Links for the show:
If you want to comment on the show you can do so by leaving a comment here on the blog, or sending an email to feedback@misfitchristians.net.
This show is copyright 2008 by Michael Taylor Kent. This podcast is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
Okay… this is really late. The show was recorded on 4/16/2008. I hope you enjoy it.
Links for the show:
If you want to comment on the show you can do so by leaving a comment here on the blog, or sending an email to feedback@misfitchristians.net.
This show is copyright 2008 by Michael Taylor Kent. This podcast is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
As Christians we all agree that the Bible is the Divinely Inspired Word of God. Indeed, it’s possibly the only thing any two Christians ever fully agree on. But I’m willing to go further and say that Divine Inspiration can be found almost anywhere in art, film, music, and writing.
Of course, the obvious answer most give when asked, “Is there Divine Inspiration outside the Bible?” is “Yes, we have Christian music, Christian fiction, etc., etc.”
But is “Christian” as a genre label truly a source, or can it at times be little more than Lucifer’s usual smoke and mirrors tactic? Can we, as Christians, afford to stop thinking and discerning, to start blindly trusting a genre label?
I say no. And these are the reasons:
Example of Messed up “Christian” media:
The Left Behind series. ’nuff said.
Examples of Christian themes in Non-Christian media:
C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien were both Christians, and are also two of the writers often mentioned as being the pioneers of today’s Fantasy genres. These days their books are considered “Christian Fantasy” (although I personally know a couple pagans who’d disagree, and have valid points). But in their day there was no “Christian Fantasy” genre nor was there even a “Fantasy” genre (they were still called adventure romances or mythological romances back then). Which meant their stories were (gasp!) secular.
We all remember the bad reputation Dungeons and Dragons had in the Christian community. But what few of us seem to know is that the late Gary Gygax, co-founder of the game, was Christian. Those who know him personally can attest to his faith, and it’s also why all the angels in the game system had stats that made the demons look like pansies in comparison.
Megadeth is a secular band that has felt the ire of angry Christians who almost never bothered to listen to any of their song lyrics. Which is sad, seeing as their vocalist, Dave Mustaine, is Christian. And even before he became Christian, he still handled many themes in his lyrics we Christians (at least we alert ones) would agree on: warnings against the rise of a one world government being only one example.
And even today, especially in the time we are in, Divine Inspiration (God’s voice) can be found almost anywhere and far more often than ever before. It’s as if God is reaching out, using whomsoever He will (as He has often done throughout the course of human history), attempting to warn us about the consequences of our own pride and arrogance. It can be both heard and felt, especially through music.
Here’s a test. I’ll pick three bands not known as Christian bands (indeed, one of the ones I’ll pick is known for being against all organized religions), and two songs from each. Type in the “band name - song name” over at Youtube and listen to the lyrics of each song. Then tell me what you, personally, discover in their lyrics:
Disturbed: “Deify” and “Land of Confusion”
Epica: “Consign to Oblivion” and “The Divine Conspiracy”
Within Temptation: “Deceiver of Fools” and “Our Solemn Hour” and “The Truth Beneath the Rose” (okay, so I cheated with this one and listed three)
Then go and read (or watch) Stephen King’s The Stand. Heh. Had to throw that one in. 
There is something very attractive about nihilism. I’m not sure what, but it resonates within me; it stimulates a desire to respond with wholescale destruction to every irritation or imagined slight. I’m not alone. Mass media has for years played on the fears and desires of the secret nihilist within all of us. Films such as Dawn of the Dead (either version, but especially the new one) are little more than extended social commentary concluding that life is so futile we don’t even get to die in peace. Video games such as Fallout, Grand Theft Auto, and even my beloved Hunter: the Reckoning are based on the premise that all we can do is go down fighting. Music from Rob Zombie, Slipknot, and Korn remind us that only the worm is conqueror-king. An entire sub-culture has sprung up around the glorification of death and the trappings of death.
But these are emotive, right? The passing hormonal angst of teenagers, the frustrated response of the daily grind, or the driving pulsations of light and sound designed to stir within your breast what naturally lies sleeping. Surely every thinking being must conclude that where there is life there is hope, and the possibility for change. Surely a civilized person under no duress will not abandon their fellow man or seek to harm him. Surely the innate morality of the birthing soul knows that life and fellowship is the father-mother source of the universal peace-mind, it is only weighed down by this dross frame of corruptible flesh.
‘Taint so. And don’t call me Shirley.
According to the CDC: (in 2005) 420,000 injuries were intentionally self-inflicted; (in 2004) 32,439 self-inflicted injuries resulted in death. Those are just the stats at my fingertips. The temptation to write off suicide as a moment of emotional weakness is overpowering to those not under that temptation. But the temptation is more often the result of an overarching world view that places no value on the individual. Sometimes this results in the tragedy of suicide. Sometimes the result is the methodical securing of a high-school’s exits and the systematic execution of its population.
We cannot simply blame hormones when teenagers run amok and injure each other. We cannot point to the religion of evolution as the sole cause of individual devaluation that makes a person take their life. We cannot decry a culture that immerses us in death when street gangs take their guns to the highway. And we cannot excuse ourselves as overwhelmed by stress when we start to fantasize about CHOKING THE *&*$^% LIFE out of supervisors, co-workers, and customers. These things are symptoms. The root cause lies at the core of our being.
We are sinful creatures.
This means we place ourselves at the top of our personal food-chain. At the end of the day, we owe no allegiance to anyone else except for they ways we can use them. And don’t imagine this doesn’t extend to family. My wife is here to serve me physically. My children are an investment against the inevitability of old age - if I inculcate them with enough guilt and obligation towards me. My friends make me feel good. Every thing I do, every relationship I have is geared towards my own present or future gratification. And the only thing preventing me from killing people that do not gratify me is the knowledge of retribution. A nihilistic philosophy erases the consideration of such penalties, and leaves me a hairs-breadth away from becoming the next Charles Manson.
Tell me again about the beauty-grace nature within the birthing-soul of humanity.
Do you see how attractive nihilism is? Action without consequence. Indulgence of gratification to the extreme end. And this is endemic to the human condition.
This is why we need the cross. No other religion or philosophy recognizes and deals with sin effectively. If I am to change, it must come from without for I am unable to change from within. If I am to understand love and sacrifice on an unselfish basis it must be demonstrated for me. And finally, if the end of all is not oblivion, then life is merely training for eternity, and I must be taught how to live. And it must happen in that order. First we change. Second we learn. Third we decide and act. If the cycle begins with change, and we cannot change ourselves, then we depend on God to change us according to his mercy.
So the end of all things is mercy, not death. And the beginning of something new.
The Misfit Christians Podcast is on-hold until June. With everything else going on, I just don’t have time to do it right now. Look for its return some time in early June.
Thanks,
T
This song is sooo sad. It got me to thinking about the old me. I would start to think about how much my life was in the darkness. I had so much failure that it would eat me up inside. I would ponder ending it all. I never had a serious though. Just a thought and then it would leave me and I would go on with life. This video captures that moment. Not to glorify suicide or gloss over it. It is far too serious of a subject to cover with one video. But once upon a time I was the one in charge of my life and I had no idea what I was doing. This world seriously gave me trouble. But there was One who overcame it.
Thank God for his loving Son, Jesus. When my life goes south;and it has. I praise Him and thank him for the opportunity to have these troubles. For example, my son filled our sewer vent with branches and backed up our plumbing. For a week I was elbow deep pulling out branches. It was a nightmare. I was wet and STINKY and pissed. But then I thought, At least I am blessed to have indoor plumbing. As much as that week sucked. I pushed though and we have working toilets again. And that is WAAAAY better than pooping in a field out back.
In the world of fandom there is a concept known as the “mundanes”. “Mundanes” refers to people, usually negatively, who are not interested in sci-fi, fantasy, horror, anime, and other related topics. And Mundanes can often find themselves, at the hands of the more militant and/or immature fans, being made fun of or the butt of practical jokes - usually referred to as “Freaking the Mundanes”.
I mention this because I am not a fan of “Freaking the Mudanes”. I believe it is the same kind of judgmentalism we stand against as Christians, or at least we should (see Mathew 7:1-5). As Misfit Christians we walk a thin line: we don’t fit the image that most Christians hold for how a Christian should be, and we don’t wholly fit into the world of Fandom. And because of that we are often mistreated by both.
So where does that leave us? In this article I want to focus on our relationship with our fellow Christians (I will discus our relation to the world of Fandom in part 2 of this article). We as Misfit Christians are still Christians at the end of the day. Our love of sci-fi, fantasy, anime, horror, gaming, etc. makes us different from the majority of Christians, but it does not make us better. I bring this up because, frankly, I catch myself sometimes looking down on Christians who are “mundane”. This is wrong.
We are different as Misfit Christians, but we are not better. We are sinners saved by the sacrifice of Christ Jesus just like anyone else who has embraced the gift of salvation offered by God. And although we are often looked down upon by our fellow Christians, we have no right to mistreat them in return (see Matthew 7:1-5 and Matthew 22:39). We should treat them as we want to be treated. We should be willing to take no offense and forgive them, when our faith has been questioned for reading a Harry Potter novel.
We also have to be careful, in that we don’t want to be stumbling blocks to others, as MindSpike pointed out in his article In Defense (a bull) (see 1 Corinthians 8:1-13). We know that, within some bounds, there is nothing wrong with sci-fi, fantasy, horror, anime, gaming, etc; but for some those things might be gateways to sins and we should be willing to put our interests aside long enough to not cause someone else to sin. That does not mean denying who we are or giving up our Misfit Christian-hood, as I believe God has made us this way for a reason. It means that we should not strive for our own way when among those who don’t agree with our interests (see Galatians 5:22-23 and 1 Corinthians 13:1); although that does not mean we should compromise our faith.
We are all Christians. We have Christ in common, and He trumps what divides us. Therefore we should treat each other with love and respect.
So no matter how our fellow Christians feel concerning out Misfit Christian nature, we should respond with love and respect, and without judgment.
You know there have been a lot of great posts put up here at the Misfit Christians Network, but very few of them by me, Taylor Kent, the cult leader here. Wait, did I say cult!?! I really meant instigator. I would like to say that this is for a good reason - like I am way too busy writing the next great breakout novel or recording the greatest podcast ever recorded - but, well, it is mostly out of laziness and my playing Jonah. So in the very first paragraph of this post I am going to make a promise to all of you who read this blog and/or are members of the forum/community here (more on that later), I will post at least one new article here a week. That being said, I better get on with writing this one, telling you who I am and how this all came to be.
My name is Taylor Kent. Well, okay, it is Michael Taylor Kent. I go by my middle name, and I was baptized as Taylor Kent, if that means anything. As to why I go by Taylor is a bit of a long story which is not germane here. I am a Christian. Yes, I am willing to use the word that has come to represent to the world what is wrong with the Christian Church today because it is the right word. Christian means “follower of Christ”, and I am a follower of Christ Jesus, the one and only son of God: the God who created the Universe and everything in it; the God who came down as one of us, died a horrible death, and rose from the dead in order to redeem us from our sins, our rebellion; the same God who gave us the gifts and imaginations with which we have created the great Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Anime/Animation, games, etc. that we all love. But being a Christian has only been the later part of my life. I think I have truly been a follower of Christ for the last 5 or 6 years.
I am also a fan of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Anime/Animation, comic books, and games. This has been more or less a life long affliction. My father got me into it by reading The Hobbit to me as a child and letting me watch science fiction and horror movies with him. But I also believe that my Fan-ish nature was the design of God. (More on this in future posts.)
Okay… You are saying to yourself that this venture makes sense. Well, yes and no. When I first became a Christian I was obsessed with Science Fiction and Fantasy and Anime and Horror fandom. I ran a successful Anime Club in the Twin Cities. I work on Con-Com of various conventions in the Twin Cities area. And I had to give all that up. I know I burned some bridges when I gave it up. But I had to get away from it for a while, apparently not forever. I am now slowly moving back into fandom circles both Christian and secular, and that is more or less where the Misfit Christian Network comes in.
When I first began to really embrace my relationship with God through Christ Jesus, I was pretty Gung-Ho. I repeatedly prayed for God to give me everything he had for me right now. I have since learned that I was not nor am I now fully ready for that. But a vision He gave me was as follows and was the seed that is germinating here and now.
One night, I vividly remember this, I had this weird super-realistic dream. I was listening to the local Christian radio station, and a local show called City Sites came on. After the introduction was given, the guy who hosts the show (whose name escapes me now) introduced the guest ministry, Starship Hope. And then I heard my own voice on the radio, talking about a ministry that embraced the Science Fiction and Fantasy community to bring the love of God into those communities. It went on for a while, but more or less, that was the call. I have since matured enough to realize that going into that world with a Bible in one hand and a cross in the other will do nothing more than piss a bunch of people off.
Over time with much prayer and discussion this Misfit Christians Network has come to be. And it is based on three things: Love of God, Love of Fandom, and Love for the lost in the Fandom community. Everything I am trying to do in relations to this is out of love. I love fandom and other people who love fandom and I don’t want to see them parish for lack of knowledge of the love and truth of God.
God gave me another vision related to this about a year ago and it was this:
A large group of people in a camp in the eye of a wild storm. Some of the people were taking care of the camp and stuff. But most everyone else was a part of human chains feeding out into the storm, looking for those who would be saved. Every so often the person at the front of the chain would come back to the camp to rest and heal or bring new recruits (for lack of a better word) with them to learn and be built up.
This is how I see this ministry working. I believe that there will be those who go out into the fandom communities, building credibility as both Christians and Fans (throught various means like writing, music, podcast, service, expertise, etc.), forming relationships with other fans and through those relationship showing them the love and grace and hope and freedom and truth that the Lord offers with no strings attached. But for those people to be successful, they need a strong base camp to return to when they are beaten and battered by the storm. And a place where they can bring those new to the Lord, where they will not be judged for their fan-ish beliefs, to learn and grow.
And I believe that the Misfit Christian Network is at a place right now where we are building that base camp. God has opened the eye in the storm and provided the raw materials. We simply have to begin building the community.
In order to do this, I am adding a forum here at The Misfit Christians Network. It will be up in some form when this article is posted. And I am going to call for a Misfit Christian’s Meet Up at Mo*Con III in June as well as at CONvergence in July. (More details to come later on the meet ups.)
And as to why I am doing this… Well mostly because God told me to, but also because the organized church as it exists today does a terrible job of embracing those who don’t fit their idea of what Christians should look like. (More on this in future posts.)
So go sign up for the forum and introduce yourself and get to know your fellow misfits.