‘Has Britain Really Turned Against Christianity?’ (2015)

Amazon.com: Midsomer Murders: Set Eight (The Maid in Splendour / The Straw  Woman / Ghosts of Christmas Past) : John Nettles, John Hopkins, Caroline  Graham: Movies & TV

I almost never post two older essays in one day, but I happened upon this one today and thought I’d better bring it back again.

Has Britain Really Turned Against Christianity?

It’s been seven years since this was posted, and can anybody say that things have gotten any better? Has our popular culture cleaned up its act at all?

We all–yes, all–have to get more serious about serving the Lord and remembering that this earth is His, not ours. Who was talking about the World Economic Forum in 2015? But you can be sure they were working very hard, even back then, to estrange us from our rightful King and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And others started in on that years, decades, and even centuries before.

Now we are seeing the fruits of their labors: abortion, transgender, assisted suicide as the answer to life’s problems, grooming young children for sex, and all the rest of it.

And by their fruits, as Jesus said, ye shall know them.

P.S.–Be sure to read the 33 comments: it’s quite a discussion. And of course you can add to it yourselves.

Judge Rules: Baker Can’t Be Forced to Serve Same-Sex ‘Wedding’

Celebrating the First Amendment | America's Stories | We Are Broadcasters

Libs think the First Amendment only applies to them–no one else.

Wonder of wonders! A superior court judge in California, of all places, has ruled that the state cannot force you to say and do things contrary to your religious beliefs.

I’m not linking to this news story, nor providing any proper names, lest some troll should see it and use the information to launch a campaign of harassment against the defendant or the judge. It’s too bad I have to do that, but that’s the age we’re living in and it won’t get better for as long as Democrats hold public office.

The judge ruled that creating a wedding cake is “artistic expression”–which of course it is–and that no one can be compelled to create a work of art for a same-sex “wedding.” The baker did refer the, uh, “couple” to another bakery, but that’s never good enough, is it? Once they’ve got your First Amendment rights in the crosshairs, the Far Left will always shoot.

Simply, the judge ruled (I repeat for the sake of clarity) that the state cannot force a person to create a piece of art against his or her will.

As a novelist, that’s a relief to me. I can easily imagine a writer being sued for not including “positive gay characters,” or whatever, in a story. Don’t laugh: they fired the creator of Midsomer Murders–and “investigated” him, as if he’d committed a crime!–for not including more “minority” characters in his screenplays.

There are a lot of people out there trying to erase our freedom. But at least one judge isn’t with them.

A Stupid Solution to a Stupid Problem

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*Sigh* And it’s still a boring movie…

Today for the first time I heard about the Bechdel-Wallace Test (in Martin Selbrede’s article), which rates movies and other works of fiction as “a measure of the representation of women in fiction” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test).

Invented by a cartoonist who doesn’t much like men, yet takes pains to look like one, the test “calls attention to gender inequality in fiction.” Even fiction isn’t safe from Social Justice Warriors.  To pass the test, a movie must have at least two women in it who talk about something other than a man, at least one of the female characters needs to be named… and then we can start counting minutes on the screen.

The test is now included in software that teaches you how to be a Hollywood screenwriter.

The whole discussion of the “problem” ignores the fact that a lot of movies are stupid and boring no matter how many or how few females characters are in them. And somebody seems to be forgetting that fiction is not real. Meanwhile, the Bechdel-Wallace Test is being applied to comic books and video games–reaching out to those who are intellectually challenged by movies and need something a little easier.

What do you want to bet liberals are going to try to make this mandatory? The pro-choice crowd does like to take away your choices. But remember what they did to the creator of the popular British TV crime series, Midsomer Murders. They “investigated” him, as if he had committed a crime, for not including enough minority characters in his stories; and for that thought crime, they took his show away from him and gave it to someone more obedient. Liberals just love to see people obey them.

Do I have skin in this fight? Not yet. Go ahead, read Bell Mountain and its sequels and try to find any female characters who only talk about their menfolks.

But they’re already devising similar tests to get more homosexual characters into movie scripts, as if they weren’t grossly overrepresented already, and the day will come when Hollywood adopts a “code” mandating “gender equality” in movies and other works of fiction. They used to tell you what you couldn’t write, or couldn’t film. That was censorship. Soon they’ll tell you what you must write, or must film. That, too, will be a kind of censorship.

Control over other people’s minds–libs can’t get enough of it.

And Then They Came for Our Fiction

Midsomer Murders

Here’s something that happened five years ago that I just found out about last night–and it has made me very angry.

In 2011 Brian True-May, the creator and executive producer of Midsomer Murders, the internationally-popular British “cozy crime” series, was suspended from his own show after he admitted that he deliberately kept ‘ethnic minorities’ out of the show’s storylines ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1366331/Midsomer-Murders-producer-Brian-True-May-suspended-TV-boss-victimised.html ). The series is still running, but Jo Wright is now the executive producer and Mr. True-May is history.

Yes, I know Midsomer Murders contains a fair amount of Christian-bashing. That’s why Patty and I don’t watch it anymore. And no, I’m not saying ethnic minorities should be segregated from the ethnic majority, if there is one.

What I object to most strenuously indeed is that any artist, any creative person, should be subjected to some kind of quasi-criminal “investigation” because he either left out of his creation something which the big-shots thought should be in it, or put something in that the big-shots thought should’ve been left out. Like, if they don’t like the content, they don’t have to publish it.

Midsomer Murders was a big success for years, under True-May’s leadership–maybe because of its idealistic depiction of English village life, which might not have been so idealistic if he hadn’t presented it as he did. But suddenly True-May’s picture of English village life was a little too English for the PC whoopee crowd–and he made matters worse by admitting to an artistic vision which they were content to profit from for as long as it remained unspoken.

Crikey, they’ll be coming after Miss Marple next.

Humanism, socialism… whatever you want to call it, the bottom line is total control of every aspect of human existence by a little cadre of self-anointed experts and philosopher-kings.

Well, I’ve left some things out of my books that I’m never going to put in; and I wonder when they’ll come for me.

Has Britain Really Turned Against Christianity?

Patty and I have been watching Midsomer Murders, a long-running British cop show that’s one of the most popular TV shows in the world. I was enjoying it tremendously–until last night.

An episode from 2004, “The Straw Woman,” featured one of the most offensive, anti-Christian screenplays that I’ve ever seen. In it, all Christians without exceptions are perverts, hypocrites, criminals, ignoramuses, or fools–or some unhappy combination thereof–in contrast to the saintly pornographer and the kindly, caring atheists. The top of my head almost flew off when the mean-spirited, adulterous churchwarden, asked if she objected to a pair of unrepentant sodomites running her church, replied that “I am a Christian” and that “homophobia” is a sin which God will punish.

What Bible did they get that out of?

Britain, birthplace of St. Patrick, cradle of saints, home of King Arthur–is this what has become of you?

Granted, it’s only a screenplay, which means the writers put into it whatever they please, no matter how fantastic. But I’ve encountered rampant Christian-bashing in other British TV dramas, too–and I have to wonder to what degree this reflects the British people’s real-life attitude. I’m here in America, so I don’t know.

But I do know that the media in my country are not far behind yours when it comes to spewing hate at Christians.

I would very much appreciate hearing about this from readers in the UK. Clue me in, my friends: is the nation that gave us C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien truly come to this?