{"id":318,"date":"2008-10-24T06:12:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-24T06:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html"},"modified":"2008-10-24T06:12:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-24T06:12:00","slug":"king-bible-and-a-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html","title":{"rendered":"King, Bible, and a Note"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>Two nuggets of interestingness<\/span> followed by a note about next week:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tabula-rasa.info\/HorrorImages\/Stand.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;float: right;cursor: pointer;width: 144px;height: 208px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tabula-rasa.info\/HorrorImages\/Stand.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">1. Stephen King. <\/span>I&#8217;ve always been a bit of a controversialist, particularly when it comes to Christian culture and its connection to the horror genre. That&#8217;s why, several years ago, I annoyed people by saying things like &#8220;<span style=\"font-style: italic\">Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/span> is the most Christian show on TV right now.&#8221; Primarily this was because all the family and faith groups were getting upset about <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Buffy<\/span> because it featured witchcraft and demonic activity and a hot teenage girl whose true love wasn&#8217;t about to wait, because he was a centuries-old vampire. (<span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Sidebar:<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/What-Would-Buffy-Do-Spiritual\/dp\/0787969222\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1224798177&amp;sr=1-1\">Read this book<\/a>. I&#8217;m quoted in it.)<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, something else I used to say was also along those lines: &#8220;Stephen King is one of the most popular Christian writers in the world.&#8221; (This was even before pastors started using King&#8217;s film adaptations like <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Shawshank Redemption<\/span> and <span style=\"font-style: italic\">The Green Mile<\/span> as sermon illustrations. Perhaps I&#8217;m prophetic.) King has always struck me as someone who took the redemptive power of religion seriously, who trafficked in good-versus-evil apocalyptic stories, and who treated the notion of God with respect even if he didn&#8217;t fit within the normal margins of Christian faith. Turns out I was mostly right. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/books\/int\/2008\/10\/23\/stephen_king\/\">Read this interview with King from Salon yesterday<\/a> (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/books\/int\/2008\/10\/23\/stephen_king\/\">Stephen King&#8217;s God Trip<\/a>&#8220;), where he talks about politics, religion, and how <span style=\"font-style: italic\">The Stand<\/span> was a work of &#8220;dark Christianity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coolhunting.com\/images\/NewTestament.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;float: right;cursor: pointer;width: 149px;height: 188px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.coolhunting.com\/images\/NewTestament.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">2. Bible Illuminated. <\/span>A Swedish publisher is putting out a version of the New Testament called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bibleilluminated.com\/\">Bible Illuminated<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bibleilluminated.com\/\">: The Book New Testament<\/a>. It&#8217;s illustrated with provocative, symbolic photos relating the stories and teachings to the present culture.  For instance: in Mark, the Gospel which portrays Jesus as a person of action who opens his disciples&#8217; eyes to sacrificial love and the kingdom of God, there are photos of other people taking action in today&#8217;s world &#8212; including famous humanitarians like Bono, Angelina Jolie, and Bill Gates. I know what you&#8217;re thinking: <span style=\"font-style: italic\">I would sure read the Bible a lot more if they put pictures of hot celebrities in it. Like Bill Gates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Same here. If you&#8217;re intrigued, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bible-Illuminated-Ab-Forlaget-Sweden\/dp\/919766944X\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1224613014&amp;sr=8-1\">preorder a copy at Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[H\/T: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coolhunting.com\/archives\/2008\/10\/bible_illuminat.php\">Cool Hunting<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p><span>Special Note. <\/span>Starting today, I am stepping away from the Internets. I will be offline this weekend and all next week. <span style=\"font-style: italic\">All week! <\/span>Not until Sunday, November 2, will I be back in the saddle. (Yes, I have a saddle at my home computer, where I compose these blog posts. I am also wearing chaps and spurs.) Due to the wonders of technology, by which I mean Blogger&#8217;s future-posting option, there will be blog posts just about every day next week despite my absence. So keep coming back and commenting and whatnot. I&#8217;ll eventually read it. But if you ask me a direct question or try to get in touch with me by other means, like carrier pigeon, I may be unresponsive. Don&#8217;t hate me because I seem to be ignoring you. I <span style=\"font-style: italic\">am<\/span> ignoring you, of course, but I have a good reason.<\/p>\n<p>See you in a week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two nuggets of interestingness followed by a note about next week: 1. Stephen King. I&#8217;ve always been a bit of a controversialist, particularly when it comes to Christian culture and its connection to the horror genre. That&#8217;s why, several years ago, I annoyed people by saying things like &#8220;Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the most&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,31,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-coolness","category-fiction"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>King, Bible, and a Note - O Me of Little Faith<\/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\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"King, Bible, and a Note - O Me of Little Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two nuggets of interestingness followed by a note about next week: 1. Stephen King. I&#8217;ve always been a bit of a controversialist, particularly when it comes to Christian culture and its connection to the horror genre. That&#8217;s why, several years ago, I annoyed people by saying things like &#8220;Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the most&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"O Me of Little Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-24T06:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.tabula-rasa.info\/HorrorImages\/Stand.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Boyett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"King, Bible, and a Note - O Me of Little Faith","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\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"King, Bible, and a Note - O Me of Little Faith","og_description":"Two nuggets of interestingness followed by a note about next week: 1. Stephen King. I&#8217;ve always been a bit of a controversialist, particularly when it comes to Christian culture and its connection to the horror genre. That&#8217;s why, several years ago, I annoyed people by saying things like &#8220;Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the most&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html","og_site_name":"O Me of Little Faith","article_published_time":"2008-10-24T06:12:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.tabula-rasa.info\/HorrorImages\/Stand.jpg"}],"author":"Jason Boyett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html","name":"King, Bible, and a Note - O Me of Little Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.tabula-rasa.info\/HorrorImages\/Stand.jpg","datePublished":"2008-10-24T06:12:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-10-24T06:12:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/f69eb4f788db541ff47d2f5d01cad5e7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.tabula-rasa.info\/HorrorImages\/Stand.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.tabula-rasa.info\/HorrorImages\/Stand.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/10\/king-bible-and-a-note.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"King, Bible, and a Note"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/","name":"O Me of Little Faith","description":"A blog by Jason Boyett about Doubt, Christianity, Culture &amp; Writing","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/?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\/omeoflittlefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/f69eb4f788db541ff47d2f5d01cad5e7","name":"Jason Boyett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a5a\/a5a647d97bed4014325bf9a1fb0b6900x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a5a\/a5a647d97bed4014325bf9a1fb0b6900x96.jpg","caption":"Jason Boyett"},"description":"Jason Boyett is a writer, speaker, and the author of several books, including O Me of Little Faith (Zondervan), and the Pocket Guide series (Jossey-Bass). His work has appeared in Salon, Paste, The Daily Beast, Relevant, and a variety of other publications. He has also appeared on the History Channel and National Geographic Channel. Jason lives in Texas with his wife and two kids. 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