Blessed Are You When Men Insult You

Last night, Seth MacFarlane took crud pot shots at all kinds of people groups during the Oscars but I tuned in right before he introduced Daniel Radcliff (Harry Potter) and Kristen Stewart (Twilight) saying, “…boy wizard and girl vampire… all that the Christian right believes is wrong with Hollywood.”

While I know plenty of Christians who went to see Harry Potter and Twilight, as well as read the books, Harry Potter and Twilight are not what the Christian right believes is wrong with Hollywood.

Well, some of us do. 😉 But others are concerned about the lack of morality and values. The violence. I’m more concerned about the next Sly Stallone movie inspiring violence in our youth than the effect of mythical, non existent vampires.

Though, I’m not unaware of the demonic influence coming through films that glorify the darker side of the supernatural. I don’t care if the boy vampire won’t bit the girl vampire because he loves her. There’s no Jesus message there.

I was bothered by MacFarlane’s comment because it seems the intolerance and arrogance of Hollywood knows no bounds. Kevin Sorbo, a Christian actor, says Hollywood in the most intolerance community of all.

But why do we expect the world to love us? The direction Hollywood is going is dark, dark, dark. They call good evil and evil good. They put perfume on sin and call it lovely. Why are we surprised when tinsel town hates true Light.

So, I took this stand on MacFarlane’s comment:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matt 5:11.

Seth BLESSED us last night. He caused Heaven to look down and go, “Bless them, Lord, because they are being persecuted and made fun of.”

I don’t expect Dark to get Light. I expect Light to confound and blind Darkness. They don’t want to see Light and Truth. They want to be who and what their souls tell them.

In the Garden, the serpent got Eve by challenging, “Did God really say…?” And she ate the apple as did Adam.

We have to embrace the insults, speaking up and out when we can and when appropriate, but when we are persecuted for our faith and reviled, Heaven calls us BLESSED.

Be blessed!