratory that is recognized as a premier research facility of coronaviruses, the medical-research establishment in Washington and London insisted that the virus had emerged naturally. The public was told that the most likely origin of the virus was a wet market in Wuhan, China. There, an animal which had been infected with COVID-19 was likely eaten or infected an unsuspecting patron. Somehow, zoological transmission occurred, causing the virus to leap from animal to human. It was the start of a global pandemic. 

This quickly became the default narrative.

So resolute were the “experts” to furthering the “wet market theory” that they actively began repressing the “lab-leak theory.” Headlines and journalists across the world labelled the lab-leak theory as a “conspiracy theory.” The Guardian declared, Ignore the conspiracy theories: scientists know Covid-19 wasn’t created in a lab. Forbes added, The Wuhan Lab Leak Hypothesis Is A Conspiracy Theory, Not Science. Politifact fact-checked the claim, elevating it to “Pants-on-Fire” status, and calling it a “debunked conspiracy theory,” a claim they were forced to remove. As late as June 2022, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CSPAN that the virus leapt from “an animal host, perhaps through an intermediary host, into a human species which then spread throughout the human population.” In fact, the ex-CDC director even admitted that he received death threats for admitting he thought COVID was released from the Chinese lab. Some even went so far as to claim that the lab leak theory was racist.

Meanwhile, social media companies and their Big Tech cohorts, like Google, Facebook, and YouTube, all censored data that insinuated the lab-leak theory. In January 2020, Facebook vowed “to limit and remove misinformation about the Wuhan coronavirus and tell you if something you shared is false.” The company banned 3,000 accounts for “vaccine misinformation” and removed over 20 million posts during the pandemic.

However, it soon became clear that the censors had been premature regarding the lab-leak theory. As highlighted in the powerful documentary What Really Happened in Wuhan, we soon learned that, after the spread of the virus, the Chinese government immediately blocked the release of information, removed its online database, refused to allow outside inspections, and some whistleblowers even vanished. Ben Lewis, in his New York Times article, Inside the ‘Misinformation’ Wars, noted how the lab-leak theory was initially labeled as “misinformation.” Yet the story began “evolving.”

Part of the “evolution” was a growing admission that the “experts” had gotten it wrong. 

Eventually, the U.S. government was forced to admit that the lab-leak was the “most likely origin of the COVID pandemic.” The People’s Voice announced, The Washington Post Forced To Admit Wuhan Lab Leak Was NOT a ‘Conspiracy Theory.’ Facebook conceded that it would no longer censor claims that the virus might be man-made. While the Intercept admitted, The Lab-Leak Theory is Looking Stronger by the Day. It prompted the CIA to admit that the lab leak theory is the most likely origin of the pandemic. A congressional report on COVID-19 determined the virus likely emerged from a lab accident in China and that the U.S. government perpetrated “misinformation” by incorrectly calling the lab leak theory a “conspiracy.” All this caused one writer at The Heritage Foundation to describe the dissemination of misinformation and the censoring of data regarding COVID origins as The Lie of the Century.

Whatever conclusion is ultimately reached regarding COVID origins, it is clear that labeling the lab-leak theory a conspiracy theory so early in the virus’ appearance was unwarranted. We simply did not have the necessary data to make such a claim. Then why were the “experts,” medical professionals, and the government so quick to do so? But perhaps an even more important question is, Why didn’t the mainstream media do its job? Why didn’t more journalists interrogate the claims being made by government and science, investigate alternative sources, fact-check data being offered, and push back when necessary? Instead, they became tools of the Establishment.

The aforementioned examples are just a sliver of the many news stories that have been misrepresented, misreported, selectively addressed, or even intentionally ignored by the mainstream press. The Hunter Biden laptop story is but another illustration of this claim. The story was regularly portrayed as conspiratorial and fake news. Politico ran the headline Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say. The story, which indicted the President’s son with nefarious overseas financial dealings, originally ran by the New York Post before being pulled and labeled “Russian disinformation” across most mainstream platforms. Business Insider called the story “a Russian disinformation operation,” while Facebook and Twitter actively censored the story. Nevertheless, the story ultimately proved true, with Hunter Biden himself admitting the laptop was his. The Wall Street Journal appropriately asked “how much has it hurt the credibility of the press and the intelligence services?“

Not only do such stories “hurt the credibility of the press,” they fuel suspicion as to the trustworthiness of our information sources. The exponential increase in podcasts and alternative media sources is a direct result of the mainstream press’ loss of institutional trust. Likewise, the unreliability of the media is one of the primary reasons for the growing interest in conspiracy theories and alternative truth claims. For once a story previously labeled a “conspiracy” proves true, the tables flip. Gaslighting someone as a “conspiracy theorist,” only to see their claims validated, is a fast track to contempt. As the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Americans’ distrust in the media, and subsequent interest in conspiracism, is a natural reaction to being fooled one too many times. 

By broadcasting untrustworthy information, under-reporting contrary claims, indicting innocent parties, and failing to own up to its own errors and biases, the mainstream media perpetuates suspicion. And suspicion is fertile ground for all manner of conspiracy claims.

The post How the Mainstream Media Fuels Interest in Conspiracy Theories appeared first on deCOMPOSE.

It’s a question that could only be borne out of some paranoid evangelical fever dream. Which it partly was.

I graduated high school in 1976. The 60’s counter-culture movement was winding down. I’d taken my share of LSD and exhausted the little monies I had on rock concerts and vinyl albums. So by the decade’s end, I was burned out, existentially lost, and in great need of a spiritual do-over. Which I got. In the Spring of 1980 I would become a Christian. It was a radical conversion, part of which involved a closer look at the music I was steeped in and the darker forces behind it.

Aleister Crowley

Learning that Jimmy Page, lead guitarist for Led Zeppelin, had an avid interest in the occult arts, even purchasing Aleister Crowley’s mansion (Crowley was a renowned occultist, the self-proclaimed Beast of the Book of Revelation, labeled the “Wickedest Man in the World”), was just the tip of a conspiratorial iceberg. It didn’t take much to discover that dark esoterica permeated the music I enjoyed. The Beatles traveled to India (and elsewhere) learning Transcendental Meditation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The boys from Liverpool quickly went from singing “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” to “I am the Walrus.” Meanwhile, the Rolling Stones had their own “demonic phase,” which included Mick Jagger’s “fascination with Satanic and Luciferian imagery.” Shortly before bandmate Brian Jones’ mysterious death, he’d explored incorporating indigenous “trance music” into the band’s sound. Similarly, Jim Morrison considered himself a shaman, an intermediary between his musical tribe and the pagan gods. The Moody Blues invited us to join Timothy Learys’ adventures along his “astral plane,” and even wrote a song commemorating a sacred Hindu syllable. And Yes’ double album, “Tales of Topographical Oceans” is based on four Shastric scriptures found in a footnote in “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda.

At one time, I would have scoffed at the intersection of the occult and rock music. But being that my quest for “enlightenment” had left me burnt out and broken, and the claims of Christ were suddenly making sense, the idea that other “forces” were toying with me only inflamed my growing paranoia.

The Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan

Donovan’s song “Hurdy Gurdy Man” was an interesting addition to this growing conspiratorial playlist. Written and recorded in 1968, the lyrics follow thus:

Thrown like a star in my vast sleep
I open my eyes to take a peep
To find that I was by the sea
Gazing with tranquility.

Chorus: ‘Twas then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Came singing songs of love,
Then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Came singing songs of love.
Hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, gurdy he sang…

Histories of ages past
Unenlightened shadows cast
Down through all eternity
The crying of humanity.

Chorus repeat

Donovan playing a tamubra

It’s an odd song, for many reasons. For one, the music. The song melds distorted fuzz guitar with Eastern influences, namely a tambura, which was a gift from George Harrison to Donovan. With the vibrato verbal effect, the song has a dreamy, yet unnerving quality (which is likely why it fits so well in David Fincher’s film about the serial killer, “Zodiac”). Not coincidentally, Donovan wrote the song as a result of his visit to India and the Maharishi. (The yogi’s influence among counter-cultural influencers is considered to be one of the primary vehicles for the import of Hinduism into the West.)

Secondly, and perhaps more relevant to this article, is the attachment of Jimmy Page to the project. Though questions have arisen about Page’s actual involvement in the song, on his website, he lists Hurdy Gurdy Man in his credits. Page’s interest in the occult only heightened my interest in his affiliation with Donovan and contribution to the song. Indeed, this took an intriguing turn when Page appeared in a fantasy sequence in his band’s 1976 film release, “The Song Remains the Same,” playing a hurdy gurdy box. (The hurdy-gurdy is a stringed instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings.) In the film, as Page turns to the camera, his eyes glow an eerie red. 

While Donovan’s lyrics are not about a hurdy gurdy box, the song appeared layered with a symbolism that invoked some understandably disturbing interpretations. Remember, at the time, a spiritual veil was being ripped from my face. I was coming to the Scriptures with open eyes. Both God and Satan seemed to be popping up everywhere. Thus, it was conjectured by some in my circle of psychonauts, that the Hurdy Gurdy Man was about the Antichrist. At the time, that interpretation was hardly a stretch.

In the Book of Revelation, the Beast, or the antichrist, rises out of the sea. 

Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea (Rev. 13:1 NKJV)

In Scripture, the sea is often used metaphorically of chaos and danger. But it is also used of nations and the throngs of wicked. The prophet Isaiah said,

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. (Is. 57:20 NKJV)

Elsewhere in his book, he proclaimed,

Woe to the many nations that rage— they rage like the raging sea! Woe to the peoples who roar— they roar like the roaring of great waters! (Is. 17:12 NIV)

Also, in the book of Revelation, an angel describes John’s vision of a sea as pertaining to the Gentile nations. “Then the angel said to me, ‘The waters you saw… are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages” (Rev 17:15 NIV). 

In Donovan’s song, the Hurdy Gurdy Man arrives via the sea. The artist, mid-sleep, awakens “by the sea.” But it’s a troubled sea. In fact, the following verse tells us more about the spiritual climate preceding the arrival of this strange figure.

“Histories of ages past
Unenlightened shadows cast
Down through all eternity
The crying of humanity.

‘Twas then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man comes singing songs of love…”

So this oddly messianic-type figure arrives during a time when “unenlightened shadows” are being cast and the “crying of humanity” is echoing “down through all eternity.” This is the hour in which the Hurdy Gurdy Man arrives “singing songs of love.”

Detail from “The Beast with the Seven Heads and the Beast with Lamb’s Horns,” 1511, Albrecht Dürer

The scenario rather strikingly parallels the biblical account of the Antichrist. For not only would the Beast rise out of the troubled sea of humanity — in many eschatological constructs, he is revealed during the Great Tribulation — but he arrives “singing songs of love.” In fact, the Antichrist is sometimes called “the Man of Peace” because he will bring a false peace to the troubled world. Some see Daniel 9:27 as teaching that the Antichrist will make a peace covenant with warring (Middle Eastern) factions, thus deceiving many. In fact, concerning the end of this present age, the Apostle Paul cautioned the Thessalonian believers, “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (I Thess. 5:3 NIV). Thus, the Beast will proclaim “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

Furthermore, the Antichrist has an accomplice. The Bible calls him “the Dragon.” The world “worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast” (Rev. 13:4 KJV). Scholars interpret the dragon variously. His inclusion here is only mentioned because the Hurdy Gurdy Man has a similar accomplice. He is “the Roly Poly Man.” While Donovan mentions the Roly Poly Man fleetingly, the mysterious figure clearly appears to help the Hurdy Gurdy Man convey his message. His mention only fueled our speculation about the Hurdy Gurdy Man’s archetypical object. 

Unlike many of the songs and musicians I’d encountered who’d openly professed esoteric dabblings, Eastern religion was the only “occult” element blatantly attached to the Hurdy Gurdy Man. In an interview with Donovan in 1988, he elaborated on the meaning of the song:

…I know I am the Hurdy Gurdy Man. But also the Hurdy Gurdy Man is all singers who sing songs of love. The hurdy-gurdy is an instrument from the sixteenth century. The Hurdy Gurdy Man is a chronicler. The Hurdy Gurdy Man is like a bard. The Hurdy Gurdy Man is any singer-songwriter in any age, whether they were Ireland of whether they were in the streets of New York during the 60s.

Songwriters tend to look for a world that will improve. The singing of songs for a better world can be seen in any age. Especially in the 20th century. So any singer for peace is a Hurdy Gurdy Man.

While Donovan’s explanation makes zero mention of the Antichrist, the song’s theme remains particularly telling. Bringing world peace has been an openly stated goal of many a musician, occultist, and political statesman. But what kind of peace are they offering? Like the Antichrist, they are offering a temporary peace, a vapid peace.

After years of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll, the end of the 1970’s left me burned-out, restless, and completely unfulfilled. The minstrels, like Donovan, who’d sung about love, eventually got divorced or died of overdose. Eastern religion told me that life was “maya,” an illusion. But the moral and existential walls I kept beating my head against seemed very real. And the more I considered Christ, the more the gurus and hurdy gurdy men just couldn’t stand up to Him. 

So is Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man about the Antichrist? Naw. But those “enlightened” souls who arrive “singing songs of love” may share his ambition. Like the antichrist, Eastern religion and occultism offer a false peace. Sadly, that “peace” is often packaged in a catchy little song.

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