US Christian group condemns Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s story as ‘making satanism appear normal’
More than 20,000 Christians have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of Good Omens, the television series adapted from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s 1990 fantasy novel – unfortunately addressing their petition to Netflix when the series is made by Amazon Prime.
The six-part series was released last month, starring David Tennant as the demon Crowley and Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale, who collaborate to prevent the coming of the antichrist and an imminent apocalypse. Pratchett’s last request to Gaiman before he died was that he adapt the novel they wrote together; Gaiman wrote the screenplay andworked as showrunner on the BBC/Amazon co-production, which the Radio Times called “a devilishly funny love letter to the book”.
But Christians marshalled by the Return to Order campaign, an offshoot of the US Foundation for a Christian Civilisation, disagree. More than 20,000 supporters have signed a petition in which they say that Good Omens is “another step to make satanism appear normal, light and acceptable”, and “mocks God’s wisdom”. God, they complain, is “voiced by a woman” – Frances McDormand – the antichrist is a “normal kid” and, most importantly, “this type of video makes light of Truth, Error, Good and Evil, and destroys the barriers of horror that society still has for the devil”. They are calling on Netflix to cancel the show.
Gaiman responded to the petition on Twitter, writing: “I love that they are going to write to Netflix to try and get #GoodOmens cancelled. Says it all really. This is so beautiful … Promise me you won’t tell them?”
The publisher and science fiction critic Cheryl Morgan tweeted: “Miraculously God has already done it. Don’t tell them She put it on Amazon instead.”
Return to Order is based on the writings of the author John Horvat II. It “calls upon Americans to put principles into actions by working toward what is called an organic Christian society”. Another of its petitions in April called on Walmart to “stop selling Satanic products” following a 2018 protest against a “blasphemous ice cream chain called Sweet Jesus”.
[image description: Aziraphale, looking very much like he’s just heard something so dumb that it partially discorporiated his brain, closing his mouth slowly while looking quietly judgemental /end ID]
me at 14: wow, protagonists in media my age! how relateable!
me at 28: WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CHILD SOLDIERS? WHERE ARE ALL THE ADULTS? WHO LET THIS HAPPEN AND WHY ARE THEY NOT BEING PROSECUTED BY LAW WITHIN THESE FICTIONAL UNIVERSES
[Audio description: part of the song “U Can’t Touch This” by Mc Hammer, except instead of the words “can’t touch this” it plays Griffin and Justin saying “come fuck this” from their spore playthrough. It syncs up perfectly.]
“People expected ‘Jennifer’s Body’ to make so much money,” Fox said flatly. “But I was doubtful. The movie is about a man-eating, cannibalistic lesbian cheerleader, and that pretty much eliminates middle America. It’s obviously a girl-power movie, but it’s also about how scary girls are. Girls can be a nightmare.”
- The Self-Manufacture of Megan Fox (The New York Times Magazine)
If Hugh Jackman can deadlift 405 pounds, he shouldn’t have settled merely for Marius. He could’ve picked up Enjolras as well. You know what, add Eponine. Street gamines can’t possibly weigh that much. Man let’s just add the whole of Les Amis (including Gavroche). It’s Hugh Jackman. He can take it.
The best part about this is that Valjean has no idea who his daughters dating, but damn it he knows it’s one of them, so he just takes everyone. The young doctor? Coming. The drunk one? Hopefully not, but bring him anyways. The small child? Might be the brother of whoever Cosette’s with, better bring him just in case. This young woman? Well, Cosette’s already proven she doesn’t tell Valjean everything, so she’s coming too.
And then the final confrontation between him and Javert. Valjean comes staggering out of the sewers holding a pile of people.
“IT’S YOU JAVERT, I KNEW YOU WOULDN’T WAIT TOO LONG!”
“Valjean, what the fuck-”
“THE FAITHFUL SERVANT AT HIS POST ONCE MORE!”
“How are you balancing all of them.”
“THIS BOY AND THIS BOY AND THIS BOY AND THIS BOY AND THIS BOY AND THIS BOY AND THIS BOY AND THIS GIRL AND THIS BOY AND THIS BOY AND THIS CHILD HAVE DONE NO WRONG, AND THE NEED A DOCTORS CARE!”
“I’m not dealing with this, just go.”
“COME, TIME IS RUNNING SHORT!”
“I said you can leave!”
“LOOK DOWN, JAVERT, THEY’RE ALL STANDING IN THEIR GRAVES! MAKE WAY, JAVERT, THERE’S ABOUT A DOZEN LIVES TO SAVE!”
Exclusionists, c. 2017: The A stands for ALLY. ACTUAL cishets belong in the community more than asexuals.
Exclusionists, c. early 2018/late 2017: The acronym is LGBTPN and it ALWAYS HAS BEEN. There was NEVER an A or a Q.
Exclusionists right now: the acronym is and always has been LGBT. Do not look at any outside group, local organization, or popular magazine or charity. All of them are wrong. Queer doesn’t exist. Asexual doesn’t exist. Pan? Don’t know her. No nonbinary genders allowed.
As much as I don’t want it to be, this is an accurate reflection of the evolution of exclusionist arguments that I’ve seen on tumblr over the last two years.
That need to shift strategy, like a flock, is why I try to point out how exclusionists were targeting other groups in the past. It both illustrates their behavior and, in my hope, helps us build tribal knowledge about their behavior.
Tribal knowledge is something I picked up as an engineer and it’s a way we described all of the techniques and skill sets that engineers working in support, operations, and test positions would accumulate but that never got properly written down. It’s the kind of knowledge that survives only as long as you keep the same staff around or manage to document it before they leave. And it’s valuable, very valuable, because tribal knowledge is usually the best practices that form the core of getting the work done. One of the reasons you want to employ technical writers in tech jobs is to try to document tribal knowledge.
Applied to a social structure like the LGBTQ+ community, I believe that tribal knowledge serves as a repository for our community history, because documenting the evolution of a community and the enemies that it faces, both internal and external, is extremely challenging. In a world that doesn’t prioritize any kind of social investment, it can be really hard to do this work.
So yeah. Remember that this is what exclusionism is like and remember that the people that practice exclusionism today are just descendants of the ones from yesterday. If we can remember what they’re trying to do, if we can remember what their strategy looks like, maybe we can protect people from them in the future.
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