NPR: King JOYLAND Interview

Stephen King has given a great interview to NPR about his book Joyland, titled, "Stephen King On Growing Up, Believing In God And Getting Scared."

Dimension X

King is asked what got him scared as a kid -- a subject that's getting old for some of us, except that he notes the importance of old radio.  Dimension X in particular.  YES!  You can listen to Dimension X at archive.org.  Some of the best writers of the day, including Ray Bradbury, had their stories translated to radio for this program.

THE SHOW!

Hey, this is kinda preachy.  No apologies!  It's my thoughts about what King said. 

King describes some modern preachers and mega churches as a sort of carnival where the preacher is reduced to being a "carny pitchman."  I find that very interesting because I agree, that is what has happened to much of modern Christianity.  Instead of being people of the Book, for many it has become people of the show.

I am reminded of the times people demanded Jesus do a miracle, and he refused to be a showman. In fact, even his home town was excited when he came through.  The local boy makes good -- now put on a show!  But he would not.  

The book of Mark implies that if Jesus would have done miracles for King Herod, he could have escaped death.  (Luke 23:8-10)  But he would not even speak to Herod, giving him no answer to the King's many questions.

When the Faith is reduced to guys slapping people on the head, or jumping up and down, or sowing your seed to get a blessing -- the Gospel itself is lost in the show.  There is a difference between passion and thinking how to clearly communicate  the message and simply turning God's Word  into a good luck charm to stir masses.  I cringe when I see certain preachers on TV, holding up their Bibles and then giving nothing more than a motivational talk.  Still, Philippians 1:18.

By the way, I do think preachers should be interesting!  They should have something to say (from the Scripture) and say it well.  I weary of preaching that goes like this, "I'm just going to talk from my heart --" which is fine, except you kinda start to wonder if that is code for I didn't study this week so I'm winging it!

What King, and actually the Bible, drives at about preaching is AUTHENTICITY.  Preachers are not to be carnival salesmen, showmen who are fun to watch but actually hollow at the core.  The preacher is to be the real deal, living out what he teaches and explaining with passion what authentic faith is and how it is lived out in a way that honors God.  He's not there to steal from the congregation, but to truly Shepherd and love them. 

Creation: I find King's comments on God delightful.  He admits to being totally inconsistent. I understand that, and respect him for admitting it.  

Before pointing out that the God who created this world must have an interesting personality, King says of those who choose not  to believe, "then you're missing the stars in the sky and you're missing the sunrises and sunsets and you're missing the fact that bees pollinate all these crops and keep us alive and the way that everything seems to work together. Everything is sort of built in a way that to me suggests intelligent design."

Or, as King David said,

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place, 

what is man that you are mindful of him,

the son of man that you care for him? 

You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings 

and crowned him with glory and honor. 

(Psalm 8:3-5)

The Spirit!  King notes that the original term for the Holy Spirit was the Holy Ghost.  Rightly implying that God is Spirit.  As Spirit, he is not limited to a body.  (Unless it's in the miracle of the Incarnation.)  Actually, his comments on God watching us is very good.

KUBRICK

King talks about a discussion he had with Stanley Kubrick.  King says that belief in spiritual things is freeing.  He says that Kubrick was a "thinking cat.  He really thought about what he was doing.  He didn't just go out there and shoot film."  He retells the story of Kubrick asking him about belief in the supernatural.  Kubrick suggested that belief in ghosts is really optimistic, since it implies an afterlife.  "Sure," Kings said, "But what about hell?" Long pause, then he said in very stiff voice, "I don't believe in hell."  

King reflects, "To me it was the voice of someone who was denying their own deeply held belief in something they were unable  to root out."

King said he told Kubrick, "It's not that you don't believe in hell.  It's that you CHOOSE not to believe in hell."

You can listen to the NPR interview with Stephen King at http://www.npr.org