Warning! A boat load of Bruce Almighty snark ahead. Evangelicals easily offended would be wise to move on from this post immediately. You’ve been warned. No whining later if you decide to read on.
This is the one hundred and ninetieth installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section. Let’s have some fun!
Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a video clip of Joe Schimmel, pastor of Blessed Hope Chapel in Simi Valley, California, detailing how Queen, Freddie Mercury, and Adam Lambert are all servants of Satan.
Now let’s listen to one of my favorite praise and worship songs, Bohemian Rhapsody
Trailers for the new movie Bohemian Rhapsody
And, finally, since I really, really, really want to give the mythical Devil/Satan/Beelzebub his due — all hail the Evil One, right? — let me conclude this post with a video of Queen’s 1985 Wembley Stadium Live AID concert. Awesome, oh so awesome, even to this day!
Have you seen the movie Bohemian Rhapsody? Please share what you thought in the comment section. Are you a Servant of Satan, uh, I mean a Queen fan, what’s your favorite Queen song? Have you ever seen them in concert? Freddie Mercury era? Adam Lambert era? Come on, you heathens, let’s give it up for Queen and Freddie Mercury!
Think of all the rock bands that will be in Hell. Man, the Devil really does have all the good music — Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Christopher Hitchens too. Imagine an eternity of weekend singalongs with all your favorite bands, and compare that to what will be going on in Heaven — endless prostration before a deity who demands you praise him in masturbatory fashion over, and over, and over again. No thanks!
Schimmel is just the latest Fundamentalist preacher using the “evils” of rock music in an attempt to scare people into Heaven — a mythical place that only exists in the minds of Evangelicals. Preachers have been using this shtick since I came of age in the 1960s and 1970s. It didn’t work then, and it sure as hell doesn’t work now. What’s next? Backmasking? Record/CD/mp3 burning parties? How did the whole Christian band replacement thing work out? You know, if you like blank secular band, you will like blank Christian band. Breaking Bob Larson out of the nursing home so he can reprise his “Evils of Satanic Rock Music” tour? Young people just listen to CCM AND secular music now, and based on my unofficial local observations, Christian young adults handily prefer secular rock/hip hop/pop over Christian music. The truth is, a lot of Christian music s-u-c-k-s — little more than rip-offs of secular artists. Decades ago, Christian rocker, Larry Norman asked, why should the Devil have all the good music? Have you noticed, no one is asking this question anymore? Why? Because, they have learned that the Devil really does have all the good, great, awesome, phenomenal music.
Snark alert
The universalists are right, everyone ends up in the same place, heaven. It only becomes hell once you learn that everone is singing praises to gawd almighty all day. Having to listen to that would make me wish there was a hell
Unfortunately never saw queen in concert but the movie does look good
I went to see the film yesterday and it was great! Apparently there were some historical inaccuracies but, hey, it’s the entertainment business! I especially loved watching the re-enactment of the 1985 Live Aid concert at the end, still referred to as the greatest live performance in history. The ability Queen had (and they deliberately aimed to do it) to involve the crowds was like no other band in history, and listening and watching ‘We will rock you’ with seventy or eighty thousand people joining in, was enough to bring lumps to the throat.
Yes, it was about Freddie Mercury so there were some pretty sordid parts to it, or at least I felt uncomfortable about, but much of that is to do with the way in which society discriminates against homosexuals, as this article seeks to do. It also is a story of forgiveness and redemption, particularly moving when Freddie is able to make up with his dad, who was always, publicly anyway, disdainful of his son and appalled by his lifestyle.
Incidentally, I was able to combine my cinema visit with seeing Peter Jackson’s ‘They shall not grow old’, an astonishing achievement in which old WW1 archived footage was digitised, coloured, dubbed, and generally brought back to life. It was even in 3D! Now that was an emotional rollercoaster as well, though of a different kind.
LOOOOVE me some Freddie & Queen, but haven’t seen the new movie, as I’m concerned about historical inaccuracies in it.
Also, Bob Larson is in a REST HOME??!! When did this happen? I thought he was netting around the world still saving us all from demons?!
Favorite Queen song: Don’t Stop Me Now.
Well, I made it through Schimmel’s fake earnest sincerity as he breathlessly detailed the evils of satanism, yada, yada. Like most holier-than-thou Christians he sees evil in every-dammed-thing!
In the 1970s subliminal advertising was a thing. I remember seeing some dude argue than an advertisement for Howard Johnson’s Fried Clams was really a picture of a sex orgy. He outlined all those poor fried clams to show that they were really couples in Kamasutra-type positions. Seriously. Schimmel must be his spirit-grandson, LOL.
BTW, I agree with Freddie Mercury–all the fun people are in hell. I used to say imagine spending eternity with Mother Theresa, however since I’ve read a bit more about her that might not be so utterly boring. The truly horrible thing would be living (in whatever manner) for eternity.
You’re My Best Friend…
“Oh, you make me live!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaZpZQG2z10
(but just about any Queen will wake me to here and now)
Saw the movie and seriously disliked it. Not because the reasons that idiot is positing, but because I’ve been a serious Queen fan since I hitchhiked to NYC in May 1974 and saw their US debut on Broadway as the support band for my all time favorite band Mott the Hoople. The movie covered the tour as Queen being the headliner having a long successful tour instead of being a support band to a bigger band and ending the tour quickly when guitarist Brian May got hepatitis. This is the reason, the total manipulation of facts into some generic gelatinous thing riddled with falsehoods. Freddie’s sexuality was handled like a morality play, sneaking around at truck stops while talking to the girlfriend, gay sex leading to the punishment of AIDS and all of Freddie’s manufactored shame. They claimed he told the band of his diagnosis during Live Aid rehearsals when he was not even diagnosed for another two years. i realize creative license is taken in films on real people to make the narrative fit, but they went too far here. The other members were protrayed as solid family men tut-tutting at Freddie’s antics. The music was good but weird since it was a studio created blend of the actor’s voice, Freddie’s and someone elses. Better off watching live clips of Freddie. I met Freddie on three different occasions in the late 70s. He would not have liked this bowderized version of his life churned out for the ignorant masses.
My favorite is “Under Pressure”. Queen and David Bowie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDh_gHDvkk
And, of course, the “Flash Gordon” soundtrack.
I have two favorites:
“Under Pressure”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDh_gHDvkk
And, of course, the “Flash Gordon” soundtrack:
As soon as I master this tummy trouble, I’m going to see the movie, on Tuesday when it’s cheap for seniors.
My all time favorite Queen songs are Bohemian Rhapsody, Fat Bottomed Girls, and Another Hits the Dust.
Saw Queen in the Chicago area in 1976. Awesome show, Brian May shredded the guitar that night.
Hmmm…”servant of Satan” Reminds me of the new season of American Horror Story. While it treats the Christian apocalypse as something that could be real (as well as ghosts, witches and warlocks etc.) Something funny in one of the episodes goes into the back story of one of the characters. It shows him being raised by an avowed and open Satanist foster mother. The icing on the cake is when he’s about to eat and she admonishes him to say a prayer (in the same tone as a mother teaching a child good manners). Of course it is a prayer to Satan, and is completely amusing. (Also he reverses “amen” at the end and says “nema”)
While I think the best horror is based on things that could actually be real (which AHS is most definitely NOT and as such is more comedic than tragic based on my perception) This little parody of children being coaxed into prayer is a good one.
(The prayer occurs in American Horror Story: Apocalypse – “Could It Be… Satan?”(S8E4). The title is a take off on Dana Carvey’s Church Lady character catch phrase from the 80s. Also interesting is the character played by Kathy Bates refused to pray to Satan, which is good the way it worked out)
This video is so disgusting and sad the way he smears Freddie just to make a sick point. And while he pretends to care about lost souls, in reality he delights in fantasizing about the horrors and tortures of hell. Meanwhile I will go on enjoying Queen with no fear of the hereafter. And my fave Queen song is “Who Wants to Live Forever?” – so moving.
I feel sorry for anyone who views Bohemian Rhapsody as the work of the devil because they won’t be able to enjoy all the clever parodies this song has inspired. Like this one https://tinyurl.com/y738fbd2 . This version is actually making a point about the way we treat each other online that I think many Christians appreciate.
I have liked a number of Queen’s songs for many years. Moreover, if it were not for Queen, Lady Gaga would not have her current stage name at all. “Radio googoo radio gaga.” As for Christians and pop/rock/R&B, I was born in a small town that is now basically a suburb of Nashville. I do not recall a single kid (Christian or otherwise) in my high school that did not listen to or like such music–and that was way back in the 1960s and 1970s.
Many people may not be aware of this, but Nashville is not just a country music city. The youth of the city have always been pop/rock/R&B people. When I was growing up K-12, I did not know a single kid who listened to country music on a regular basis. Country music was for hopelessly dumb grownups and weird people who live outside of Tennessee.
Today, Nashville is a cosmopolitan city where all kinds of music are written and produced. The Nashville Symphony Orchestra has a new performing arts facility that is one of the best in the nation. Rock and roll artists come to Nashville all the time to do song writing and collaborate and jam with other song writers and musicians. Here is just one example of such collaboration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CeX5VEo10c
I have no hard data on it, but I feel sure that Queen had concerts in Nashville a number of times, and I have no doubt that each one was a sell-out, standing room only concert. Queen was popular in Nashville.
We are the champions was played at my 8th grade graduation.(1977) It was the first time I heard it.
I went through high school college and medical school and maybe I heard a few of their songs a few times
Im sure I could count the number of times on my hands.
Because of this movie, I arrived at this sight.
I dont care how talented Freddie was. He is a stupid messed up queer. No wonder I wasnt attracted to that junk back in the 70’s 80’s . He looks like a retard to me now. I can only imagine what I would have thought of thst crap 40 years ago. He’s no hero. He’s a loser. Freddie being a “champion” is fantasy. Their music sounds depressing. I can see the large crowds because misery loves company and there are a lot of depressed people out there.
Everyone will spend eternity somewhere. Eternity is a very very very ling time. Ive visited heaven a few times. They are constantly praising because they are so happy. I got to see just a small amount but it was one surprise, one delight after another.
Freddie is in hell and it breaks my heart. I wish he had made a different choice. I hope the other members of Queen make a different choice while they still can. I hope Mary makes a different choice. Heaven is real. Hell is real. Eternity is long. You must be born again. You must accept what Jesus did for you.
*sigh*
You made it through medical school, but not grammar school.
The only Heaven you have been to is in your mind.
Why would anyone want to go to Heaven with the likes of you? I’ll take Hell with Freddy every time. He may have been messed up, but at least he knew he was. Your religion has mindfucked you, Melinda. Look in the mirror and you’ll see someone else who is messed up.
Melinda please tell me this is a joke! On second thoughts, I know it’s not; well, not to you anyhow, but I can assure you that to people who reason it is!