Scott Freeman

I’m trying to snap myself out of a little funk here, so I thought I would reflect on scary movies. And in keeping with today being Halloween and all. (By the way, we are passing out pocket-sized versions of Leroy Brownlow’s “Why I Am a Member of the Church of Christ” to all the little pagans that knock on our door tonight.)

I like a good horror flick. I’d watch more of them but they freak out the missus. Hasn’t always been that way though. I was scared of my own shadow when I was a kid. And germs. I was really scared of germs. In hindsight, I was just ahead of my time.

For this list I will be looking at my scariest movies of all time. These will be the movies that freaked me out the most. (I’m sorry but am I the only one who thought “Rosemary’s Baby” was a dreadful bore?) I also limit it to movies released in my lifetime (sorry Mr. Hitchcock), otherwise it would be the top 25.

10. Scream (1996): I know a lot of this movie is done with a wink and a nod but it singlehandedly rescued horror flicks from the dreak that typified the early to mid 90s. This movie attempts to satirize horror movies. It does that and scares in the process. The sequels detract from the greatness of this original.

9. The Amityville Horror (1979): I saw this movie again a couple of years back after finally reading the book. Originally, I had heard nothing of the controversy surrounding the alleged “true events.” What I did know at the age of 11 was that my dad brought the book home from some trip he was on and that the thought of a haunted house like that made me fill my pants.

8. Jaws (1975): The genius of this movie was the unseen: the shark wasn’t seen for the majority of the movie except for the dorsal fin. And the music. Who wasn’t scared of entering water after seeing this as a kid?

7. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974): What freaked me out the most was that so much of it was shot in the middle of the day. That’s usually when you feel the safest in these movies. But not here. The pacing and suspense have stuck with me. Who isn’t a little reluctant to pull over in the middle of nowhere?

6. Saw (2004): The most recent film on this list may be the one people dispute the most. But the succession of puzzles and dilemmas posed by Jigsaw had me on edge. It didn’t help that we watched it in the middle of a thunderstorm with a huge clap hitting at just the right time.

5. Friday the Thirteenth (1980): I remember my sister going to see this movie and then coming home and telling me about it. It wasn’t long before it was showing on HBO 16 times a day. I never went to another camp. I was sure it was filmed at Wildwood. Watching it now, it’s a joke. It wasn’t funny when I was 12.

4. The Omen (1976): Who isn’t afraid that their baby is going to turn out to be the Demon Seed? I’ve seen a few I’ve wanted to nominate over the years. It’s not a brain-dead horror film. It’s full of respectable actors making a chilling film.

3. Halloween (1978): Nobody screams like Jamie Lee. I was scared out of my mind the first time I saw this and I didn’t sleep well for days. HBO was not good to have around in our house. The name Michael Myers is indelibly imprinted in my brain.

2. The Exorcist (1973): My parents tried to keep me from seeing this, and for the most part they were successful. However, just the glimpses of Linda Blair’s possessed Regan puking and peeing were too much for my neurotic mind.

1. The Shining (1980): When I was younger, I read all of Stephen King’s novels. I was scared of everything but for some reason I gravitated to his writings. Although not his best book (That’s “The Stand) it did produce his most sinister character, Jack Torrance. Who isn’t freaked by Jack Nicholson’s over the top performance? “Here’s Johnny?” “Redrum” “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” Those little girls. That hedge maze. I’m still scared.

What about you? What movies have scared you the most?

I’ve been asked how long I am going to continue this series and why I’m doing it. It’s obvious that the amount of discussion that fueled the initial posts has died down considerably.
But that is not why I am doing this.
Suffice it to say, I may continue a while longer.
As to why, I’m not completely sure. Part of it is the desire to have an avenue to discuss in a civil manner with people who hold different views. I think we have continued to do just that.
Also, I want to share my study on these lines. Who knows, this may be a book proposal or a dissertation some day.
However, I have not shared everything I would like. In my mind it breaks down somewhat like this:

I. What is non-violence?
II. The Scriptural basis for non-violence
a. The Words of Jesus
b. The Temple Incident
c. The Life of Jesus
d. Reconciling war in the Hebrew Scriptures
e. Nonviolence in the Epistles (I realize I have not covered this, but have skipped this for now)
f. Nonviolence and the Apocalypse
III. Nonviolence and the Christian Life
a. Self-abnegation
b. Anger
c. Fear
d. The Fruits of the Spirit (I haven’t covered this either, but they all presuppose nonviolence)
IV. Problems with Nonviolence
a. Protecting Your Family
b. The War on Terror
c. Peacekeeping Forces and Military Involvement
d. Nonviolent Victories in World War II
V. Conclusions
a. Nonviolence Victories in History
b. The Lion and the Lamb: Militarists and Pacifists Living, Loving, Worshipping and serving together.
c. Where Do We Go From Here?

Next, I am going to move into Part 4. How do we be nonviolent when there are these perceived problems with nonviolence.
The objections that honest and sincere people have with nonviolence cannot be discredited or dismissed. Let’s look at those.

Before we move into that does anyone have any thoughts? Any additions to this outline you would like to see?
What would you like to see develop in this discussion?

It’s on Monday, but it still works. This is a sermon from Romans 12.

Click here to get your own player.

Since I am getting my hat handed to me weekly in my blog fantasy football league, I thought I would expand the beat-down to fantasy basketball.

I haven’t played in years because it’s too labor-intensive to set your line-up every day. That is why this will be a head-to-head league. You will have a game each week against another team in the league. Much less work with no less smack.

Who’s in? The draft will be Monday night at 9:30 Central. The season starts Tuesday. I have space for up to eleven teams. Leave a comment and I’ll send you an invite.

Updated
If Corey and Jason accept their invites that will put us at 6 teams. We need at least two more to have a competitive league. If you aren’t sure, just try it for fun. It won’t be that time consuming and several of us don’t really know what we are doing, so you might just win it all.
Besides, I’m surrounded by Republicans in this league. Help a fella out.

Billy Squier won the first round fairly convincingly over Orion: The Hunger.
Now, let’s look at two love songs from the 80s.

The first one is Lionel Ritchie’s “Hello.” Is anyone else skeeved out by the way he stalks the blind chick. And she’s his student to boot. And that sculpture! That’s not Lionel Ritchie. That’s Billy Dee Williams.

This next one is Bonnie Tyler’s classic “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Now, I love this song. I’m a total sucker for a Jim Steinman lyric. I don’t even have to know what the lyrics are about. But this video is another story. What’s up with the demon choir straight out “The Omen.” And all the Bo-litas?

You tell me. Which one is worse?

In the mid-morning hours of September 11th, 2001, before the anger welled up within us and took root in the national psyche, we experienced a communal wave of fear.
Who did this to us?
How could this happen on our soil?
Why would anyone want to harm us in this way?

The uncertainty was palpable as gas lines extended for blocks and parents checked their children out of school early in order to gather and protect against any localized aftershocks.

This understandable wave of fear would soon permeate many aspects of our lives. Duct-tape became more than a handy household item. It would soon pair with plastic sheeting to provide the duo that would innoculate us from any air-borne pathogens that would serve as the follow-up to the first wave of attacks.
We were afraid even to go to the mailbox.
That fear would manifest itself in the political forum as candidates stirred those pangs of anxiety that indicated that the pressing of the wrong button in the voting booth would be a harbinger of the apocalypse.
I shared in that fear. I held my newborn daughter especially close in those days. I wept over the prospect of the Jericho-style world that she might be brought up in.
And as I clutched her in my fear, I lost perspective of what the true lesson was.

Fear can be a good thing. It is not in and of itself evil. It is one of the strongest emotions that God has given us.
It keeps up a few paces away from the side of the cliff. It prompts us to ease up on the gas pedal.
It can be good. But it can also be abused.
And in our society, fear is the ultimate motivator to take up violence as the premier method for “standing up.”
But to be consummed or controlled by fear is dangerous.
And it is sin.

It is sin because it exhibits a lack of faith in God and is expressely forbidden by Him (Matthew 6:25–34)

You see, for the Child of God there is no reason to fear. God instructs us some 365 times in Scripture to not be afraid (one for every day of the year).
He is ultimately in control. To fear is to cast His sovereignty in doubt.
Fear negatively manifests itself when we place our emphasis on the wrong day: tomorrow. All that He has given us is this day. And it has enough worries of its own.

But fear is so prevalent. Our existence is so tenuous. It is easy to succumb to worry and anxiety about tomorrow.
–This time will it be a school close to me that endures a gun-wielding madman?
–Will there be another attack on this nation, this time closer to home?
–What will happen to my children if terrorism is not eradicated?

Yet, ultimately, those are not the proper questions that we are to be asking. Those questions are rooted in an earthly focus that sequesters hope to an exclusively intangible concept. The important questions are (cribbing from Paul):
–If God is for us, who can be against us? (Nobody)
–Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? (Again, nobody)
–Who is to condemn? (Once more, nobody)
–Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Say it with me, “nobody.”)
–Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (That’s a resounding no.)

You see, all of the suicide bombers, biotoxins, apocalyptic scenarios and Paris Hilton movies cannot rob us of a hope that passes all understanding.
It will not change the ending of the story for those who are in Christ.
There is no need for us to respond violently to those who set themselves against us. The outcome is assured.
“No weapon formed against us shall prosper, all that shall rise up against us shall fall. I will not fear what the devil may bring me, I am a servant of God.”

Earthly empires will rise and fall, but the Kingdom is eternal.
Don’t be afraid of tomorrow. Live today.
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I could go on and on about different virtues (or, Fruits of the Spirit) that, properly nurtured will lead to a non-violent life. But, I think that the point has been made repeatedly that nonviolence is the ideal.
Next week we will move into all of the different what-ifs that people offer as a supposed refutation of nonviolence and how those scenarios, ultimately, are lacking.

I’ve always been a reader. However, I was never good at reading books that were assigned to me in school. I love to learn but I hate being TOLD what to learn.
So, whenever books were assigned to read (Beowulf, The Scarlet Letter, etc), I opted for the Cliff’s Notes.
I can honestly say that I was in college before I read an entire novel that was assigned to me (Here’s looking at you, Heart of Darkness).
With that said, it’s obvious that I missed many of the “classics” growing up. While my classmates were grappling with “Call of the Wild,” I was neck-deep in Stephen King and Pat Conroy. I’ve made a concerted effort over the last couple of months to read some great novels of the past.

This is my top 10 novels I am most looking forward to reading:

10. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood: I’ve read her “Handmaid’s Tale” and “Oryx and Crake.” She is quickly becoming one of my favorite novelists. If you haven’t read those two I just mentioned, make it a point.

9. All those danged Harry Potter books: I’ve tried in the past, really. I tried reading the book, listening to the audiobook, and watching the first movie. It just didn’t take with me. Now that I’m not so fundamentalist, I’ll give it another crack. But I still don’t see what all the fuss is.

8. Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky: I hear it’s pretty good. I started reading the Brothers Karamazov a few years back but quit.

7. The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer: A novel based on the true story of Gary Gilmore. Count me in.

6. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: Don’t know a whole lot about this but I hear good stuff.

5. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: Tracy insists that I read this. So I will.

4. Ulysses by James Joyce: I can’t say I’m really excited to read this. But it seems to be highly regarded.

3. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: I love these types of stories.

2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Any author referenced by Sheryl Crow has to be good, right?

1. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy: I love Dystopian novels. This looks to be a great one.

Who has read any of these? Should I bother? What books do you need to read?

The non-violence life is what we see modeled in the person of Jesus. It is consistent in His teachings, life and example.

We have seen the way of Christ exemplified in His denial of self and humility. By way of self-abnegation we are able to make broad steps into a peaceable relationship with others.

Like the proclivity that we have towards elevating the self we also live in a society that propagates anger and rage. For the sake of brevity and staying on point, I will not belabor the prevalence of anger generating avenues of entertainment in our culture. That has been addressed in more detail and depth than I have time or interest to do at this point.
However, it must be noted that, among the plethora of violent video-games and splatter flicks, rage is in.
Couple that with this misguided notion that anger is something that must simply be managed and you have the recipe for violence run amok. I have encountered many people in counselling and pastoral sessions struggling with anger issues.

Jesus knew that anger full grown is murder. He warned us of the murderous seeds that we plant in our own hearts whenever we tap into anger. We saw it in the early days when Cain presented his bruised kumquats to the Lord and grew angry that God was more pleased with Abel’s first fruits. The progressive, insidious nature of anger mushroomed into violent actions in the heart of Cain.

To be non-violent then we must get a hold of our own anger. One of the greatest harbingers of the onset of anger in our society is an escalated sense of entitlement.
Anger often results when we feel that our rights have been violated. If someone comes between us and our ideas of what we deserve then our response is often of a volatile nature.
From a middle finger to the guy that impinges on our rights to navigate the interstates to a nasty email to the co-worker who robbed your right to a peaceful work day we often respond to life’s happenings as if our rights have been encroached and trampled on.

But what we must do is recognize that all that we have and possess (including our rights) ultimately belong to God. If all we have is truly His, then that must include our morality, our virtues, and our entitlements.
Therefore, if someone robs you of what you think is rightfully yours, they are ultimately robbing God. So it’s best to leave it in His hands.

To be non-violent then we must resist anger. We must not allow the seeds of violence to take residence in our hearts. Here are a few suggestions to defeat anger in your life:

1. Seek God’s release from the oppressive hand of rage and anger.
2. Understand that God is in control. What comes your way can be for your benefit.
3. Do an inventory and seek to understand how you may have contributed to the problem. Have you been lazy, negligent, mean, stubborn, inconsiderate or anything else that might have contributed to the current situation you find yourself in.
4. If so, repent and seek to make amends.
5. Ask what Fruit of the Spirit can be honed through these trials.
6. Seek out relationships with people who can have a calming influence.
7. Seek to remove stressors from your life. If you feel yourself more agitated after playing video games or watching violent movies, it’s time to get a new interest.
8. Develop a God-honoring course of action. How can you navigate through the situation
9. Be honest. Speak the truth in all dealings.
10. Deal with the problem. Anger delayed is anger amplified.
11. Journal your struggles with anger. Note the times, situations, and people that are prevalent when you are most likely to respond in a negative way. This will give you insight into situations to avoid, relationships to redeem and whether or not you act out when over-stimulated or tired.
12. In all things give yourself grace.

Non-violence begins with each individual humbling himself and seeking not to respond in anger to the every day situations of life.
As Christians it is up to us to model what that is like. We must not give vent to our anger. Nor must we ever seek to repay evil with evil.

It’s sharing custody rights with Apple.

My new email address is lscottfreeman@gmail.com. I set up the whole Google package yesterday: Desktop, Gadgets, Earth, Talk (Sorry, Phil for calling you in the middle of work), and Nanny. Yes, Google can feed my kids and change diapers.

In a couple of hours we will be heading to Little Rock for my 20 year High School Reunion. I don’t feel 20 years older.

Keep the comments coming on the non-violence posts. I’ll check back in tonight or in the morning.

In the meantime, here is a classic tune from 1986. The band is GTR featuring two of the greatest rock guitarists ever.

One more, this was released the summer before my senior year. One of my favorite tunes from an incredibly underrated band, Marillion:

One of the problems that arises in the debate about the biblical foundation for non-violence is a result of flawed theology.

–If you believe that there is going to be a literal, physical war when Jesus returns at the end of some seven year rapture, then you are less likely to see the validity of beating a sword into a plowshare.
–If you believe that God chooses who He will for salvation and the rest of people are just out of luck, then life becomes an us/them proposition.
–If you believe that the world must go to hell in a handbasket before Christ returns, then the prospect of social justice becomes less attractive.

Another barrier to our understanding of non-violence and its implications is our own sinful hearts. Anger, fear, worry and the lionization of the self are stumbling blocks on our way to having peaceable spirits.
I want us to begin to look at these heart issues and how they might preclude us from being non-violent. Let’s look first at the issue of the self.

Self-aggrandizement has plagued us since the fall. The desire to be like God is ever before us. It would be part of the downfall of the Israelite nation. They were known for chasing after their own desires over above those of their God.

In more modern times, men such as Adler, Rogers and Maslow have perpetuated the idea of the self and its fulfillment as being the ultimate end of man. The impact that these men have had in our society in general, and the church in particular has, unfortunately, been monumental.

There has been a shift in our time, within the church, to a gospel, borne not out of discipleship and self-sacrifice, but, instead, of self-love and self-aggrandizement.
The unbiblical doctrine of the self and its actualization and glory is rarely, if ever, questioned. Instead it is embraced as being the foundation for a meaningful life.

Today, it seems that there is little difference between the church and the world when it comes to the view of the individual. Many Christian writers either tout self-esteem and self-actualization or assume it in their writing.

I’m not saying that feeling good about yourself is a bad thing. But the example we see from Jesus is not self-fulfillment but instead self-denial.

Jesus was never self-oriented. Instead He was others-oriented.

He was never concerned with esteeming Himself. Instead He humbled Himself to the point of the cross.

But much of the talk about non-violence today centers upon the notion of protecting ourselves, defending ourselves, standing up for our own rights.

But Jesus did not protect Himself, He surrendered to others. He did not stand up for Himself but knelt to serve them.

If Christ did not esteem Himself, how can we, of mere flesh and blood, presume to do anything more? How arrogant are we if we profess that we should esteem ourselves when Christ continually lessened Himself?

To be truly non-violent then we have to understand the example of Christ. His example was about that of self-abnegation not exalting Himself or His rights.
It was about considering others better than Himself. And He was God!

If we begin to truly view people as Jesus views them, then our propensity to lash out in violent words or deeds dissipates.

The words of A.W. Tozer will serve us well: “So keenly do we men enjoy dominion that we like to think that we hold in our own hands the power of life and death. We love to think that hell will be easier to bear from the fact of our having gone there in defiance of some power that sought to rule us.”