Coleman's Strange Journey

Freaks Rule

2011-06-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

A friend read this recently and brought it back to my memory. It was written quite a while ago, but I think there is still a message in it for our pitiful, corrupted culture.

Freaks Rule
By
Coleman Luck

I grew up in the Chicago area. In the mid-fifties I was in the sixth grade. During those years I had a paper route. Talk about anachronisms, the only guys who have paper routes these days are middle-aged immigrants from Cambodia who drive around in mini-trucks plastering two thousand driveways a morning. Anyway I had this paper route and it was a miserable job – dogs in the summer, freezing your tail off all winter long, and once a month I had to collect. That meant wandering up and down the streets on a Saturday trying to get jerks to cough up a couple of bucks to keep me in business. But I was good at it. In sixth grade I won an award. I’ve forgotten what it was for, but the prize I will never forget. It was an evening at Riverview.

Now anybody who grew up in Chicago during that period remembers Riverview. It was one of those great old sleazy amusement parks, a bloated carnival on a permanent location with a wooden roller coaster and a pot load of other dangerous rides that looked like they’d disintegrate the moment you sat down on them. All summer long Riverview advertised on the Chicago TV stations. Their main pitchman was a local personality named “Two-Ton” Baker, a really fat guy who did noonday programs for kids. (Another anachronism: kids coming home from school for lunch.) So all summer there’d be these commercials showing old “Two-Ton” taking up two seats on a roller coaster yelling to display his sheer joy and probably to prove that if the thing held him it’d hold anybody. Anyway, you get the picture.

Riverview was the last gasp of an era. It died with the coming of the giant Nazi-World theme parks that we have today where everything is perfect all the time even the plants which they change constantly to make sure everything is always blooming. Riverview was an honest straightforward temptation. It whispered to kids, “Come walk in my shadows. Come listen to my rats crawling around behind the boards. Come debauch.” We loved it.

So I won this trip to Riverview and the greatest part of it was that my parents wouldn’t be going along. I’d be with a group of paperboy “winners” just like me, young delinquents in training. (This was long before girls would stoop to do such nasty jobs as paper routes.) And, the peak of ecstasy? Our “chaperones” would be the paperboy “supervisors” from The Daily Journal. Now my parents didn’t know it but these guys were absolute losers, basically lazy drunks who had been promoted far beyond their level of competence. Going with them was like going alone. They gave us cash and went off to a bar. Oh joy from heaven. Sixth grade. Money. And Riverview without adults.

When I say this was an old style amusement park I’m not joking. On the boardwalk it had a freak show. Can you imagine such a thing today? Try to picture a freak show at Disney World. Aren’t we glad that we’ve matured as a culture to the place where such things would never be allowed? Of course one could argue that Riverview simply had an appreciation for diversity, but we won’t go there. So after you’ve gorged yourself on delicious little bags of dead meat euphemistically called “hot dogs” and braved all the dangerous rides at least six times, where’s an eleven-year-old boy who appreciates diversity gonna be found? THE FREAK SHOW.

So, I bought my ticket and walked in.

I found myself in a stark ugly little room standing with a small crowd in a roped-off area. There was nothing fancy about this. It was as down and dirty as you can get. Three feet beyond the rope sitting on wood pedestals and little chairs were seven or eight freaks. And they were the full Monty. Nothing fake here. It was a collection of poor sad human beings with bodies that looked like they’d been created in a Hollywood visual effects house. The instant you walked in, there was a seriousness about the place. Nobody laughed. Nobody talked. The freaks looked at you and you looked at them and then you left. But while I was there, something happened in that room that I will remember as long as I live.

One of the freaks was a little old woman, probably in her sixties. No more than three feet tall, her face was deformed beyond ugliness and all of her limbs bent in the wrong direction. She was just sitting there and you could imagine that she’d done this all her life.

Suddenly into the room walked a man carrying a little girl about three years old. Why this idiot had brought her there no one could imagine. I was eleven and I was appalled. Of course at the time there was no rating system on freak shows so how could you blame him? Anyway, the man with the little girl stopped in front of the little old woman. The instant the child saw this frightening creature she became terrified and started to sob. It was a horrible moment. Then, as I watched, that little deformed grandmotherly lady started to cry too. Quietly, without a sound, the tears ran down her face. After all the years of being stared at, all the years of loneliness and pain, the humanity in her eyes was overwhelming. And then she spoke. That little woman began to talk to the little girl. Softly, with a voice like your grandmother's and mine she tried to comfort her, to take away her fear, to reach out with words because her arms weren’t long enough and they bent in the wrong direction. It was one gentle heart whispering to another. Now eleven-year-old boys are not known for their deep sensitivity, but if I live to be a thousand I will never forget that scene.

Over forty years have passed since that night. Riverview is long gone and I was thinking about freaks the other day. We’ve heard a great deal over the past months about the idea that we are a nation ruled by law. Untrue. We are a nation ruled by stories. The stories we love reveal who we are and what we are becoming. Based on that fact, William Jefferson Clinton belongs in the White House. He has the moral right to remain there for the rest of his life. Why? Because he is the living embodiment of our collective story. And, if we were going to make that story into a film, it would be titled, “Freaks Rule.” Not the good honest freaks of Riverview, the true freaks. Us.

We are the freaks who stand inside the rope watching others wallow in degradation and pain and enjoying the view. We are the fathers who sit up late at night after our wives and children are in bed sucking cyberporn off the Internet. We are the mothers titillated by the human fecal matter that we chew and swallow dished up on so-called “reality shows.” We are the hip and cool young executives screwing each other’s brains out after hours on the conference table and then popping pills to stave off the effects of sexually transmitted disease. We are the teenagers, the generation of nightmares swimming in fake blood and gore loving vicarious mayhem and terror. Freaks all. Freaks who have managed to be born with the ability to hide our true ugliness.

What is the breadth and depth of our freakhood? Nothing less than this: As a nation, we are Monica Lewinsky. That poor young woman is simply our surrogate freak, our national daughter sent to spend her holy year of shrine prostitution in the temples of power. Monica knew the proper position of a worshiper. On her knees. And we worship with her falling down before the starry host of freaks that we have created in sports and politics and Hollywood, desperate for our own fifteen minutes of glory. We need a new Statue of Liberty and Monica could be the model. Coiffured and bereted, twenty stories tall, staring out at the world from New York Harbor, she could proclaim, “Give me your proud, your arrogant and your vain so that I can show them the pleasures of liberty.” As much as you hate to hear it, friends, that is our national story. And stories rule.

But in my heart I wish I could change our story and tell a new one so radical that everyone would freeze in shock. Maybe I could make it into a film. Here’s the basic outline: Let’s imagine that someone new was placed in the Oval Office. Maybe for just a month. Of course, the President’s chair would be too big for her. She’d need several phone books just to be seen. She wouldn’t be able to write very well. No rose-garden bill-signing parties jammed with the fatuous elite. After all, her arms would be short and they’d bend in the wrong directions. When the TV cameras focused on her many of us would be filled with anger and revulsion. We’d demand to know why such an aberration had been allowed to live, why her mother hadn’t ended her life in a merciful abortion.

But she wouldn’t listen to our raging. There’s nothing we could say that she hadn’t heard a thousand times. In fact she probably wouldn’t talk to us at all. Instead she’d talk to our terrified children. And with her soft words and tears maybe they’d be able to see beyond her ugliness into eyes filled with love, beautiful beyond comprehension, because in her suffering she had seen the Face of God.

If only we had a true, honest freak in the White House to begin a new national story. And, I think thirty days would be long enough. At that freak show in Riverview, it took only five minutes for an eleven-year-old boy.

© Copyright Coleman Luck 1998 Free to use with attribution.

Let's Get Rid of the Word "Sin"

2011-05-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

It’s time to face reality. This word has lost all functional meaning in postmodern society. When people hear it now, it connotes one of several unintended definitions. For many it’s nothing more than irrelevant religious jargon flung about to promote judgmentalism as in, “You’re just tryin’ to guilt me, man. Who are you to tell me how I should live my life?” Then there is the titillating definition of sin. Sin is secret pleasure, something you enjoy and the fact that others think it’s wrong makes it all the sweeter. When you sin you’re cutting-edge and part of a secret club of cool, hip, sick (or whatever your cliché) people. I think for most postmoderns, especially those under thirty, the word “sin” doesn’t mean anything at all. It flies right over their heads.

I have heard countless preachers and Bible teachers try to define sin so that people could really understand the seriousness of it. They’ve gone back into the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible. They’ve used illustrations. I’ve done all of that myself. It isn’t working. There is no traction here. The sin tire is bald. So I suggest that we drop the word altogether and replace it with one that really communicates what sin is. Instead of sin, let’s use the word shit.

I know there are many sweetie-pie Christians who will cringe at this word. These are the nice people who think Jesus is just all about huggy relationships. Thomas Kinkade is their kind of artist. They love the gagging syrupy treacle of so-called Christian “worship” music. They want their religion full of positive, inspiring, feel-good language. And the word shit just doesn’t feel good. It’s ugly, filthy and offensive, right out of the gutter. Certainly, we wouldn’t want to offend people by using it in our lily-pure churches. We wouldn’t want to describe the actions of men like the Reverend Ted Haggard, the Reverend Eddie Long and a host of others as shit. Most of all, I don’t want to characterize my little harmless indiscretions as shit.

But let me tell you something, shit communicates. To see what I mean, let’s try it in some well-known Bible verses (with apologies to the New International Version):

How about the story of the woman caught in adultery and brought to Jesus? John 8:6-11 - But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you doesn’t have any moral and spiritual shit in his life let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of moral and spiritual shit."

Romans 6:23 - For the end result of all our moral and spiritual shit is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8: 1-3 - Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of moral and spiritual shit and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by our shit-filled nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of shit-filled man to be an offering for all the moral and spiritual shit that we have committed.

1 John 1:5-10 - This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all our moral and spiritual shit. If we claim to be without moral and spiritual shit, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our filthy shit, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our moral and spiritual shit and purify us from all our filth. If we claim we have not committed such shit, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Did that offend you? I make no apology.

When I was a teenager I had a friend who worked part-time at our town’s sewage treatment plant. He gave me a tour. During the tour, he told me about a guy who fell into a huge vat full of shit. Probably the story is apocryphal, but as I stood in front of such a vat while he told it, I was impressed. Anyway, my friend said they pulled the guy out and cleaned him off, but it didn’t do any good. He died of infection.

Here’s the message of the Bible: Sin isn’t just some trite judgmental term or some titillating little secret pleasure. It really is deadly moral and spiritual shit and unless something is done about it it sticks on you forever killing you slowly with a thousand infections.

Just imagine walking around every day of your life covered with shit. You wreak to high heaven and you’re dying, but you refuse to accept that fact. You think everything is cool. If you do detect a slight odor you cover it up with the perfume of an occasional good deed or positive thought. All that does is make you smell like a two-dollar whore with dysentery. That’s how we look and smell to a totally clean and Holy God.

One of the reasons we ignore our shit is because the whole world is filled with shit-covered people and we think we smell better than most, so we’re fine. Do you disagree with that? If so, what planet are you living on? If we’re honest we know we’re not cleaner than anybody else. We fit right in because we’ve done lots of bad shit to ourselves and others. So no lazy-ass excuses!

Well, here’s a “duh” question: If you’re covered with shit what do you need? That’s right, A BATH. A good hot bath will wash away physical shit (assuming you haven’t sucked it into your body like the guy at the treatment plant), but it won’t do anything for moral and spiritual shit. That’s the amazing part of God’s story. He loved us so much that He sent His only Son Jesus into this shit-filled wreaking world. (Would you send your son to swim in one of those vats?) And why did He do it? To pull us out and wash us clean so we wouldn't have to die forever. Our soul-shit can be washed clean only by the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross.

But here’s the warning: If you don’t think you need that blood bath to wash the shit off your soul, if you think everything is cool and you smell great, you will never get into Heaven because shit-covered people aren’t allowed there. And it’s logical. Would you want a shit-covered person for a roommate?

The question is how honest are you? If you know that you’re covered with shit and you can’t stand your own wreaking smell (believe me, I’ve been there), if you’re sick of it and you long to be clean, God is waiting for you to tell Him that and ask for a clean new life. He can do it, He WILL do it, because He’s God and He loves you - even covered in a thick coat of nasty brown. So how long are you going to stay this way? Get a bath before you die, because then it’s too late.

© Coleman Luck 2011. www.colemanluck.com Free to be reproduced (if you dare) with proper attribution including website. (For pity’s sake, you don’t want anybody to think you wrote this.)

Response to Jack

2010-09-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

Jack's comments to my last post are important enough to warrant a new post.

Jack,

Thanks so much for your comments. I do appreciate them. It appears that you are a devout Christian so I will frame my response with that in mind. On the face of it, your arguments seem so reasonable. How could anyone disagree? I’m sure your motives are pure. You want the best for our country. You want Christian people to participate in a political/spiritual revolution that you hope will save America from its precipitous slide toward destruction. And Mr. Beck seems to offer the right attitudes, information and leadership. While he is a talented individual and while much (though certainly not all) that he says is correct, I contend that with him comes a huge amount of baggage that no thinking Christian will want to carry. I believe that accepting his leadership will bring very powerful unintended consequences that will not make things better, but far worse. I hope you won’t be offended if I analyze your comments. I fear they prove that what I said in my original post is correct. Let’s take them one by one:

1.“When Glenn Beck calls our country back to God, each person comes back to God in the way that is consistent with their faith - it's not a syncretistic move.”

I have to be honest. In my opinion this is a very disturbing statement coming from a Christian. On the face of it it sounds wonderful. But let’s be rigorous in asking logical questions. As you know, Glenn Beck casts the widest possible net in calling people back to “God.” Always he uses “God” singular, doesn’t he? So we have to ask, what God? Only the Judeo/Christian God? I doubt that he would want to limit his call to that. After all, there are Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus in this country who are loyal citizens. Is he leaving them out? I’m sure he would say no.

So is he calling Mormons and Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and Christians and Jews all back to the same God? That’s the implication of your statement. “Each person comes back to God in the way that is consistent with their faith.” Do you mean that Jesus and Allah and Buddha and Krishna and Yahweh and the Mormon “father god” who physically copulated with Mary to produce Jesus, et al. are all just different names for the same Supreme Being? Is there just one God and many ways to reach Him? If that’s what he’s saying, I’m sure you would disagree, as would thinking people of most faiths. People really do worship different gods. Trying to make them all into one Being simply doesn’t work.

Does that mean that Mr. Beck is calling devout people of all religions back to their particular god? And are all of them equal? As a Mormon he isn’t a Universalist. If Mormons believed in Universalism, why send out thousands upon thousands of young missionaries to convert people? Then why does he use the language and inclusiveness of Universalism? The only answer can be that for him the end justifies the means. He is doing it to build a spiritual/political constituency to accomplish what he considers to be righteous goals.

But is this legitimate?

Should a Christian buy into that agenda with him, accepting his statements of Universalism in order save the country? God forbid. There is spiritual destruction built into it. It’s clear that Mr. Beck isn’t presenting himself simply as a political leader and philosopher. On that basis I wouldn’t waste my time writing about him. He is presenting himself as a spiritual religious leader. Accepting him in that role and the baggage that comes with it is precisely what I mean by syncretism.

The heart of religious syncretism is the subtle redefinition of words and having the new definitions accepted without serious thought. There are many ways to accomplish this agenda. To get Christians to agree even on a tacit level that we are all worshipping the same god and accepting the spiritual leadership of a cultist to boot is the ultimate in religious syncretism. That leaven will permeate the whole loaf. At the very least, Mormonism is accomplishing through him one of its most cherished goals, to be considered nothing more than another Christian denomination. And polls tell us that is exactly what is happening. You may be sophisticated enough in your faith to make all the subtle distinctions necessary to accept Mr. Beck’s political call without accepting his spiritual agenda. How about the millions of people who aren’t? Where does the New Testament Law of the Weaker Brother come into this?

2.“Our theological beliefs are not the same, but we are co-belligerents with those calling us back to a the belief that America was founded on the morality of the Christian faith, and the belief in a Creator who gave us these rights as listed in the Declaration of Independence.”

You have stated well a popular belief that Mr. Beck speaks about constantly. But is it true? Or more explicitly is he telling the whole truth? Was America founded simply on the “common morality of the Christian faith?” Mr. Beck and many others love to quote what I call the statements of Civic Religion made by our Founding Fathers.

What was the true religious foundation of America? Where was America spiritually born? It wasn’t in Philadelphia in 1776. It was in that amazing period called the Great Awakening. Mr. Beck has talked about this event in glowing terms, but he never gets to the heart of it. And there is a reason why. To do so would get far too specific for his religious agenda. Like everything else having to do with religion, he chooses to present the Great Awakening in vague terms about “coming back to God.”

But look at the history of it. For years in the early part of the 18th century, the Great Awakening swept through the colonies. It was based on the powerful preaching of George Whitefield, the Wesleys and others. That preaching was anything but a general call to “come back to God.” It was a specific call for sinful people to repent to escape the Judgment of God. It was a call to place their faith in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. And untold thousands heeded it. In large part, it was out of a new freedom from sin and guilt found in Christ by so many people that the desire for political and governmental freedom was born. So, if you want to find the Christian foundation of America go back to the preaching about sin and repentance and salvation only in Christ that transformed this country so long ago. This foundation meant all the difference between the American Revolution and the French Revolution. The French Revolution was a blood-bath based largely on the “values” of the so-called Enlightenment totally apart from true Christianity.

The Great Awakening translated into an understanding among our Founding Fathers that they had to speak the religious language of the masses. Were there true Christians in their number? Absolutely! But also there were Deists, agnostics, Unitarians and Freemasons. At that period, even many of the non-Christians felt that Christianity was an important element in the foundation of a civil society. In their writings they chose a common religious language that would build consensus and be as inoffensive as possible. This became what was handed down to us over the past centuries, a Civic Religion that talked about God and prayer, etc., but rarely mentioned Jesus Christ. Christians could read into it whatever they wanted. Like sheep that’s exactly what we have done. For a long time it worked.

This social contract held until the 20th century when attacks on religion became rampant. Now it has completely fallen apart. In my opinion, that was inevitable. The amazing thing is that it held as long as it did for there is no lasting power in Civic Religion because it cannot redeem the soul. In the past, Civic Religion depended for its existence on agreement about the value and purpose of America, common morality and a strong work ethic. All of that is gone and will not return without another TRUE Great Awakening. Even in our Christian churches common morality has vanished. Glenn Beck is calling us back to a Civic Religion that is utterly powerless except to build dissension. All of his words about faith, hope and charity are nothing more than pretty ideals without individual and collective repentance for sin and redemption through the shed blood of Jesus Christ God’s only Son. So if you are a “co-belligerent,” fighting under Mr. Beck’s banner, you are fighting for a losing cause. Not only will it prove futile, there is something far worse than our current crisis that it could bring.

Here is an interesting thought. As much as Mr. Beck talks about faith, in Mormonism salvation is gained through works. In a slightly different form salvation by works is the heart of Liberation Theology, the faith of Barack Obama.

3.“There is no pure theologian who is going to take this leadership. No one is without their own particular slant on faith. Are we not going to rally to a cause we think is in the right direction until we find a person who thinks exactly like we do? We have to learn how to live as saints in an imperfect place… We have to make decisions and move ahead without everyone involved being the purist we want them to be. Too much is at stake for us to not act.”

I know you don’t mean this as a statement of lack of faith, but certainly it can come off that way. I’m afraid I have no idea what you mean by a “pure theologian.” I don’t think a single one of the prophets or apostles of the Bible would have considered himself a “pure theologian” not even St. Paul. Do you mean by pure theologian someone pure in his beliefs about Jesus, someone raised up by God to speak the truth and call people to repentance in Jesus Christ as the foundation for a just and compassionate society?

So, because we are frightened and impatient and no one like that seems to have appeared (or at least no one who has the platform of Fox News) are you saying that we should follow the next best thing – someone raised up by Rupert Murdoch? Somehow this reminds me of King Saul in First Samuel 13 who couldn’t wait for God’s anointed, took things into his own hands and destroyed his kingdom.

Following our own natural desires (so many of which are based on fear) is much easier than prayer and waiting on God. We like the spiritual feeling that comes with being part of a great movement. It is an actual physical high to be surrounded by huge masses of like-minded people. That’s why we have mega-churches and rock concerts. But this is a delusion. All through the Bible it was the lone voice crying out truth in the wilderness that made all the difference. The first measure of learning to be a saint in a fallen world is that we learn to be true to the Bible and let that, no matter how uncomfortable, be the guide of our decisions. Has God lost His Power to raise up a Whitefield or a Wesley or are we so weak, miserable, fearful and faithless that we will settle for what we consider the next best thing?

4.“Glenn Beck's call to return to God is no different than Benjamin Franklin's. Should the Christians of Franklin's day have refused to vote in favor of America becoming an independent nation because Benjamin Franklin wasn't a real Christian? Should they have refused to offer up the prayer that Franklin called them to, because not everyone in the room had the same theology?”

Okay, I hope you will forgive me if my fallen shark-like nature rises to this blood. I would never put Glenn Beck on the level of a Benjamin Franklin. He’s far too moral. Think about it this way. Imagine that old Ben were living in our day. He’d have his own reality show. He would be a kind of fat, gray, intellectual male version of the Kardashians. Each week we would watch him gleefully fornicate his way through France and England dropping pearls of wisdom in every bed. (Did I just write that?) I could imagine half a season on the Hellfire Club alone. He would be a regular at the Playboy Mansion and on Letterman. He and Bill Clinton would share a cigar. (It’s getting worse, I’ve got to stop.) Let’s face it, if all the devout Christians of Ben’s day had known the truth about his hidden life, when he gave a call to prayer he would have been laughed from the room. I hope those Christians didn’t make their decision to vote for America based on his spiritual leadership.

The great evangelist George Whitefield wrote about several contacts that he had with Benjamin Franklin. In those meetings Whitefield implored him to repent of his sins and give his life to Jesus Christ. Ben politely refused. Franklin attended Whitefield’s mass outdoor meetings in Philadelphia where Jesus Christ was faithfully preached. His only interest was in measuring the amazing distance that Whitefield’s voice carried in the open air (over a mile) and how powerful he was in taking offerings for the poor. A look at Franklin brings an important point. As Christians we can appreciate his intellect, follow his great political and governmental wisdom, like him personally and find him endlessly entertaining, all without accepting him as a spiritual leader. Though he may have offered an occasional prayer, thank God Franklin was not interested in that role.

5.“And why aren't you registered with a political party? You are letting down the country. You can't vote in primary elections in California. If every Christian did that because he was a "Christian" and therefore too pure to be involved in the political process, the world would be handed to Satan just as Hollywood was handed to Satan in the 1920s.”

Jack, forgive me if I expel an evil chuckle. I’m letting down the country if I don’t vote in California primaries? Really? We do know how effective and important California primaries are, don’t we? But I assure you my decisions are not based on any conception that I am too Christian and “pure.” I’m afraid my attitude toward elections was presented brilliantly in an hilarious episode of South Park. I can’t quote from it, it’s too obscene, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

I’m sick of voting for the lesser of two evils. The lesser of two evils is still evil. And almost always the lesser of two evils is our only choice. I refuse to be forced into voting for the lesser of two evils because if I don’t the country will go down the rat hole. We have been voting for the lesser of two evils for decade upon decade and look where it’s gotten us. That doesn’t mean that the person I vote for has to agree with me on every issue. And certainly the person doesn’t have to be a Christian. I’m at the place where if a candidate makes stirring claims to be a Christian I probably won’t vote for him because very likely he is either a fool or corrupt or both. How sad is that? Unfortunately, based upon past experience it’s realistic.

And as far as Hollywood is concerned, I know something about the history of my industry. Don’t be so certain that Hollywood was handed to Satan in the 1920’s because of a lack of Christian involvement. And a side point: I dread to think of the kinds of films that Hollywood would have been making if so-called “Christian moguls” had been in control. All we’d be getting are Christian “dog movies” where our little spiritual canine buddies folded their paws and said “grace” before every meal.

A last thought about Glenn Beck. One of the clearest indicators that something is deeply wrong is the way Christian guests on his programs fawn over him, showering him with ego-fattening flattery for his “spiritual leadership.” Is there not one person who is willing to confront him gently and lovingly about the lost state of his soul? Or are we so self-centered that we don’t care?

Once again, thanks so much for your comments.

Coleman

Glenn Beck and Barack Obama - Blood Brothers

2010-09-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Glenn Beck held his massive rally in Washington, D.C. planned and executed as a kind of patriotic/spiritual awakening dedicated to the children of fallen military heroes. I didn’t attend. I’ve only seen clips on television. From all appearances he did a magnificent job. Mr. Beck is a powerful speaker who can touch the hearts of his hearers. And he had a lot of them. Estimates are that above half a million traveled from all over the U.S. to stand with him in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

I believe in patriotism. My ancestors fought in the Revolution. I am a combat veteran who was proud to serve my country even when most people in my country weren’t proud of Vietnam veterans. So why do I have such a gnawing concern about the patriotic Mr. Beck and his activities? As I watched him speak a cold feeling came over me. Suddenly, I was struck by how very much alike he is to our President.

What???

Really????

How in the world could that be true? The most ignorant fool can see that they are polar opposites. And indeed, in so many ways they are. But it is in their very polar opposition that their deep similarity resides. How is this so? Think with me for a moment:

1. Both men come from humble backgrounds. Both are gifted speakers with a lot of charisma. Even so, a decade in the past it would have been impossible to believe that either man would rise to such national prominence in such a short time. It can be argued that this is the nature of American media and politics. Granted, but somehow the rise of these men still feels “different.” And by “different” I don’t mean good.

2. Both men would disavow it, but it’s clear that they are zealots. They have firmly entrenched beliefs that set powerful agendas. Many have been surprised by the eagerness of President Obama to do exactly what he said he was going to do during his presidential campaign. We’re not used to leaders who believe much of anything other than increasing their own power bases. What we’re used to are lawyers - hired guns whose main concern is finding defensible positions and lining their pockets with gold.

Though President Obama is an attorney, he doesn’t act like one. Or maybe it’s just that he is his own client. As a zealot he has decided exactly what he wants to accomplish and doesn’t care what others think or desire - even people in his own party. Of course, he would like a second term. He would like cooperation from all parties. I’m sure that he would like to be liked. But for none of that is he willing to sacrifice his beliefs and agenda. That’s something new for America. What we’re used to in our leaders is charming intelligent political whoredom. We haven’t seen Mr. Beck in governmental leadership, but I have a feeling that if he were in elected office he would perform in exactly the same way.

Though they would vigorously deny it, it’s clear that both men sense an almost messianic calling about their lives and work. Guided by that vision they are committed to the transformation of American society. The lengths to which the President is willing to go to accomplish his vision are becoming clearer with each passing day. Certainly, if Mr. Beck were in the Oval Office he would be equally committed to carrying out his mission.

3. Both men follow aberrant theologies that they claim are Christian. Both know the language of popular religion and use it to their advantage whenever possible. I’ve written about Mr. Beck’s strange Mormon beliefs, though to hear him talk you would think he was an evangelical Christian. He isn’t. He is a member of an enslaving cult that has misled millions. Is that an overstatement? Study the history of Mormonism. Study its theology. If you are a believer in historic Christianity, ask yourself where that aberrant theology came from. Talk to those who have escaped the chains of Mormonism and have spent their lives trying to help others get free.

That said, in my opinion, the President’s religious beliefs are just as aberrant. It seems clear from his church background, values and career choices that he holds to a form of Liberation Theology which is nothing more than Marxist socialism beneath a thin Christianized veneer. It transforms Jesus Christ into nothing more than a social revolutionary. It is a pseudo-religious collectivist philosophical system devoid of any interest in the salvation of the individual through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. The breeding ground for Liberation Theology was in the Roman Catholic priesthood in Central and South America. As a philosophy it has proven very effective in creating social revolutionaries, while destroying the spiritual effectiveness of the Church.

This is why the President can avow that he is a devout Christian who prays every day, yet never has the slightest interest in attending church. He can speak about individual salvation only through collectivist rhetoric. The truth is that he has little interest in any form of historic Christianity. Like Mormonism, Liberation Theology presents a different Jesus than the one found in the Bible. While it does not fall under the classic description of a cult, in my opinion its aberrational theology and the passionate willingness of its adherents to lead people away from the historic Faith places it in that category.

4. Both men are polarizing figures with millions of followers and powerful voices in the media. However, neither represents a majority in the United States. But that isn’t what is important. The two poles have quite enough force between them to blow the country apart.

Now I am not a Republican or a Democrat. I am not a member of the Tea Party. I am not a Libertarian. I insist on being a Christian which, in my opinion, means analyzing every single philosophy and issue on its merits, standing in favor of some and opposing others. I am deeply concerned about the destructive actions of the President and his Party. Unfortunately, he has taken the philosophical lead of a string of Presidents and Congresses that have gone before him. This includes not only suicidal economic policies, but maintaining a war that should never have been fought and that we cannot win. As far as economic decisions are concerned, I believe that he is by far the worst President in history. All of the disastrous legislative extravagance of the past he has made his own. But that hasn’t been enough. He has added to it a monumental profligacy that, if not reversed, will prove the ruin of freedom. And through all of it he claims that he is saving the country. Forgive me for being cynical, but for my taste we haven’t had a good President since Abraham Lincoln.

I know those are strong words. Against their backdrop let me say that I fear the destructive influence of Mr. Glenn Beck even more. The President follows an aberrational theology, but at least to this point he hasn’t tried to be the country’s evangelist/pastor. Mr. Obama’s destructive actions are very clear. Mr. Beck’s are much more subtle, but because they are targeted directly at the Christian Church and Christian people they are even more dangerous.

Over the past decades much has been done to destroy the Church from within. For many reasons, especially the leaders we have chosen who do not confront us about our sins, Christians have lost their moral authority. But that can be regained. However, it will not come because a charismatic leader arises who touts a vague spiritual/patriotic message about “coming back to God.” But that’s as far as Mr. Beck can go because he is desperately concerned to be “inclusive.” The reason he wants to be inclusive is not simply because of a desire for national unity. He knows that if he really deals with the Biblical definition of sin and salvation that is the core of historic Christianity, if he really accepts Jesus Christ for who the Bible says He is as apart from the aberrational theology of his prophet Joseph Smith, everyone in his cult would have to repent and turn away from Mormonism. So scrap the idea of hearing anything about Biblical repentance from Mr. Beck. He may use terms that sound Christian, but Mormonism is based on salvation by works to get to Heaven. St. Paul wrote clearly about such false “gospels” in the New Testament Letter to the Galatians.

So what is at the heart of Mr. Beck’s message? He is calling Christians to join all “people of faith” in the worship of a Vague God acceptable to every “believer” of every stripe. This is nothing less than the call to a new syncretism in the name of national unity and restoration. What is syncretism in this context? The marriage of Christianity with various systems of unbiblical belief. It has plagued the Church almost from the very beginning.

Should Christians work together with others for the good of their country? Absolutely. Should they share friendship and love with people who do not agree with them? Again, absolutely. Should they dialog with others about faith and politics? Of course and with good will. What they shouldn’t do is worship with them and worship is what was happening on the National Mall. The very nature of that kind of worship is worship of a false god.

We are seeing the continued blending of heretical theologies with historic Christianity and through ignorance and fear we are accepting it. We do so because the enemy of my enemy is my friend and because we worship celebrity. We are so weak-willed, blind and faithless that we are willing to let someone who does not agree with our faith subtly misrepresent our faith in the public square. And no one confronts him. The end does not justify the means. We are going to pay the price for this. I truly believe that because of the unfaithfulness of the Christian Church, the whole country is going to suffer far more than we have ever imagined.

In the months and years ahead we are going to hear about faith and love and unity and the Fatherhood of God and church and morality and patriotism and on and on ad nauseum. As you listen to the emotional messages and sing the hymns, watch what all of it will bring.

A small gift to you this week

2010-05-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

"Again and again I admonish my students in Europe and America: Don't aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run - in the long-run, I say! - success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it." Viktor Frankl - Concentration camp survivor, psychotherapist and noted author.

What's Wrong With Glenn Beck?

2010-03-07T11:15:00.000-08:00

If you disagree with him politically I’m sure you would say that everything is wrong with Glenn Beck. I haven’t watched his program consistently. It’s been rather sporadic. But I’ve found that when I do watch him I agree with most of what he says. In fact, in a number of cases I don’t think he’s gone far enough in his analysis of the historic antecedents to our current crises. He is a gifted and passionate speaker capable of trenchant analysis. And clearly, his opponents view him as a dangerous force. He has become a kind of national teacher. I’m sure that Mr. Beck would agree that teachers should be held to a higher account, especially teachers with classes that number in the millions.

One of the things that he stands against is what might be called a Culture of Tolerance. Everyone is so afraid of being viewed as “Intolerant” that we refuse to speak any kind of truth at all because obviously our “truth” may be different from someone else’s “truth” and we don’t want to offend. More than anything, we are terrified of being considered “bigots.” The dictionary defines bigot as “a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own.” The heart of bigotry focuses on religion and bigots come in a wide variety of persuasions, both theistic and atheistic.

In my opinion, freedom of religion is the foundation of all other freedoms. I’m proud to be a direct descendent of Roger Williams the founder of Rhode Island and, more importantly, the father of freedom of religion in America. He founded his colony based on freedom of worship, this after he was driven away by the Puritans because of his differing theological beliefs. (He was a Baptist.) One of his friends was a woman named Mary Barrett Dyer. Mary was a Quaker who had the temerity to believe that women should be able to teach the Bible. She insisted on teaching the Bible in Puritan territory. In a paroxysm of “holy intolerance” the good Puritans of Boston hung her. I’m proud to say that Mary is one of my grandmothers. Religious toleration runs in my blood. However, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t confront each other with mutual respect about our differing belief systems. We shouldn’t fear strong disagreement. It is in that spirit that this post is written.

Am I the only theologically conservative Christian who finds Mr. Beck strangely disturbing? Here is my problem. We live in a day of gross inconsistencies in the lives of so many of our leaders. People say one thing and live out another. Whether it is the Treasury Secretary who cheats on his taxes or a “family values” governor who cheats on his wife, inconsistency is the hallmark of our age. With that in mind, Mr. Beck seriously puzzles me. Here is a man who is dedicated to understanding and presenting historic truth about what has happened in our country. He does it fearlessly because he knows how important historic truth really is. What you believe really does matter. So here is a man of intellectual lucidity who has chosen to be a Mormon.

There, I said it. I turned over the rock that no one wants to touch for fear of being called intolerant or bigoted. How dare I do such a thing? Should the fact that Mr. Beck is a Mormon really matter? From what he has said, he is not a Mormon by birth. He was raised a Roman Catholic. When he talks about it at all, he underplays his religion, stating that he and his family just liked the friendliness and family orientation of the Latter Day Saints. They feel at home there. All well and good! I believe in religious freedom. But Mr. Beck is a national teacher who freely quotes the Bible as an authority source. I think we need to hold him to the same standard that he uses on others.

Let me ask you a question. Imagine that Mr. Beck was saying exactly what he is saying now on his various programs, but instead of being a Mormon he was a Scientologist or a Muslim. How would you feel about him then? Wouldn’t your trust of him drop like a stone? Wouldn’t you carefully evaluate every word he said? Though you would agree with him, you would find him constantly disturbing and every time you listened to him you would be asking yourself, “What’s this guy’s real agenda?” So why isn’t that happening with Mr. Beck?

There are several reasons. First, over the past fifty or so years, the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints has spent a great deal of time and treasure to convince American Christians that they are just another Christian denomination. And they’ve been very successful at it. I think today that many evangelical Christians view Mormons in just that way. Second, Mormons are such genuinely nice family oriented people. As opposed to Muslims or Scientologists who often don’t appear to be very nice at all. When we think of Mormons we think of Donny and Marie Osmond. We think of the wonderful Mormon Tabernacle Choir that sings so many great old hymns. And then there’s Glenn Beck himself. Couldn’t you imagine spending an afternoon with him and his family sitting around the pool sharing hamburgers and potato salad? Of course you could. And how about Mitt Romney that square-jawed, good-looking guy? Clearly, he is a straight-talking true family man who could be on track to become the next President. Doesn’t he look Presidential and doesn’t he say all the right things in the most charming manner?

When you think of Scientologists what do you think of? People who are nutty as fruitcakes, who spend untold thousands of dollars to get “clear” with weird lie detectors strapped to their bodies. You think of arrogant little Tom Cruise arguing from his vast Scientology education and jumping on couches. You think of the worst of Hollywood. And when Muslims come to mind…well, we don’t even want to go there.

A long time ago I took a graduate level course in what is called Christian Apologetics. That doesn’t mean learning how to apologize because you’re a Christian. It means knowing how to make a reasoned defense of the faith against those who attack it. Essential to that is understanding what other religions believe. My teacher was a man named Dr. Walter Martin. He is dead now, but while he was alive he was considered one of the greatest cult experts in the world. In our class we spent a lot of time studying Mormonism. Dr. Martin was well known to the Mormons and they disliked him intensely because he was a powerful debater who did not suffer foolishness lightly.

This is not the place to go into all the very strange things that Mormons believe. Just a few points will suffice such as their belief that Jesus and Satan are brothers, or that God the Father (who is a glorified man) came down and physically copulated with the Virgin Mary so that Jesus could be born into a physical body, or that the spirits who followed “brother” Satan were cursed into being born with black skin. (In recent years, because of great political pressure, this belief has been jettisoned, but for many decades from the foundation of their religion, it was an article of faith.) We won’t go into all the fantasies that their scriptures teach about Native American history. Not one archaeological discovery has proven their beliefs to be true. Why bring up the embarrassing issue of a “family” religion that, during its seminal years, was utterly destructive to families because of its belief in polygamy and forced marriage? (Another foundational article of faith that they were forced to disavow, but which is still held sacred by many Mormons.) Why mention the horrendous view Mormon theology teaches about women? In one of their holy books, The Pearl of Great Price, woman is called the shoe on man’s foot as he ascends into Heaven. And all of this is only the beginning.

Where did the Mormon religion come from? A young man named Joseph Smith who was a Freemason and a believer in ceremonial magic was using his magic to try and find buried treasure. In the course of his search he claims to have had a supernatural experience. An angel named Moroni came to him and led him to a set of golden plates. The translation of the writing on those plates led to the Mormon scriptures. Sadly, the plates were lost so they are unavailable for examination.

The truth is that the foundation of Mormonism has much in common with the foundation of Islam. In both it is purported that an angel came to a solitary man and gave him a revelation that the religions of his day were wrong and inadequate and he was to be the founder of a new religion based on “Truth.” Each man was informed that he was God’s uniquely chosen prophet. Both religions rely on strict “works of obedience” in order to achieve eternal salvation. Both paste together their theologies from bits and pieces of the theologies that were dominant at the time of their founding. Both account for the historical Jesus, but utterly demolish His Person and work as presented in the New Testament. On the face of it, Mormonism is no more a Christian denomination than is Islam. The truth is that, based on the reports of eye witnesses, the ceremonies that take place in the Mormon temple have much more in common with Freemasonry and ceremonial magic than in anything found in historic Christianity. In that sense they relate to Scientology. Before he founded his “church,” L. Ron Hubbard was an occultist and ceremonial magician as well. And isn’t it strange that both Scientology and Mormonism are so deeply concerned about activities on other planets?

Now there are those who would say, “All religions are the same. They’re all based on so-called “revelations” that are impossible to prove, so why make an issue of Mormonism? It’s no different than what you call historic Christianity.” There I would disagree. All of orthodox Christianity hinges on one event, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If that event did not occur in physical reality the whole edifice crumbles to dust. The point of the biblical record is that there were many eye-witnesses to Jesus’ death. And after His resurrection there were hundreds of eye-witnesses who saw Him alive. The experience of His death and resurrection was not limited to a solitary individual. It came to many people and those people were so certain of what they had seen that they were willing to die violent deaths themselves in defense of what they knew to be true. Now, you may call all of that fantasy, but at the very least you must admit that it is vastly different than Joseph Smith or Mohamed talking to an angel.

So Mr. Glenn Beck puzzles me. How can a man of his perspicacity who is so concerned about discovering and understanding the truth of political history, who wants our children to be taught the truth, be willing for his own children to be indoctrinated into the wild fantasies of a cult? And, God help him, I think his children are girls. I can’t believe that if he applied the same passion and scholarship to Mormonism that he wouldn’t run screaming from it. So why hasn’t this happened? Why is there such gross inconsistency and why doesn’t it bother anybody? Shouldn’t the fact that he is a Mormon make me view him with the same caution that I would exercise if he were a Scientologist or a Muslim? If he uses the Bible as though he were a Christian shouldn’t he be held to account? Why does he never use his own “scriptures?”

And I have a larger concern. I’m concerned about the mainstreaming of this cult into the deepest levels of American culture, even into the Christian church itself. Now I don’t think Glenn Beck, Mitt Romney, Donny and Marie and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir are locked in some kind of vicious conspiracy. I think that in their political desperation Christians have become blind. What dominates now is that old philosophy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But in the very desperation of that embrace, just exactly what is it that we are accepting and how will it affect our future?

Visit my website: www.colemanluck.com

The Rage of Quiet Men

2010-02-22T16:49:00.000-08:00

A long time ago I read a quote that might fit some events of the past week, “Beware the rage of quiet men.”

We saw the rage of a quiet man when a middle-aged software geek who played country western music flew his plane into an IRS building. Then there was the man who bulldozed the house he had built rather than let the bank own it. Apparently, his house was in foreclosure and he offered the bank $170,000 to pay off a $160,000 mortgage. They had refused telling him that they could make more money by selling it. So out came the dozer.

From what I understand Internet message boards have been burning up in support of Joe Stack, the IRS attacker. I read his long suicide “note” before the FBI requested that it be taken down. This man was not insane by any accepted definition of the term. He was filled with rage and bitterness at what he believed was the injustice of his country. I’m afraid we’re going to see much more of this. Those in power want to marginalize these violent acts by trying to convince themselves that the perpetrators and their supporters are “just extremists.” We are living in a culture of crushing bureaucracy where more and more people feel threatened and disenfranchised by every level of government. Rather than deal with the systemic problems that generate such attitudes, our leaders continue with business as usual… except in one area. There are increasing indications that federal law enforcement is preparing for the possibility of massive civil unrest.

Let’s pray that we don’t get to that place, but I think it’s highly likely. For generations American citizens have been increasingly acculturated toward selfishness and dependence. We hear a lot about protests these days. Various groups are rising up. They proclaim that they want freedom. I don’t think that’s what it’s about at all. It’s about wanting our comforts and being angry at the possibility of losing them. I am not a Tea Partier or a member of any political organization, because, as a Christian, I see no organization that represents what I believe. I distrust “bigness” in any form whether it is government, business, unions, political parties or churches. Once any organization grows large enough it becomes an organism with an inherent desire to maintain its life at all costs which means feeding and growing.

Our huge churches are a good example. In the United States we have churches with many thousands of members. Almost always these are focused on a single individual in the pulpit. The leaders of these churches know that it’s impossible to “do church” with this size of a congregation. So they try to make up for the inability by the establishment of “small groups.” The systems to manage the multitudes of small groups become very complex. How many churches choose instead to divide and start new smaller congregations? Almost none. We’d rather build bigger buildings. Why? Because we like the feeling of being in a large crowd where everyone agrees with us. It makes us feel safe. (Ever been in a large crowd where you knew that everyone hated people like you?)

Almost all of our institutions need to shrink. Especially is this true of Hollywood and the media. But the opposite is happening. One corporation eats up another in an endless orgy of consumption that consolidates power in fewer and fewer hands. Our institutions could shrink, but not without great pain. Nothing large ever shrunk without pain. I know this from dieting and credit card bills.

Carel and I live in the mountains down two miles of semi-paved and unpaved road. It’s really dark here at night and the closest neighbor is forty acres away. The lights of their house aren’t visible. In the past, city people who have visited us have gotten a little freaked. At night the frogs are too noisy and in the isolation some guests feel vulnerable. One couple got so paranoid that they had to get a room at a motel in town. The truth is that we are far safer here than in any city. But being safe and feeling safe are not necessarily the same thing.

When our country was founded almost all families lived in rural solitude. The fact that we don’t anymore has had the profoundest psychological impact on citizenship. A hundred years ago if you wanted to be in any kind of a crowd you had to go somewhere. Before you reached the crowd you had time to consider your actions. Think of the difference between the American and the French revolutions. One was based in the countryside and the other in the city. Those aren’t the only differences, but I think they are significant. Out of one came an army, out of the other came a mob. Of course, even in the mountains we don’t live in the solitude of our ancestors. We have Internet and satellite television. There is a passage in the Old Testament book of Isaiah that says, woe to those who build houses with no land in between.

I am not one who believes that the United States was founded as a “Christian” nation. But there were shared principles of virtue and morality that came largely from historic Christianity. Though filtered through the so-called Enlightenment, Deism and Freemasonry those shared principles were strong enough to give our leaders the unity they needed to found a nation. All of that is ancient history. Long gone even from our churches is a shared concept of morality. What has replaced it is a cacophony of commercialized selfishness under-girded by a vague, eclectic neo-paganism which we have convinced ourselves is Christian. Such chaos in the moral heart of our culture is a recipe for tyranny.

So watch the days ahead. Loosed from the constraints of shared virtue and morality, beware the rage of quiet men.

About 2012 and a Few Associated Terrors

2010-02-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

I do not gravitate easily toward believing in conspiracy theories and I’ve read a large number of them. Conspiracy theorists come in many shades of paranoia. Sadly, in our world there’s a lot to be paranoid about. And governments feed that paranoia. I seriously question the value of constantly broadcasting to the whole country that terrorists are about to attack us. Just exactly what are we supposed to do other than be frightened? When I was a child it was the threat of nuclear attack. We had regular drills in which we all got under our desks. And they weren’t large desks. Let’s face it, if you were a fat kid when that bomb hit your tail would be radioactive ash. Here is an interesting question: What do governments gain by keeping their citizens frightened?

Sadly, there is reason to be most frightened of our own government. From the standpoint of statistical possibility alone which should I fear more, a terrorist attack or getting killed by the police making a mistake and breaking down my door because they think I’m a drug dealer? Beyond simple mistakes, there’s a greater reason to fear our government. Over the past 234 years the United States government has perpetrated some unbelievably evil acts that have polluted our national life. There’s quite a selection to choose from but one of the worst was known as Operation Paperclip.

After World War II thousands of Nazis, many of them war criminals, were secreted into the United States where they were given leading roles in science, both in government (especially NASA) and private corporations. The ostensible purpose was to help us fight the Soviet Union. So we chose to battle one heinous evil by infecting ourselves with another. But of course that infection started well before WWII. We could talk about the Nazi influence at the highest level of major corporations both before and after the war. And the disease continues today. Unfortunately, those who choose to believe in conspiracies have ample evidence in their favor.

The Enlightening of Darkness

There is one ancient conspiracy that I do believe in. It is a supernatural Luciferic conspiracy. Lucifer, meaning Light Bearer, was the original name of the great angelic being now known as Satan. According to the Bible he was called Lucifer before his fall from Heaven. The goal of this vast conspiracy is nothing less than the enthronement of Lucifer as ruler of the world. Does that sound utterly insane? Watch what’s going to happen in the next few years.

Obviously, if such a conspiracy exists it needs human allies and there have always been a wealth of fools available. This is not the time to go into a dissertation on the history of such individuals and groups. If you are interested I would suggest a web search on a fascinating lady named Alice A. Bailey and the influential organization she founded called The Lucis Trust. As you descend into that snake rectum you will discover a disturbing nexus between Ms. Bailey, assorted Ascended Masters, Madam H.P. Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy and the whole New Age movement, the United Nations and a bevy of past and current world leaders. As a storyteller I just love this kind of rancid stew.

For many reasons I am convinced that we are in the final stages of this Luciferic conspiracy. If my hypothesis is correct, in the near future we will see a steep rise in the use of fear as a strategy for societal control. At its final level, ultimate terror will lead to ultimate control. Jesus called people sheep and He was right. Sheep aren’t stupid animals, they just live in constant fear. When they are terrified they clump together and are easily led to slaughter. So how might ultimate terror lead to this ultimate control? And what does ultimate control look like anyway?

Sleep That Isn’t Sleep

For the past several years I have been studying hypnosis (not doing it, just studying). I have read the works of Milton Erickson, Dave Elman, Richard Bandler and others. Recently I have been in communication with a young master hypnotist in the UK. He guided me to the writing of George Estabrooks. These were all very learned men in their field. Reading what they have said about hypnosis has raised some serious issues.

For years a dangerous falsehood has been promoted by many in the hypno-therapeutic community. This falsehood is that those under hypnosis won’t do or say anything that they wouldn’t do or say in their normal cognitive state. The truth is that in deep trance many (if not most) of us can be manipulated into doing virtually anything that a skillful hypnotic director might assign. There is a second fantasy that many people believe. Because of their quick and penetrating intelligence they think that they cannot be hypnotized. They are wrong. Whether a person will be hypnotized or not depends mostly on the skill of the hypnotic director. Many of those who believe themselves to be invulnerable are the most easily induced into trance.

What happens during hypnosis? The rational, decision-making part of our minds, the part that is guided by societal restraints, is set aside. What we call, for lack of a better designation, the subconscious mind comes to the fore. This is the part of us that is the repository of detailed memories and vivid fantasies. While the subconscious mind is a wonderful “storage facility” and “background influencer,” its rational decision-making skills are those of an immature baffled child. We could say that it is the sheep-like part of us that is deeply susceptible to direction in the form of post-hypnotic suggestion. (Side note: In my opinion it is in this realm of the subconscious that dark supernatural forces gain a foothold and fight for total control. Certain actions and decisions by the conscious mind may open the door to that entry.)

But it isn’t just hypnosis that can shove aside the rational mind. There appear to be many such agents. We talk about episodes of “mindless rage” taking control of some people. When these episodes pass very often the individual doesn’t remember things that he or she did and said. Deep shock caused by overwhelming terror can force the rational mind to “go to sleep.” In this state, people can appear much like little children wandering aimlessly, deeply susceptible to external influence and control. When a mass of people is in this state it can lead to mob violence. Elias Canetti’s masterwork, “Crowds and Power” is in part a study of this dangerous collective life.

Question: When a person is in a state of traumatic shock caused by overwhelming fear would it possible for a master hypnotist to lead him into a deeper trance thereby placing him under long-term hypnotic control? Nothing that I have read has argued against such a potential. A second question: If the possibility exists on an individual basis, why would it be impossible collectively? Imagine a series of worldwide events that create such terror that whole populations enter a state of traumatic shock. The Bible predicts that in the last days such terrible fear will take hold of the human race that men's hearts will stop beating. In such a time wouldn’t whole populations be susceptible to deep trance through the masterful hypnotic skills of national leaders? Those who saw and heard Adolph Hitler give his mesmerizing speeches testify to a strange hypnotic power that he exerted over great masses of people…and this without overwhelming fear.

2012 in Our Favorite Calendar

Last November I went to the theater and saw the movie “2012.” (What great visuals and what a ludicrous script. It was so slow that I thought the world would end before the closing credits rolled.) The film attempts to capitalize on the ever-increasing world fascination with the date December 21, 2012. That is the end of the 13th baktun of the Maya Long Count Calendar. At exactly 11:11 GMT on that winter solstice the sun will align with the galactic center of the Milky Way, something that hasn’t happened exactly in this manner for 13,000 years. On that date the precession of the equinoxes will conclude a 26,000 year cycle ending the Age of Pisces and beginning the Age of Aquarius. The sun will rise in Sagittarius, the ancient symbol of Nimrod. The Mayas believed that on December 21, 2012 the world as we know it will come to an end in a great upheaval.

The Mayas were not the only ones obsessed with 2012. There is a wealth of other seemingly prophetic information that focuses on this inauspicious date. 2012 prophecies are found in The Bible Code, the Orion Prophecy based on predictions believed to be encoded in the Sphinx, the pyramids and the zodiacs of Dendera. There is Terrance McKenna’s research into the I-Ching, the Cherokee Rattlesnake Prophecies and the Hopi prophecies about the blue star Kachina that will appear deep in the universe and dance in a frightening time of purification. Add to these the Zohar of the Jewish Kabbalah which predicts the coming of the Messiah in late 2012. Even NASA is predicting a solar maximum in September of 2012 which they project will be the largest solar storm since records have been kept. And the list goes on. According to most of them we are entering the darkest most horrible period in recorded history.

A Visit to the Sun Dance

A number of years ago a friend of mine had a terrifying experience. Now this person is not the fervid hyper-emotional type. He’s quite rational and down-to-earth, so when he told me this story I believed him. He was on a camping vacation across the country. I think he was in Arizona when he saw a sign announcing a major Indian Sun Dance festival. It sounded fascinating and being interested in Native American culture, he decided to attend. So into the wilderness he drove. When he arrived he found thousands people gathered for this great event. Throughout the day he enjoyed the colorful costumes, the delicious food, the dancing and the drumming. He even participated in a sweat lodge. That night he pitched his tent among hundreds of others and settled down to sleep.

But sleep didn’t last long. In the middle of the night he awoke to a horrifying sensation. The way he told it there was something alive inside the tent with him. He could feel it touching him but he couldn’t see it. Never had he been so overwhelmed with an absolute sense of evil and danger. And then it attacked. Needless to say, my friend leaped out of that tent. Throwing his gear in the car he drove away as fast as he could.

Then came a second level of horror. He realized that he hadn’t escaped. Whatever the thing was it was in the car with him. Now he was desperate. Being a devout Christian he knew that he was dealing with an evil spirit and, clearly, it was very powerful. Nothing that he did or said drove it away. All he could think to do was find a church and get some other Christians to help him. But he was in the wilderness. Finally, he reached a small town and came upon a little Roman Catholic Church. Though he wasn’t a Catholic he ran inside. The priest prayed for him and together they drove away the spiritual parasite that had attached itself. When the priest found out that my friend was a Christian he was incredulous. He wanted to know how he could have been so naïve as to go to the Sun Dance? Didn’t he know that a Sun Dance is a major focal point for evil spirits?

Now I am aware that some people reading this will be highly offended by such a story. It besmirches the hallowed view of Native American culture. And what does it have to do with 2012 anyway? Stay tuned.

Chains Across the Centuries

While individual expressions differ, primitive religions hold many beliefs in common. The people who live under these systems are desperately anxious to appease and influence the thousands of spirits that clog their world. They may believe that these spirits are their ancestors or are elemental beings in charge of various aspects of physical life from storms and disease to crops and herds of animals, but the consistent understanding about them from culture to culture and throughout history is that they must be feared. If they are not treated with the utmost circumspection terrible destruction may be wreaked on the tribe. At the very least the group will experience no bounty. Hence, the need for a shaman to act as a go-between telling the people exactly what rules must followed to achieve what they want from the “gods.” So here is a question: Are these primitive cultures simply enslaved by endless generations of fantastical myths that hold no reality or have they discovered that there really are invisible beings that must be feared? Is it possible that all of these cultures are enslaved to dark spirits that the Bible calls demons and fallen angels?

It is not politically correct to cast aspersions on any aspect of Native American culture. To the modern western mind all Native Americans just ooze staunch nobility in the face of oppression, a deep concern for the ecology of the earth and a spiritual respect for all living creatures. Granted this is somewhat mitigated of late by the hundreds of giant Indian casinos that now dot the land and the big SUV’s that tribal council members often drive, but the mythology continues to cling.

The truth is that thematically Native American cultures are little different than thousands of other primitive cultures around the world. Particularly in the western United States many Indian beliefs find their antecedents in the great civilizations of the Aztecs and the Mayas. So it’s not surprising that many share apocalyptic predictions about the end of this age. And they share in their fear.

Why Were the Mayas So Paranoid?

Dozens of books have been written about the Mayas and their Long Count Calendar. It’s a very sophisticated piece of work that covers millions of years. Clearly, the Mayas were obsessed with what the future would hold. Here was a culture that never figured out how to use the wheel except in children’s toys, yet they present us with this masterpiece of paranoia. Did they calculate this monstrosity just because they liked to play with numbers? Like the Aztecs that followed them the Mayas lived in terror. Why did they engage in the most horrific human sacrifices? In large part because they believed that if they didn’t the world would be destroyed. The gods required blood to appease their thirst for destruction. Where did they come up with this? Was it just a vile concoction from the perverted minds of some elitist priests, or could this whole mass of corruption including their calendar have been given to them? Over and over the Mayas and the Aztecs tell us of the “gods” who came and taught them all they needed to know.

Are the Predictions Correct?

If it were only the string of pagan prophetic sources that forecasted a time of great evil and disaster I would not be so concerned. The powers of darkness love to terrify people. It’s their approach to crowd control. But then there are the predictions of Jesus about the state of the world just before His return. These are found in Matthew chapter 24 and elsewhere. If we are entering that time (and I think there is great evidence that we are) we will see a huge increase in all of the things that He predicted. In addition, there will be a terrifying rise in what might be termed supernatural phenomena. These will not be limited to individual experiences. Rather there will be mass events that will cause “paradigm shifts” in reality. Everything we thought we understood about “normal life” will be turned on its head. Nothing that we call normal will ever exist again. And we will be utterly terrified. The Bible predicts that the greatest evil leader in all of history will arise. He will be well equipped to take advantage of our fear.

Which leaves one overwhelming question: Are you ready? The answer to that involves several corollary questions that you should consider. Who was Jesus? Was He really who the Bible says He was? It might be time to carefully examine those issues because He predicted that when the world entered that terrible period…He would return.

So Another Decade...

2010-01-05T13:21:00.001-08:00

I have to say that the one we just completed isn’t a time that I would like to live over. I don’t know about you, but for the Luck family it was a rough ten years. There were physical challenges like at no other period. We experienced heartbreak on many levels including the loss of cherished friends and family. It was a decade of endings, of “goodbyes” to dreams not quite fulfilled. And as the years slipped away there came the realization that Carel and I are entering the last quarter of the game.

And yet… And yet…

In that decade we experienced the wonderful truth that God’s grace, mercy and strength are new every morning. In the middle of heartbreak there have been great joys – marriages, the birth of grandchildren, new friends that make the journey lighter, new dreams to replace the old. And with the realization that we are in the last quarter of life, there is the slow dawning of an Eternal Joy. More and more our eyes are turned toward the horizon, awaiting the coming of the King.

And in the meantime…

There is much to do. There are heartbroken people strewn in the path that only we can touch. There are novels and blogs and all sorts of stuff to write. As the time grows shorter the opportunities grow greater. And this is true for the history of the world. What will the new decade hold? In my opinion, based on 40 years of study, we will face the coming of the greatest Darkness that the world has ever known. But also will appear the Greatest Light. To most people the Darkness will be viewed as light and the Light as darkness. It will be a time of pestilential fear and crumbling faith and in it will be the Mighty Hand of God. Are you ready for the new decade? I’ll be writing much more about this in the weeks ahead.

A touch of truth.

Recently I came across one of the most perceptive documentaries that I have ever seen. It is a four part series done in 2002 by the BBC titled “Century of the Self.” Here is the link for the first episode:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8953172273825999151#

The documentarian, Adam Curtis, has done a masterful job of analyzing and explaining some of the perverse influences that have destroyed western civilization. While his political biases become increasingly clear over the course of the series, they do not diminish the underlying truth of the presentation. No matter what your political persuasion, there is much here that should disturb you. For me as a Christian it underscores the strong belief that I have held for years that there is no political party where I can find a home. (God forbid that a so-called “Christian” party should ever arise.) So take a look at "Century of the Self" and tell me what you think.

An invitation for friends in the LA area.

I have been invited to teach a monthly Bible study sponsored by Premise, an entertainment industry Christian prayer fellowship. Though the study is targeted to Hollywood professionals, it’s open to anyone. The title is “The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Hollywood.”

We will meet the fourth Sunday of each month at CBS Studio Center, 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City in the San Fernando Valley. The study will begin at 6:30 PM. Because it is on a studio lot, reservations need to be made in advance if you are going to attend. You can do this by sending an e-mail with your contact information to info@premiseonline.org or you can make reservations through the Premise Facebook page. Your name will be placed on a list at the guard gate. Hope to see you there.

Blessings on you and yours in this New Year.

In Memory of Edward Woodward, The Equalizer

2009-11-16T13:26:00.000-08:00

This morning came the word that my old friend and colleague Edward Woodward had passed away. He was 79 years old. Over recent years our contact was pretty much limited to the exchange of Christmas cards. The one he sent last year carried the note that he was still working at 79 and wasn't that a wonder?

I didn't create the classic American television series of which Edward was the star. It was created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim. Michael was a busy writer/producer and Dick was a top-level executive at Universal Television. After the pilot was written and produced, because of their commitments, neither could join the on-going staff of the show. It was turned over to others.

I came on board the team as the junior writer/producer in the fall of 1985. It was show eleven. I had worked on only one other series and that one had lasted for just eight episodes. When it ended I was offered an exclusive deal at Universal TV. I was thrilled to be there, but for months there wasn't much for me to do. Then came a call. Would I like to join the staff of a new series that was in production called The Equalizer? The concept sounded interesting so I said yes.

Almost immediately I ran into a false conception that plagued the show from beginning to end. When I told a woman writer friend that I was joining The Equalizer she looked disgusted. Why would I want to write for a show about a vigilante? To this day that's how many people perceive The Equalizer. But for those of us who worked on the series it wasn't about that at all.

When I joined the staff I discovered that things were in chaos. Most new series go through a painful first year, but this was particularly bad. The writing staff and the "showrunner" were in LA while the whole production team was in Manhattan. And there was war between the coasts. The New York team hated the scripts they were getting, while the LA team felt they were writing cutting-edge material that took the concept to a whole new level. I decided to be of help wherever I could and try not to make enemies on either coast. That was a challenge.

The writing staff was trying to deal with a number of scripts that had been done by freelancers. All of them needed major revisions to make them ready for production and deadlines were not being met. With my usual suicidal tendency I went into the showrunner's office and asked for the most difficult script he had. He gave it to me. It was a story about a street gang and it needed what we call a "page one" revision, basically a new script. And there wasn't much time to do it.

In the story the Equalizer had to stop a street gang that was terrorizing a neighborhood. For some reason I got it into my head to make that script an homage to the classic movie, "The Warriors." (When I see that episode today I just want to cringe.) But something strange happened as I wrote it. Here's the way it went down.

As always before taking any action, Robert McCall did his homework about the situation that he faced. In the episode his research took him to Spanish Harlem. One day on a street he passed a poor little barbershop. Glancing in the window, he froze. His eyes locked with those of the barber. Amazed, he walked inside. The barber and McCall stared at each other. They were old enemies from the days when McCall was a top CIA operative. The man motioned for him to come into the back room where they could talk.

McCall couldn't believe that his old enemy was here in New York cutting hair. When last they had met he was one of the leading Generals in Fidel Castro's Cuba. How in the world had he gone from that to this? The "barber" told him.

In a time of paranoia, Castro had ordered yet another sweep to cleanse the population of his enemies. Among the thousands pulled in was a little farmer, just a common man. But very quickly it became apparent that the best interrogators couldn't deal with him. He broke them. In frustration, the General took on the case himself. He tortured the man mercilessly, finally killing him. But that little farmer destroyed his life. And how had he done it? "...Because through all the torture no matter what I did to him he forgave me. What I experienced was the worst thing that could ever happen to a good Communist. I began to believe in the Love of God." This and other factors in the story led Robert McCall to do something that he had never done before. To win against the gang he had to lay down his gun and face them defenseless and alone.

After I wrote all that I had absolutely no idea how it would be received. Definitely it wasn't your garden variety vigilante story. I was certain of only one thing. In the history of American television never had such a scene been written for a hard-edged prime-time action series. I was in LA with no direct knowledge of what was going on in New York. I didn't know it, but later I was told that Edward was ready to walk off the show because he was so unhappy with his character as it was being portrayed. But when he read the script that I had written he said, "This is it."

Thus began a wonderful odyssey for me. The story of all we went through producing The Equalizer could fill a book. Beginning with the second year the writing team came together. A number of wonderful writers passed through the show adding their unique perspectives. Many of us are still close friends. For two of the four years the showrunner was a great friend who gave me amazing freedom to write whatever I felt. His name was Ed Waters and he passed away several years ago. Then there was Jim McAdams, the Executive Producer, who became a dear friend of decades. Jim died a little over two years ago. Supporting us were the executives at Universal TV led by Dick Lindheim. Without their encouragement nothing that I wrote would have been produced. I am grateful to them all.

As time passed it seemed that I had a kind of symbiotic understanding of the unique character created by Michael and Dick and portrayed so brilliantly by Edward. Consequently, most of the episodes that dealt with McCall's deeper background and relationships fell to me. By virtue of the fact that I stayed on the show longer than any other writer I wrote more episodes than anyone else. And what a wonderful opportunity it was. Never again on any series even those I created was I allowed such freedom.

What makes a television series successful? Of course, you need good scripts and good production. But most of all the audience has to love the main characters. They have to want them to come back into their homes week after week. That's why casting is such an art. Casting Edward Woodward as The Equalizer was brilliant and unpredictable. Think of it, a British actor virtually unknown in the US to play a CIA agent on a major network series. The world can thank Michael and Dick for such a choice.

I've thought often about what Edward brought to the part. In my opinion it was great strength, resolution and energy, coupled with an underlying sorrow. There was tremendous honesty in his performance. The character he played was a brilliant and brave man who had done terrible things for which he carried a heavy burden of guilt. The series was about the costliness of redemption. Robert McCall brought redemption to others, but to do so always cost him. And while he brought that redemption, he could never quite find it for himself.

I don't think you will ever see another series like The Equalizer. There are specific reasons for that. First, Robert McCall was the ultimate father figure. He would kick your butt when you needed it, but when the chips were down and life was fading away he would be there to save you. When he came you knew that if it was necessary he would give his life for yours. Hollywood is not a fan of those kind of fathers. Lovable, stumbling buffoons are much more popular. But there's another reason you'll never see a series like this again.

Over the years there have been a number of attempts to copy The Equalizer. They have failed because Hollywood misunderstands the meaning of redemption. Hollywood's definition of redemption is found in the wonderful movie, "The Shawshank Redemption." As excellent as it is, it isn't about redemption at all. It's about revenge. Redeem yourself by making somebody else pay. And therein lies the fatal flaw. With true redemption someone is willing to pay the price to save your life even if you don't deserve it. If The Equalizer had carried Hollywood's definition of redemption it would have been just a vigilante show.

Why did I have an understanding of the mysterious character of Robert McCall? Was it my experiences in war? Maybe in part. But there is a deeper reason. I too am a man who has done terrible things in my life. But unlike Robert McCall I found redemption because Someone else paid the price for me. Because of Jesus Christ I know what redemption is and the burden of guilt is gone.

People always want to know how much of the character that an actor portrays comes from inside. They want to believe that the real person is a lot like the character they love on the screen. Edward both was and wasn't the Equalizer. First, he was a whole lot funnier than Robert McCall. And he could sing. A number of years ago Carel and I visited Edward and Michele in their home near Portsmouth, England. It was a delightful time. We had great meals and went antiquing. Our gracious hosts showed us the area with its fascinating history. And Edward kept us in stitches. Not only was he a consummate actor, he was one of the greatest raconteurs of his generation.

Edward was much like Robert McCall in at least one way. He cared about people. The star of a series controls the tone of a show on the set. Too many series are chained with stars who are narcissistic spoiled brats. And some are truly evil. They bring agony on all those around them. That was not Edward Woodward. Our production team, that had to work with him day and night, all loved him. He was a true gentleman. Though we never talked about it I'm sure at a deep level Edward understood Robert McCall in the same way I did. If he hadn't, never would he have accepted the scripts that I wrote for him.

I was a grown man when my father died. Even so a strange sense of vulnerability came at his passing. Someone I trusted deeply wasn't there anymore and the world was a lonelier place. I think Edward portrayed a father very well. Our prayers are with Michele and all the children.

Rest in peace, my friend.

The Varieties of War

2009-11-13T07:21:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday was Veteran's Day. Each year when it comes around I feel quite detached from the celebration. Fresno, a city of half a million that's an hour from where I live, has a big parade. I just can't imagine myself staggering down a street with a bunch of old dudes decorated with bits and pieces of my ancient uniform. I'm glad they do it I just can't bring myself to participate. As worthy as they are, I've never been involved in veterans' organizations.

On November 9th of 1967 I arrived in Vietnam. I was a second lieutenant, a graduate of the Infantry Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, GA, trained to be a combat rifle platoon leader.

Your first week or so in Vietnam was spent at a reception station getting acclimated to the heat and awaiting orders. Mine came late one night. My assignment was to a combat battalion that was flying out the next morning. The 4rth Infantry Division was in a major battle in the Central Highlands and we were going to back them up. As officers must do I had to report to the battalion commander. It was after midnight when I arrived. I found him and all the officers of the unit in their private club, a very large tent with a bar. And all of them were getting drunk. I could have hoped for a better moment to make my introduction.

So I came in and saluted Colonel Baldwin. That was his name. Now when you're the newbie junior lieutenant in a battalion you expect a certain amount of harassment. It just goes with the territory. You learn to take it and give it. After I reported to Colonel Baldwin (who was well into his cups), he invited me to have a beer. Now this was a problem. Having grown up in a conservative religious community, at that time I didn’t drink alcohol at all. My previous experiences with military drunks did not incline me to begin, so politely I asked for a Coke. The good Colonel did not appreciate this request.

Now there are three kinds of drunks. First, you have the guys who just get quiet and sink into themselves. Second, there are the party boys who think everything they do and say is screamingly funny. Last, and most dangerous are the belligerent SOB's. Very quickly I discovered that Colonel Baldwin fell into that category. He demanded to know why I wouldn’t accept a beer. Without going into detail I told him that I just didn’t drink. He proceeded to stand me at attention in front of all the other officers and gave me a direct order to drink a beer. At that point I would have drunk acid first. Politely I refused. For the next hour he proceeded to berate me: 1) for not drinking beer, 2) for being a second lieutenant, and 3) for being married of all things. Drunks are such pleasant people. The louder he got the more quietly stubborn I got. Clearly, the man was a buffoon, but put this into context. In a few hours he was going to lead us into battle. It was like entering the Twilight Zone. Thank God we didn't confront the enemy the next day. Later some of the other officers told me that they admired the way I had stood up to him. Of course they didn't have the guts to say a word that night. A week later came my birthday. I turned 22.

After several months Colonel Baldwin was reassigned. The man who replaced him was even worse. Not a drunk, just an arrogant egomaniac out to make a name for himself as a battalion commander. I will never forget his last day with us. We were operating as part of the Mobile Riverine Force in the Mekong Delta. Our rifle companies were on a search and destroy mission and as usual the Colonel was flying overhead in a helicopter. I was leading a rifle platoon. That afternoon my platoon was holed up in a bombed-out Catholic church, so I didn’t see what transpired. But I heard it as it happened over the battalion radio net.

By then a much older captain had joined the battalion. (Probably around the ripe old age of 42.) He was very experienced and he was leading one of the rifle companies. Well he wasn't moving his men fast enough for the Colonel in the helicopter. All of us moved slowly because we were up to our waists in rice paddy mud and the temperature was about 120 degrees. He ordered the captain to get his men up onto the dikes so they could run where he wanted them to go. The captain refused, telling him that the dikes were all booby-trapped with mines. His soldiers would die needlessly. The battalion commander grew furious. Ordering his helicopter to land, he screamed at the captain that he would show him how to lead. Then he proceeded to rush down a dike all by himself. He didn’t go fifty feet before he was blown to pieces. All of us listening on the battalion radios cheered. The reward for his arrogance and stupidity was a trip home in a body bag.

I have always said that my time in the army was excellent preparation for Hollywood because I learned how to fight and how to deal with idiots. The army has its share of bullies but there are far more of them in Hollywood, little martinets who rise up and strut for awhile making everyone's life hell. Then, they vanish away. I discovered long ago that you can do your very best to live at peace with these people, but if they feel you are not properly intimidated there's going to be trouble.

Years ago I had a deal with a production company at MGM. I had been brought in to write the pilot for a TV series and be the showrunner guiding other writers in the development of episodic scripts. The company had several series in production so there were a number of writers at work. The man in charge of it all had a reputation for being a bully, but my relationship with him had been fine.

As the weeks passed I brought in writers and we began to develop stories for the series. Finally I felt that one was ready to present for approval. I sent the detailed story over. A day or so later the man called for a meeting with the writer. The meeting took place in my office. To my surprise this little bully walked in, sat down and literally threw the story at my writer. Then he began berating him.

The writer was an old friend of mine. Years later he loved to describe what happened next. He said that my eyes grew wide, then they narrowed. I rose up and almost came over my desk. He thought I was going to grab the man and strangle him. In a quiet voice I informed him that he could yell at me and throw things at me all he wanted, but never again was he going to treat one of my writers this way. Like all bullies he shriveled. Well, the word got out to everyone in that company. From that moment the man was terrified of me. Apparently no one had ever stood up to him. After that I tried to be friendly and professional, but our relationship did not blossom. A month or so later he did some unethical things that forced me to leave. I was glad to be gone. Later he was fired from the company for illegal activities.

As a Christian I have discovered that when I am attacked I have a hard time defending myself, but when others are attacked I have an absolute responsibility to defend them if I am able.

When soldiers returned after a year in Vietnam so many confronted total rejection. In large part this was a result of the traitors in the media and the insane radicals in the streets. But it got very personal. Men came home not only to be spit upon by strangers, but to wives who had left them and families who didn't care whether they were home or not, to old friends who rejected them as "baby killers." It is one of the greatest disgraces in the history of America and it went on for years.

But I was blessed. I didn't face any of those things. The week I came home I was asked to speak in uniform at a chapel service at the Moody Bible Institute. After my talk, which was well received, the students were about to leave. My sweet wife was in the audience sitting with an old friend who was a professor. They decided to clap which was something that just didn't happen in those services. Suddenly, all 1100 students were clapping and cheering. That was my welcome home, that was my parade, and I will always be grateful.

Visit my website: www.colemanluck.com

The Terror That Comes In The Night

2009-11-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

When you are a mentalist doing shows and programs you've got to be prepared to deal with some high strangeness. I found that out when I was a young man performing in the mid-west. Beyond the craft of mentalism, I had do know something about the occult and the supernatural because many people were having disturbing experiences that they were afraid to share with anyone else. At the very least a mentalist should offer an understanding ear. The beginning of my research was with the writings of a man named Dr. Kurt Koch. Most of his books are still in my library, his magnum opus being a work entitled "Occult Bondage and Deliverance."

Dr. Koch was anything but a sensationalist. Most people who write about the occult come across as loons. That was not Dr. Koch. He was a German theologian and biblical scholar who had found himself thrown into situations for which he was not prepared. In the process of dealing with those situations over many years he became an expert. I heard him speak in the early 1970's and I remember him as being a stolid old German with a thick accent and a presentational style that was distinctly underwhelming. But he knew his subject.

There are those who believe that the supernatural or preternatural does not exist at all. They are materialists of the Old School who cling desperately to an outmoded view of reality based on a 19th century faith in the scientific method. How they can cling to such a view is beyond me. Even a shallow understanding of Quantum Mechanics and its weird implications should lead the most dedicated rationalist to throw up his hands and think anything is possible.

I am almost 64 years old. Though I have studied the occult and the supernatural for many years I have not had an experience that I would classify as "otherworldly" or unexplainable...except once. It happened in February of 2005 and it lasted less than fifteen seconds. But those few seconds were amazing. What I saw was not frightening, rather it was weird and wonderful and awe-inspiring. At some point in the future I will write about it in detail, but not now. While my life has been virtually devoid of high strangeness, there are people close to me who have had many preternatural experiences many of which have included an element of terror.

In 1992 the Roper Group took a poll to determine how many people in the United States were having what they believed to be frightening supernatural experiences. Among a series of questions, the respondents were asked if they had ever awakened from sleep paralyzed – unable to move or speak – with the sense of a Malevolent Presence in the room. Eighteen percent replied, “yes.” Based on their randomly selected sample of 5,947 respondents and with a margin of error of + or – 1.4%, it was projected that at that time, over 33,000,000 people in our country were having such experiences. That's a lot of people.

Sociologist David J. Hufford has documented this horrible phenomenon in his book, "The Terror that Comes in the Night: An Experience Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions." Beginning while he was a professor in Nova Scotia and continuing when he became a professor in Arizona, Hufford discovered that on a regular basis a significant percentage of his students were experiencing supernatural “assaults.” These terrifying manifestations came during the night. The victim would awaken but be unable to move with the absolute awareness that an Evil Presence was in the room. This Presence would physically descend upon them, crushing down so hard that they were unable to breathe. The experiences were viewed as absolutely real by those who described them. Some became so fearful that they didn’t want to fall asleep. Why hadn’t they told anyone? They were afraid that people would think they were crazy. Based on his research, Hufford projected that as much as one sixth of the population may be experiencing such horrifying events.

My research indicates that this experience goes back for centuries and the Evil Presence has taken many forms depending on the cultural expectations of its victims. There is an arcane expression that has almost passed from the English language. That expression is "hagridden." It refers to being tormented and attacked during the night. In the past (and even up to the present), one form that the Evil Manifestation has taken is that of an old hag. But there are much more modern forms. In my opinion, the so-called UFO abduction phenomenon is nothing more than a modern version of this ancient attack syndrome.

But what could be the purpose for these attacks and who is the attacker? As far as purpose is concerned in my opinion there are many levels which I will not go into right now. At the very least, recurring terror creates chaos in a person's life. When there is chaos and terror the damage flows out affecting every relationship and situation. Chaos and terror also offer the opportunity for malevolent control.

Who or what is it that is doing the attacking? Read the following information and draw your own conclusions. Based upon what I have learned from many people including those close to me, no matter what form the Evil Presence takes there is only one guaranteed way to stop it. Whether it appears as a hag or a so-called "alien," it can be forced to leave by commanding it do so in the name of Jesus Christ and through the power of His blood shed to take away the sins of the world. Now this doesn't mean that there won't be a battle, but in every case I know of (and I know of many) ultimately the Presence cannot stand that Name and the application of that Blood and will vanish. Let me be clear, the Name of Jesus is not an occult incantation. Those who use it are calling out to a Living Person for help. If you're going to call on Him it would be good to know Him. When you begin to know Him you will understand why Evil is so terrified.

Does all of this sound insane? I'm sure for many readers of this blog it does. So be it. But for those who live in terror of the thing that comes in the night it could be nothing less than the beginning of liberation.

Visit my website: www.colemanluck.com

All That's Left Behind

2009-10-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

Back in the very early years of this new century I was involved with a group that attempted to turn the best-selling Left Behind books into a TV series. For many reasons it was a horrible experience. In addition to the insane lawsuits between rights holders and all the related nightmares that they created, I ran into a surprising difficulty. It may seem trivial, but I think that it is symptomatic of a much larger problem.

The Bible teaches that in the Last Days a man of great evil will arise to rule the world. He has been called the Anti-Christ. This character is central to the Left Behind books. In the course of preparing to write scripts based on those books I had discussions with Dr. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. To my surprise I discovered that Dr. LaHaye does not believe that the Anti-Christ will have supernatural powers. In his opinion, he will be simply a very gifted man who becomes filled with the spirit of Satan. This elicited an extensive dialog between us both in person and in letters. The letters are stored in my collection in the Wheaton College Library Archives and are available for examination.

It was and is my opinion that this Great Evil Leader will be from his earliest days an individual of consummate supernatural power, the Ultimate Hierophant, an initiated adept into the most ancient of mysteries. I presented my case and Dr. LaHaye presented his. With all due respect, I found his arguments to be both biblically weak and, sad to say, dangerously naive. In my opinion they represented a strange kind of materialism, perhaps an echo of so-called Enlightenment skepticism that has infected a large segment of the Church of Jesus Christ.

I am a mentalist. As such I am a firm believer in the amazing power of illusion and physical trickery. The simplest of deceptions can fool the masses, deceptions that have nothing to do with supernatural abilities but appear to be miraculous. I have spent both time and treasure to learn many of these secrets. While having a strong experiential belief in the gullibility of humans, I have also spent almost 40 years studying the occult and the supernatural in its various manifestations. Through that research I have become convinced of its reality. My next novel, Dagon's Illusion (the first of The Mentalist trilogy), focuses on the collision of supernatural realities in these Last Days.

I hate blogging. I hate the idea of blogging. From a literary perspective it seems to me to be a form vomitus. Reluctantly however, I have become convinced that there is a place for it. In the days ahead I will be sharing with you some of the thoughts and research that have brought me to my strange opinions. So hang on for the ride.