Category: A Spiritual Look At All Forms Of Entertainment…

There are many churches out there today across our globe that continue to preach a message of religious exclusion for only the select few, which is a far cry from the one that Christ preached, that being a loving inclusion for all, which is precisely what the Netflix film, “Come Sunday”, is about.

Starring Chiewetel Ejiofor, as Carlton Pearson, “Come Sunday” is a true story based upon this evangelist’s life as former Bishop of the now defunct Higher Dimensions Family Church, a church that once had more than 5,000 members.

Pearson, a devout Christian raised with Pentecostal teachings, originally believed to his very core, that all non-Christians were doomed to an eternal damnation in Hell. He preached this very message from the pulpit week in and week out, quite successfully for many years. He was so successful in his ministry, he even served as spiritual advisor to President George H.W. Bush in the 90’s and frequently travelled across the globe on mission trips to help save as many souls as possible by bringing them to Christ.

But, one day, while watching a TV program about the genocide in Rwanda, he felt God speak to him. In a moment filled with tears, the message he received was that God wasn’t going to punish all those people for all of eternity after their deaths, just because they hadn’t been saved. Rather, all of them were saved, and so was everyone else in the world as well, even if they never found Christ and turned their lives over to Him, which was exactly the opposite of the message he had been spreading throughout his entire ministry up to that point.

As he began to spread this new message of inclusion, versus his former one of exclusion, preaching that God loved everyone and that every soul was saved no matter what, he began to lose the support of one follower after another, many suggesting he was becoming a tool for the Devil. Eventually, he became ostracized from the community by his fellow preachers and would go on to lose his church, his home, and his fortune. But, through the Spirit’s gentle nudging and the help of a few loyal followers that continued to believe in his new message of inclusion, Pearson would eventually land back on his feet to become the pastor at the All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I was originally suggested by my friend Cedric to watch this movie, and I must admit that at first, I rolled my eyes when I quickly read its synopsis, thinking it was just going to be more of the usual Christian religious propaganda. I’m so glad I didn’t practice contempt prior to full investigation because I was very moved by the end of this film, especially because of how close it was to my own Christian experiences.

I have been rejected by a total of four mega churches in my life thus far, all because I was gay. I was told by the pastor of each that I couldn’t be a “practicing homosexual” and a member of their church. I was always welcomed by each to stay and to hopefully practice celibacy instead, because then I wouldn’t be committing a sin in their scriptural beliefs. It was hurtful to receive this exclusion-based message over and over again, but it didn’t even end there, as in some circles of recovery from addiction and other social circles over the years, I was rejected by a number of other Christians, simply for being gay. And so, I had to find my own journey to a God that was beyond the one I had been brought up with, the one that would punish me if I didn’t turn my will over to Christ, confess my sexuality as a sin, and become something I wasn’t.

On that painful road, I had my own coming to God moment, and it happened during a four-hour meditation late one evening back in 2003, where something took place within my very essence, that I can’t exactly explain that well to this day. What I can say is that it was the first time in my life I truly felt the presence of God and during it, I asked about my sexuality. The answer I received was that I was made this way and that all I needed to do was unconditionally love to the best of my ability whomever I chose to be with, man or woman, with all my heart, mind, and soul.

From that point forward, my life with God took a drastically different turn, similar to what happened with Pearson after he watched that program on Rwanda and felt the presence of God come over him. I began to see things quite differently and couldn’t imagine a God anymore that sent Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Wiccans, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics, gays, lesbians, and anyone for that matter to eternal damnation, just because of who they were or the fact that they didn’t turn their lives over to Christ. I’ve known of too many good people, from many different walks of life, that have done wonderful things to help our planet be a brighter place, and the idea of God sending them to Hell, simply because of who they were or because they weren’t Christian, just didn’t feel right anymore within my Soul.

Like Pearson, I now live today believing that everyone is saved. But, I also believe there is a hell that exists on this very planet right now, and it’s in the way people are treating each other. Far too many are more focused on their own selfish gains and interests these days, thinking of themselves first and everyone else second, and to me that is a living hell. It is one that is devoid of unconditional love and selflessness and if somehow there really is some type of hell beyond this plane as well, I think it would only consist of more of the same.

Nevertheless, I was extremely thankful I chose to watch “Come Sunday” on Netflix, because it really helped me to see how far I’ve come in my life, just like Carlton Pearson has, as we both have gone from one that believed in and spread a message of religious exclusion for only the select few, to one of living out a loving inclusion for all…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

What if you could escape into a virtual reality (VR) world that felt so real and was able to contain anyone or anything you want? Would you ever want to leave it? That’s the premise of a new NBC show that began just over a week ago that’s titled “Reverie”.

It’s no secret that I am a science fiction/fantasy nut, especially when it comes to movies and television shows and “Reverie” does not disappoint in that genre. While current VR technology in the real world today only allows for a bulky headset to be placed on one’s head for one to become immersed in another dimension, this series takes VR a huge leap further, as people can receive an injection of a living piece of software that essentially becomes the VR headset itself. It then can become active by stating a mere voice command while the software is running on a computer or tablet in front of the user and once activated, the consciousness of the user is immediately transported into a realm they’ve fully created from uploading whatever they want into it from any of their social media. Unfortunately, more and more people are falling into “user comas” and not coming out of the VR realms they’ve created for themselves, which can be left by simply stating a voice command. Enter former detective Mara Kint (Sharah Shahi), someone who specializes in human behavior, when she is asked by her old police boss, Charlie Ventana (Dennis Haysbert), to help rescue those stuck in their VR realms.

In the first episode, a man who lost his wife in the real world, has created a VR existence with his wife still present and does not wish to ever leave it, even though he has a life waiting for him outside of it, including a daughter. After watching this first episode, I began to wonder if I too would be someone who’d get stuck in a VR realm if indeed this technology existed in the real world. Chances are I would solely because of my addictive nature and given the amount of pain and suffering I’m still facing on most days. I’ve attempted to escape my life far too many times already over the years through a number of things like alcohol, drugs, sex, money, etc. Thus, it’s not much of a stretch to think about how addictive it would be for me to create a world where I don’t have to be in pain or limited by an ailing body or where my parents are still alive and didn’t die by their own hands or where I didn’t feel like a nobody. So, yes, I definitely think that if the “Reverie” VR software actually existed, I, and probably countless others, would most likely fall prey to the actual premise of this new series in that we wouldn’t want to leave a world that doesn’t have to be filled with any of the pain and suffering that the real world has dealt us.

Regardless, I honestly believe that technology like this isn’t too far off in our future and I shudder to think of how it could become the greatest addiction any of us have ever seen on this planet if it existed, even beyond the current drug epidemic that’s continuing to sweep our nation and our planet for that matter.

There have been a number of great tv series and movies over the years that have depicted the potential of this reality happening including Black Mirror, The Matrix, Inception, Total Recall, Tron, Ready Player One, The Lawnmower Man, The Thirteenth Floor, and more. With so much pain and suffering on our planet that only seems to be on the rise from year to year, why wouldn’t many of us desire the ability to create a world where none of this is present and where all the things we’ve lost or feel we are lacking can still be present. Ultimately, it is this very thought that has led me to believe why so many are currently getting wrapped up in drugs and plenty of other addictions these days.

Nevertheless, “Reverie” is a bold TV series about virtual reality that will most likely leave you asking yourself the very same question the show itself begs to ponder, that being of whether you would ever want to leave another realm you could enter, that isn’t filled with any pain and suffering and instead, contains everyone and everything that has ever meant anything to you…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Roseanne Barr definitely committed a swift career suicide recently when she tweeted a racist statement during the wee hours one morning about Valerie Jarrett, an African-American woman who was a senior adviser to Barack Obama throughout his presidency and considered one of his most influential aids. Her tweet said that if “the Muslim brotherhood and the planet of the apes had a baby, it would be Valerie Jarrett.”

Ever since her tweet, her highly rated and well-watched revival series “Roseanne” got cancelled by ABC, her talent agency, ILM, separated ties with her, and all the television stations showing syndication of her original show made the decision to promptly remove it from the air.

While I’m all for free speech, I do believe it tends to come with a price these days, especially for those who hold some level of fame and notoriety in this world. So many people are on high alert and extremely sensitive right now with everything from racism to gender equality that it doesn’t take much to negatively sway the majority of the public’s opinion, which is precisely what’s happened with Roseanne ever since her offensive and insensitive tweet.

What’s even worse for Roseanne was her blaming her tweet on the effects of a drug she was taking to help her sleep, that being Ambien. I absolutely applauded the company behind Ambien when they promptly released a statement that said “Racism is not a known side effect of Ambien.”

In all honesty, it’s because of things like this that have frequently come out of Roseanne’s mouth, that I’ve never been one who really enjoyed watching her show. Her abrasive and judgmental personality both in real life and on the show itself has always bothered me. And even though my partner regularly watched the reruns and the revival series of her show in our home on many-a-days, I couldn’t’ stomach it because frankly, I don’t want to support anyone who’s going to make negative statements about someone or something that carries hurtful, racist, and segregating connotations.

With the amount of television programming available nowadays on so many stations, networks, and platforms, an actor or actress, no matter how good they are, or how great their shows are, or how high their ratings end up being, truly doesn’t have the freedom of speech like they might once have had not too long ago.

Nevertheless, with so many being on edge these days, it’s easy to quickly get turned off when a famous person has one of those moments where they spew out verbal diarrhea that’s hurtful towards anyone or anything. Roseanne Barr is just the latest causality of this in a long line of well-known individuals who’ve done something similar. Just ask Kathy Griffin, who not too long ago posted a fake picture on the internet of Donald’s Trump’s bloody head on a platter and watched her career swiftly go down the tubes. Luckily though, Griffin has been on the rebound with her career as of late, but I’m not sure Roseanne will be able to experience the same good fortune.

With Roseanne having been such a polarizing individual with astoundingly strong opinions, political views, and agenda, especially as of late, I judge that a large portion of her remaining fan base is going to be gone for good now, like my partner who agreed this was her final straw.

In the end, yes, we as a culture and a country, do have free speech like I do right here in my blog on a daily basis. But, unlike Barr, I look for the good in everyone and everything and do my best to unconditionally love and accept each and every individual in this world no matter what. And when I make a mistake, because I do, I always promptly make an amends from my heart, which doesn’t seem to be something Barr has gotten in touch with yet.

That’s why I believe Roseanne must face the consequences of her actions and realize she’s living in a world now where free speech comes with a price, a price that networks aren’t willing to carry and a price that people like me aren’t willing to support either.

So, while I believe Barr, like anyone, deserves forgiveness for her insensitive tweet, she and others who verbalize strong statements with racist tones need to learn the value of keeping those opinions off of social media and instead just keeping it all to themselves, as nothing good is ever going to come out of it these days other than a strong price to be paid by them…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson