Posts Tagged ‘christianity’

The Chosen Season 3 Disciple Pairings Some Thoughts

Posted: October 16, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, entertainment
Tags: , ,

Scripture talks about Jesus sending out his disciples to preach the good news. Here is the passage in Luke:

He summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal (the sick). He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.

We are informed that season 3 of the Chosen depicts this and shows the disciples preaching on their own. Since scripture does not specify WHICH disciples paired off during this time Dallas Jenkins was able to choose his own pairings. This is how he did it.

  • John and Thomas
  • Peter and Judas
  • Matthew and Simon the Zealot
  • Big James (John’s Brother) and Little James
  • Nathanael and Thaddeus
  • Andrew (Simon Peter’s Brother) and Phillip

The parings are interesting. It is in John’s Gospel where Thomas’ doubting is mentioned, John is portrayed in the show as very emotional while Thomas is very calculating. That clash will be interesting as will Thomas’ and John’s reaction when they start healing people and driving out demons.

Peter and Judas is an even more interesting paring in the sense that both are huge at the time he was crucified. Both of them betray Jesus after the last supper, Judas by delivering him to his enemies and Peter by denying him before others. The Gospel specifies that Judas realized what he had done and it drove him to suicide, while it doesn’t specify what happened with Peter in terms of going back to the disciples. Imagine if Peter had simply run away in shame or if Judas had, like Peter gone back to the disciples and repented. There would be cathedrals to “St. Judas the repentant” all over the world while Peter would be considered a coward. For the two of them working together gives the chance to emphasize that any of us could go in either direction.

Simon Z and Matthew is, next to Judas and Peter the most interesting pairing. The Zealot deep into scripture who would have killed a tax collector without a second thought and the Tax Collector who at the call of Christ left it all to follow him. The interactions between the pair has great dramatic potential and like Thomas Matthew’s reactions to miracles when he himself performs them has drama written all over it.

The contrast between Big and Little James physically has a lot of potential. The idea that both will be healing people while Little James has a malady (one not mentioned in scripture btw) is another potential for drama the whole “physician heal thyself” but the real story is going to be John’s brother who we will be seeing for the first time without John. Those interactions should be interesting.

Nathanael and Thaddeus will be interesting simply because we haven’t seen a lot of either. This gives plenty of leeway for the creative team. An architect and a stone mason should get along like a house afire and complement each other quite a bit. Add to that Thaddeus being one of the first disciples (at least per the show) and Nathanael being 10th coming in only before Simon the Zealot & Judas and you have a lot to work with.

Finally we have Andrew and Phillip which would seem to me the least interesting pairing of the group. Both were followers of John the Baptist, both were well known to each other and in terms of this kind of preaching they would be the two most experienced. Of course Andrew has been portrayed as very high strung while Phillip is portrayed as the calmest of the crew and most comfortable in this life. Given that we’ve already seen previews of Andrew and Philip being kicked out of at least one village it does have potential, specifically in terms of trusting the message.

We don’t know how many episodes these travels will entail, I would think you would need at least two or three to cover it all and that doesn’t even talk about:

  1. The interaction of the women who are not traveling
  2. What Jesus is doing during this time

Again none of this is specified in scripture so how it is played should be interesting to see. What I want to know is how they are going to handle Jesus sending out the 72.

Viking adventures on Netflix

Posted: March 27, 2022 by John Ruberry in culture, entertainment, media
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

By John Ruberry

Within the last month two new seasons of Viking-themed series began streaming on Netflix, Vikings: Valhalla and Season Five of The Last Kingdom. The former is a sequel to another Netflix series, Vikings, which I have not seen, but as the action of Valhalla occurs about 100 years after the first batch of shows, viewers need not have tuned in to Vikings to follow the new action.

The Last Kingdom and Vikings: Valhalla have much in common, besides Scandinavians battling the English. A main plot driver in both shows is the conflict between Christians and followers of the Norse gods. Presumably Valhalla begins the same year, 1016, when Canute the Great seized the crown of England. Ironically, only two English kings, Alfred, who is played by David Dawson in the first three seasons of The Last Kingdom, and Canute, gained the epithet “the Great.” Oh, when Canute was crowned, this Viking, who later became king of Norway and Denmark, was a Christian.

Both shows attempt to be even-handed between the two cultures, but they leave out one very nasty part of Viking life, slavery. Yes, there was slavery among Christian Europeans, but slaves–thralls are what the Norse called them–were an essential part of the spoils of Viking raids. However, both series portray human sacrifice by the Scandinavians.

Vikings: Valhalla, which consists of eight episodes, is the inferior of the two shows, so let’s get that one out of our way. Its central character is Leif Erikson (Sam Corlett). Yeah, he’s the same man who journeyed to North America around 1000. While there is no historical record that says Erikson participated in wars with the English, there’s no proof that he didn’t. It’s believed around the time of his journey to North America he converted to Christianity, but he’s a follower of the Norse gods here, although he dabbles with the Christian religion. His sister, Freydís Eiríksdóttir (Frida Gustavsson), is a devout follower of the Norse faith. Freydís is romantically involved with Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter), who history tells us was a newborn at the time of they were “getting it on” in the show.

The main action of Vikings: Valhalla originates in the Norwegian town of Kattegat, which is ruled by Jarl Haakon (Caroline Henderson), who history tells us was a white man, but here Haakon is a black woman.

I could go on for quite much longer on the many historical anomalies, but I will conclude here that had Vikings: Valhalla had an intriguing story line, if the performances were compelling–Henderson’s overacting is particularly annoying–and hey, if the CG was believable, then I’d say, “tune in.”

But don’t.

The Last Kingdom’s fifth last season takes place around 920. Its lead character, the fictional Uhtred, whose birthright as lord of Bebbanburg in Northumbia, England was usurped by the Danes in the first episode of Season One. He was raised by Danes, during that time he abandoned Christianity for the Norse gods, although he’s not very devout. When Uhtred reaches adulthood, he’s a skilled fighter and a ladies’ man, a James Bond of the Middle Ages.

The Last Kingdom is based on Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories series of books.

Alfred the Great’s goal was not only to defeat the Danes–the word “Viking” is never uttered during The Last Kingdom–but also to create from his small kingdom of Wessex a unified England. It’s up to his son, King Edward, to complete the task, with Uhtred’s assistance of course.

All the while Uhtred is forced to confront a onetime romantic interest, fellow-Saxon and abductee, Brida (Emily Cox), whose faith in the Norse religion is strong.

Edward meanwhile has to confront betrayal within his court as a unified England seems within grasp.

While a bit wooden at times, the acting in The Last Kingdom is generally quite good. The battle scenes are intense, and the plotlines are strong enough to keep watching. But to figure out what is happening here, you absolutely have to watch the first four seasons beforehand. One flaw of The Last Kingdom, as with Ozark, which also took a year off from filming, presumably because of the COVID outbreak, is that it is need of very strong recaps at the beginning of each episode, of which there a ten this season. Hey, people forget things two years later. Another challenge in keeping the storyline straight is that many of the characters’ names, all based on historical figures, are similar; they incorporate the Old English prefix “Æthel,” which translates into modern English as “noble,” or Ælf. Had they asked me, I would have for starters changed the name of a duplicitous rat, Æthelhelm (Adrian Schiller), a character whose historical standing is foggy. In The Last Kingdom he’s the father of Edward’s second wife, Ælflæd (Amelia Clarkson). One son of Edward is Æthelstan (Harry Kilby) another is his half-brother Ælfweard (Ewan Horrocks), he’s the son of Ælflæd.

A spin-off of The Last Kingdom is in the works, a movie titled Seven Kings Must Die.

There are two more seasons of Vikings coming. I probably won’t be watching.

Both programs are rated TV-MA for violence, nudity, and sex.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Christian Thoughts Under the Fedora: Late Bloomers, Loving Enemies, Selective Worry, Odd Coincidences and And the Unforgiving God of Wokeness

Posted: December 24, 2021 by datechguy in abortion, catholic, culture, under the fedora
Tags: ,

I wrote a while back about the conflict about being Sicilian and being Catholic plays out on occasion and the more I see of the left lately the stronger that conflict becomes.

That’s when I remember the parable of the workers in the Vineyard and remember those who were hired with one hour to go in the day and a sermon that my priest gave reminding us that if we met Matthew the Tax Collector, Mary Magdalene or Saul of Tarsus the day before they encountered Christ we would not like what we saw.

We are dealing with a lot of really bad people right now but they are one encounter with Christ from change. If God’s willing to wait on them who am I not to?

One of the single hardest things about Christianity is the idea of loving your enemies, particularly when they don’t feel that obligation.

We’ve seen a lot of that lately from our friends on the left, a lot of it on the assumption that the good Christian folks on the right will just keep taking it.

They should be aware that Christians sometime slip, after all that’s what confession is for. So I’d be wary of pushing people to that point.

Nobody is going to convince me that all of the “don’t get together for Christmas” and “Cancel Christmas” for your own safety is about the virus.

As Don Surber noted: ” WHO didn’t tell the Saudis to call off the Hajj.”

Most of what the left does frankly is all about hatred of Christianity so I don’t see why this would be any different.

Speaking of tactics to hamper Christians the New DC Vaccine Passport rules go into effect two days before the March for Life.

I think with hundreds of thousands of people there it will be tough to enforce such rules but I don’t see the correlation between Christianity and not getting the vaccine, except for the fact that many Christians are able to get a religious exemption, but then again so can any other religion.

Plus I wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few non-religious suddenly found religion when looking for an exemption. After all during prohibition a lot of folks suddenly starting going to mass to receive the cup.

Finally I see the the group pushing trans priests in the Lutheran Church has suspended the 1st openly trans Lutheran Bishop over unspecified: “harm done by the Sierra Pacific Synod Council and Bishop Rohrer to the Latinx community in Stockton, CA.”

Of course some Spanish speaking people might consider the term “latinx” harmful in itself but it just goes to show you that wokeness is an unforgiving God and no matter how high in the woke hierarchy you are, you’re always one step away from being cancelled.

Me I think they should have stuck with Christ myself.

Voices of Life Rebekah Hagan of the Abortion Pill Reversal Network

Posted: October 24, 2021 by datechguy in abortion, special events, Uncomfortable Truths
Tags: , , , , ,

I spoke to Rebeeka Hagan at the annual Real Options dinner where she was the keynote speaker on Friday Oct 22nd

You can find the abortion pill reversal network here You can find real options here

FYI: You’ll note that I start the interview in this post at the 1:00 mark because my son started the camera while we were still chatting before the interview. I didn’t cut it from the uploaded video so if you want to see how I talk about interviews before I do them feel free to go to the 1 min mark and check it out.

Older Entries
Newer Entries