David Walston & sometimes my Wife

Random Blabbering of an ADHD Geek! ✝️ Believer, Husband & Father. #MAGA 🇺🇸 #Constitutionalist #Federalist #Israel🇮🇱

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@punt_rd This got me through a lot of ex-girlfriends‼️

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@titletownusa73 🎸😭

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@RockNRoLL_85 Iommi 🎸🔥

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@Wezer12229512 @Jericho_IWI @animeupdates Without spoilers let's just say it doesn't go as planned.

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@Jericho_IWI @animeupdates That ending was trama
I still hurt thinking about it 😢

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@PollSter_Mike1 Barbara Mandrell only because that song was better because of George Jones

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@SWCultureLive Yes‼️

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@RnRNationlive 🎸🔥

[The Babylon Bee @TheBabylonBee]

Jesus Criticized For Lack Of Diversity Among Apostles https://t.co/B2mgcEkeo2

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@DarekaJay Bring your daughter to work day🤣

[Giga Based Dad @GigaBasedDad]

😎

[History Defined @historydefined]

When former president Theodore Roosevelt died in his sleep in 1919, sitting vice president Thomas R. Marshall famously remarked, “Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.”

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@Cloudnme 🎸😭

[Not the Bee @Not_the_Bee]

Muslim Activists Now Say The Alamo Is An Islamic Structure
https://t.co/GGHhGzUhQO

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@Hunter7___ I can smell the alcohol from this picture. 🤣

[Rancher Dustin 𓃒 @DustinMeyerTX]

Hey @elonmusk we seriously need a Texas flag emoji 🙏🏻
Repost this, Texas! 🤠

[David Walston & sometimes my Wife @Darthdayv]

@NothingButPollz

[Kyle Mann @The_Kyle_Mann]

Is the Lord of the Rings Christian? Is it pagan? Is everyone on the internet an idiot?

The answer to all three of these questions is yes. Sometimes. Maybe. It's a possibly dead cat in a box situation. The Lord of the Rings is both Christian and Pagan until you open the book and the cat dies.

Since my wife is out of town and can't tell me to stop arguing on the internet, buckle up:

First: what does it mean for something to be Christian?

The disagreement over if a fantasy novel can be Christian if it's not explicitly so comes down to definitions and somewhat to more fundamental issues like your philosophy on art and sub-creation. Which is more Christian: a composition by Bach, or The Newsboys' "They don't serve breakfast in Hell?" One was created by a Christian (well, a Lutheran, but I'll allow it) honoring God through the act of sub-creation, and the other explicitly mentions issues of faith in its lyrics, but isn't transcendent or beautiful (sorry, Newsboys fans).

Does it honor God more when a Christian creates something beautiful with skill and excellence for His glory — or when a Christian creates something not to the best of his ability but it says the word "Jesus" 58x in the chorus?

But is Lord of the Rings Christian?

I think the issue is a little easier with Lord of the Rings, because it certainly has a message, values, and a worldview that is communicated, unlike an instrumental composition. It has transcendent truths that point us to truth, goodness, and beauty. No, Lord of the Rings is not explicitly Christian in the sense that I would expect people to get saved from it, or churches to do Bible studies on it (though I am sure they have lol). But can a fantasy novel written by a Christian glorify God with its themes? Can it make people think deeply about creation, reality, our place in this world, our duty to do what's right? Yeah, it certainly can. And that's a very noble and Christian thing for a piece of literature to do.

Not to mention - the act of creating something beautiful is itself a "Christian" act. Christ created you, whether or not you're a Christian. When you create something, you're reflecting the image of God in the act of sub-creation.

I guess the question "Is it Christian?" is ultimately beside the point. In one sense, no; in another sense, it's more Christian than a Jesus is my Boyfriend song on the Christian radio. It's not Christian the way we postmoderns have commoditized the word. It probably was Christian in the way the premoderns thought about the term, art, and creating in the image of God. So maybe. Lol. (Hope this helps!)

But is Lord of the Rings pagan? When are you going to wrap this up?

I'm almost done. So this one is another yes and no. Saying "Lord of the Rings is pagan!" without any nuance is something you only say if you're trying to get attention on the internet (something I would never do). But yes, Tolkien does draw on pagan myths to tell the story. He was doing what Christians have always done - conquer and redeem the things pagans do to the glory of God. Baptizing the pagans' creative works and making them new.

(And by the way, is Narnia pagan? It has fauns, satyrs, dryads, naiads, centaurs, IT HAS ACTUAL LITERAL PAGAN GODS LIKE BACCHUS AND RIVER GODS AND WATER SPIRITS.)

So yes, Lord of the Rings is very much is "pagan." But Tolkien did this intentionally, because he saw Christ reflected in the great mythologies of the world. And he wanted to create another, one that of course embodied his Christian worldview more explicitly than the myths he drew from.

Which brings us to the side note of allegory vs. myth.

I think there are two sides of the horse you can fall off in the discussion about Tolkien and allegory. You can try to read way too much into things - "Aragorn is Jesus" "the Ring is the Atomic bomb" "Goldberry is a snack" etc. But you can go the other way too - "Tolkien said he hated allegory, so you can't draw a connection between anything in the books and real-life influences, virtues, vices, and so on."

So while I think many people are aware of Tolkien's refutal of those who tried to read it allegorically, it's not so cut and dry as "Tolkien hated allegory and that is that." Allegory spills into myth and myth spills into allegory. Even as the Narnia books went on, Lewis began to develop Narnia's own mythology and include things that aren't necessarily representative of any one virtue, vice, or person. His simple allegory of Christ's sacrifice became more than that.

And so I believe it is somewhat opposite with Tolkien. Inspired by the myths of the (Scandinavian, mostly) pagans, he set out to write a mythology his people could call their own. He wanted the Anglo-Saxons to have their own pantheon and their own mythical heroes like Thor and Icarus you could drop into a conversation.

(An important point here - yes, England had the Arthurian legends, but they are very explicitly Christian. He felt myth cannot be transcendant if it includes explicit references to your religious beliefs.)

Holy crap dude this is X; you used to be limited to 140 characters on here. Will you get to the point?

Yeah yeah anyway, this is why Tolkien took almost all mentions of religion out of Middle-earth, other than a couple of small references and vestiges. Myth is larger than life. Middle-earthians lived in the world of gods and angels. As we do, but them much more overtly.

Frodo is frightened and wishes he wasn't born during these times. Samwise is good-hearted and stout and loyal but struggles with showing mercy on the pitiful. Gollum has good in him, but has sat in the darkness for so long it's barely a whisper deep in his soul. With noble intent, Boromir gives into temptation for but a moment and nearly ruins everything.

If you can't relate to these things, Christian or not, well, you might just be a lizard person.

This is the strength of myth. It is far more universal than allegory. Allegory has its place, of course—the Narnia series and The Pilgrim's Progress are some of my favorite books. But the broad appeal of Lord of the Rings is because myth points us to truths that God has put in the hearts of all men. Myth transcends cultures and time and space. This is not because allegory is "too Christian" and myth has taken out the Christian truths. It is because myth speaks to the soul in a way someone who has not yet heard of Christ can appreciate, because God has written eternity in their hearts.

Ultimately, while there are no 1:1 Christ figures in Lord of the Rings, I would argue that you can draw pretty strong connections between elements of the works and elements of Christianity. Things he intended us to find. See, because Tolkien believed even the pagan myths pointed to Christ—why wouldn't a myth written by a strong, devout Catholic?

There is a lot more to say on all this, and I'm barely touching on some stuff here. I don't remember what my point was. I'm gonna go play Resident Evil 4.