{"id":304,"date":"2014-10-30T17:50:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T21:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?p=304"},"modified":"2014-10-30T17:50:55","modified_gmt":"2014-10-30T21:50:55","slug":"isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/10\/isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful.html","title":{"rendered":"Isn&#8217;t dead stuff beautiful?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well fall is finally here and that always brings with it those beautiful colors and symbols that we all cherish and hang on to as a nation. Of course I am referring to blood, corpses and fear. Halloween is right around the corner, I know that because the moment you walk around the corner someone or something will be there to jump out and scare the crap out of you!<\/p>\n<p>I guess I am a little sentimental but I recall when October ushered in the color of autumn leaves, gourds and Indian corn. Nowhere did we find it important to celebrate death, or did we?<\/p>\n<p>If you think about it, and you probably didn\u2019t but fear not, that\u2019s why God invented me, so I could do the thinking for you, fall was the celebration of death. The beautiful; \u201cfall colors\u201d of the leaves is the result of the leaves passing away but going out in a blaze of glory..literally.<\/p>\n<p>Halloween on the other hand celebrates skeletons and rotted corpses. Nowhere does it indicate that something good happened here and we should be optimistic. Yet with leaves there is this unique call back to the rainbow.<\/p>\n<p>The Bible said that after the devastating flood that forever let the world know the consequences of sin and rebellion, God set a rainbow in the sky to tell humanity He would never again allow the world to be destroyed by flood, and so the rainbow not only gave us a promise, but hope that the sun is coming again soon.<\/p>\n<p>Fall leaves are dead, but they die spectacularly, and when they do they are to remind us to fear not, I am coming back in the spring! Yes death is all around us, BUT, there is a resurrection day when all will be healed and reunited with their loved ones. As far as skeletons go, not so much. They remind us that death is final and that all that is left of our hopes and dreams and a life well lived is a fleshless carcass that has lost so much human dignity it is now considered a prop for the entertainment of the living.<\/p>\n<p>Why does fear sell? Normally to be frightened is a bad thing so why spend 10 bucks at the theater to pay someone to scare us? Why attend a haunted house knowing full well you are going to be scared, unless it is because we know in the end we are safe. This is controlled fear that actually isn\u2019t dangerous at all.<\/p>\n<p>This is the feeling that we are avoiding the real evil of death by experiencing the horror without the actual results. By making light of it, we fool ourselves into believing we are somehow in control.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re not of course, God is. The good news is when we go knocking on His door we can expect more than a Snickers bar. Happy Halloween my friends, because as Christ followers we actually CAN laugh at death!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well fall is finally here and that always brings with it those beautiful colors and symbols that we all cherish and hang on to as a nation. Of course I am referring to blood, corpses and fear. Halloween is right around the corner, I know that because the moment you walk around the corner someone&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","tag-halloween-trick-or-treat-candy-druids-death-resurrection"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Isn&#039;t dead stuff beautiful? - God&#039;s Comic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/10\/isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Isn&#039;t dead stuff beautiful? - God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well fall is finally here and that always brings with it those beautiful colors and symbols that we all cherish and hang on to as a nation. Of course I am referring to blood, corpses and fear. Halloween is right around the corner, I know that because the moment you walk around the corner someone&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/10\/isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-30T21:50:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Stine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Isn't dead stuff beautiful? - God&#039;s Comic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/10\/isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Isn't dead stuff beautiful? - God&#039;s Comic","og_description":"Well fall is finally here and that always brings with it those beautiful colors and symbols that we all cherish and hang on to as a nation. Of course I am referring to blood, corpses and fear. Halloween is right around the corner, I know that because the moment you walk around the corner someone&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/10\/isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful.html","og_site_name":"God&#039;s Comic","article_published_time":"2014-10-30T21:50:55+00:00","author":"Brad Stine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/10\/isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/10\/isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful.html","name":"Isn't dead stuff beautiful? - God&#039;s Comic","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-30T21:50:55+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-30T21:50:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/10\/isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/10\/isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2014\/10\/isnt-dead-stuff-beautiful.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Isn&#8217;t dead stuff beautiful?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/","name":"God&#039;s Comic","description":"God&#039;s Comic - Brad Stine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9","name":"Brad Stine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","caption":"Brad Stine"},"description":"\"Brad Stine is on a mission \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a mission to free us all from the chains of political correctness and prevent our eventual \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwussification.' From his Nashville stronghold, Stine is mounting his crusade against these hypocrisies, all of which are explored in his highly anticipated 4th album\/DVD, aptly titled \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWUSSIFICATION!' \"You know what offends me?... Offended people,\" says Stine. A staunch supporter of first amendment rights and foe of political correctness, Stine asserts that rights should be universally applied. \"In a country with guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, its citizens are constantly trying to make faith in public spheres illegal, I am offended by that contradiction and want to talk about it as a comic.\" The strength of his conviction about our freedoms can be found in many places on WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from \"Merry Christmas Too!\" (the right to celebrate religion) to \"At Least We're Not France!\" (the responsibility to take action as a country) to \"Spank\" (the ability to discipline our children the way we see fit). What would cause the wussification of Brad Stine? \"I hope that nothing ever wussifies me to deny my own personal beliefs,\" he says. \"Brainwashed wussies have been taught that standing up for yourself and defending your personal point of view makes you a close-minded hate monger.\" Stine stops short of defending his point of view as the ONLY one, adding \"...one must also be respectful of dissenting belief while supporting their own.\" He is, after all, an inclusive figure who trains his comedy to attack ideas, not the people who embrace them. Stine's faith forces him to acknowledge the respect and dignity of all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 even the wussies with whom he disagrees! Stine models his approach to comedy after legendary practitioners that he has known and loved over the years. Despite George Carlin's disdain for theistic beliefs, he has been a big influence on Stine. \"I always enjoyed Carlin for turning the tables on culture. He is an excellent writer that has endured for decades.\" More current comedic touchstones are Brian Reagan, Paula Poundstone, Jim Gaffigan and Monty Python, among others. Fear not, true believers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with his brand new album, Brad Stine is here to save the world from WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one politically-correct, offended person at a time!\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/author\/bstine"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}