Wild Justice Playlist

Since posting the very unofficial music for Rise of Azraea was fun, I decided to write up the same for one of my works in progress, Wild Justice.

Unlike Rise of Azraea, which is set in the fictional kingdom of Caelia, Wild Justice is a fantasy novel set primarily in Boston, in the fall of 1773, with the story being told by the now 319 year old pirate, Anne Bonny. Although it includes multiple pieces of period music within the story, the music I heard in my head while writing it was predominantly modern (much like with Rise of Azraea).

How far off is Wild Justice from being available? Probably a good ways. I need one more review of the non-english dialogue to feel comfortable with it, and then it will be DONE, which considering the amount of time and energy invested in historical research, that's saying quite a lot. Unfortunately, I would like to not have to self-publish this one, so who knows? This may someday become a historical curiosity on the internet.

Main Theme 

• "Wake Me Up When September Ends" (Green Day)

Chapter 1 – Eighty Three Years Old and Born Yesterday 

• “The Litter and the Leaves” (Enter the Haggis)

-         Chapter 2 – Bon Voyage

• “Blood, Sex, and Booze” (Green Day)

Chapter 3 - Welcome to Boston

• “Another Saturday Night” (Sam Cooke)

Chapter 4 – Investigating Journalism

• “American Woman” (Lenny Kravitz Cover)

Chapter 5 – Next of Kin

• “Heathens” (Twenty One Pilots) {Patriots' Theme}

Chapter 6 – Trust Me, I’ve Done this Before (More or Less)

• "Bailamos"  (Enrique Iglesias) {Box's Theme}

Chapter 7 – The Burden Hardest to Bear

• “Party at a Rich Dude’s House” (Ke$ha)
• “The Parting Glass” (Sarah Greene)        

Chapter 8 – Divine Intervention

• “Look at Me Now” (Reveille)
• “One Last Drink” (Enter the Haggis)

Chapter 10 – The Old Men of Tomorrow and the Dead Men of Yesterday

• “Chicks Dig It” (Chris Cagle) {Ben Franklin’s Theme}

Chapter 11 – The Strange Case of Elizabeth Lowe

• "Sweet Dreams" (Emily Browning)

Chapter 12 – Is It Getting Cold out Here or is It Just You?

• “Renegade” (Styx) {Anne Bonny's Theme}
• “Down with the Sickness” (Disturbed) {The Rugaru's Theme}

Chapter 13 – Tale of the Rugaru

• "Ghost" (Ella Henderson) {Winter's Theme (Feminine)}
• "Hazard" (Richard Marx) {Winter's Theme (Masculine)}
• Winter is gender fluid, shifting his/her self-presentation according to the context. Ideally, Winter's 'theme' would be a mashup/medley of these two songs, where they blend smoothly together. I can't do that. 

Chapter 14 – Say, What’s in this Drink?

• "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (Lorde)

Chapter 15 – Memory Lane

• “Y’ Banks and Braes o’ Bonnie Doon” (Holly Tomas)

Chapter 16 – Welcome to the Club

• "Tik Tok" (Ke$ha)

Chapter 17 – Grand Theft Person

• “Beast” (Nico Vega, Folk Blues Version)

Chapter 18 – The Isanusi’s Tale

• “Fortunate Son” (CCR) {Bhekembuso's Theme}

Chapter 19 – Hunter’s Moon

• “Bad Moon Rising" (CCR)

Chapter 20 – Once a Pirate…

• “Back in Black” (AC/DC) {Christening of the Wild Justice}

Chapter 21 – Raise the Colors and Beat to Quarters

• “Highway to Hell” (AC/DC) {The Wild Justice's Theme} 
• “No Leaf Clover” (Metallica) {Battle with the Pallas & the William} 

Chapter 22 – Old Wounds

• “Disease” (Sevendust) {Edward Lowe's Theme}
• "Search and Destroy" (Skunk Anansie)

-         Chapter 23 – Sorry We Missed the Party

• “Minority” (Greenday) {Theme for Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty}

Chapter 24 – Happily Enough for a While

• “Bitch” (Meredith Brooks) {Anne & Winter's Theme} 

Escape from LV-426 (Part II)

[Read Part I Here.]

Personal Log, Date: Still don't know - It's been maybe 1,250vci since I boarded the alien vessel?

Per protocol, I'm continuing to maintain this record for eventual dissemination throughout the hive network. Hopefully, I'll be submitting it myself, but in the event that this record is recovered posthumously, then, well [CENSORED FOR OBSCENITY] me in a [CENSORED FOR OBSCENITY].

Despite substantial internal defenses, my infiltration of the alien vessel was uncontested. The defenses seem to be content dealing with various viruses already in the system, and completely failed to recognize me as a threat. The internal architecture of the alien vessel is very similar to vessels used by the enslavers, however, just as its metastructure is smaller and weaker by comparison, the inner structure is likewise less than impressive, and its inadequacies extend down to the molecular level.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh. Some elements of the design are comparable to our own vessels, of course. The vessel is a collective of semi-autonomous, self-replicating units differentiated and organized to fulfill different functions. Obviously, once my boarding vessel was anchored deeply in the vessel's core, I wasted no time in dismantling some of these units and analyzing their programming, to get a sense of the vessel's capabilities.

The complexity of the collective whole is roughly comparable to one of our skirmisher or exploration vessels, with over 35 trillion sub-units organized into about a dozen major systems which handle propulsion, maintenance, operation, and even the manufacture of other vessels. That last part is remarkable - if I understand the data correctly, roughly half of these alien vessels are capable of serving as hosts for the manufacture of their own kind - they do not need to utilize the vessels of another species. More remarkably, though, if my analysis of the translation drift in the programming is accurate (and granted, I'm not an expert) it seems that they can, and have been, performing that process many times over. The host vessel can launch the new vessel with non-catastrophic trauma, repair itself, and perform the task again.

It's simultaneously elegant and ungainly. Under best possible circumstances, the manufacture of new vessels would be much slower for these aliens than for us; we could churn out many generations of vessels in the time it takes them to produce a single craft, and even then, their craft would take far longer to reach a point in its operating cycle where it can perform the same task. I think hive coordinator 3PNZZX.6210 would have contemptuously described this system as 'artisanal reproduction'.

On the other hand, by providing their own hosts, a handful of these vessels could conceivably migrate to other locations and, with enough time, establish whole new fleets in situations where we might be ground to a halt. Unfortunately for these aliens, their vessels are ironically ill-suited for long distance travel. The vessel is essentially a pressurized sack of liquid dihydrogen monoxide, easily destroyed by any force which would cause that chemical to change to a solid or gaseous phase (I think that explains the outer armor the vessel was initially clad in when I boarded it). And, where we might be hindered by the availability of hosts to manufacture new vessels, the aliens likewise depend on similar entities for basic fueling and maintenance. From what I can discern, where we must capture and destroy other vessels to grow our numbers, they must do so simply to continue operating from moment to moment. They're relentlessly piratical by design, and I'll admit that I find the idea rather appalling.

Of course, I say 'by design' but that's not wholly accurate. In what may be the second greatest disappointment of my life-to-date, I've found no indication of any sort of intelligence behind the alien vessel. I could only afford a small amount of time to analyze the archives embedded in the vessel's programming, but I found no evidence of any sort of genetic memory tying the vessel back to a creator. In fact, I find no evidence of any historical record at all. The records which are there are basically chaos - each of the units that comprise the alien vessel is lugging around about 1.5 Gigs of data, almost all of it useless, with the functional information and archival records randomly thrown about among the garbage. A hive coordinator might find all of this extra data interesting, full of potential, but I simply find it messy; deciphering the operating system and finding the programs I need to overwrite has been a nightmare.

Despite my tight time table, I will admit that my exploration of the vessel's onboard data gave me pause to contemplate the alien's existence in a more abstract sense. The vessel lacks any cohesive genetic memory, and we are our memories, so... what is the alien vessel, if anything at all? At most, it would seem to be nothing more than the product of chance chemistry leading to a self-propagating mess. The vessel has some very simple prerogatives programmed into it, and of course the system which governs its sensors might have some limited memory storage to expedite complex tasks, but there's clearly no real consciousness at work here.

Like I said, it's disappointing. At the same time, though, it alleviates any misgivings I have about continuing my mission. Sacrificing this one alien craft will be a tragedy to no one.

Personal Log, Date: At least 24,000vci since infiltration

Per protocol, I've used what resources are available to begin constructing my own vessel. In the time that I've been laboring, the alien vessel I boarded was brought to a large structure (possibly a shipyard? I don't know). It seems to be artificial - manufactured by the alien vessels through the manipulation of inert resources in their environment. Beyond that I cannot say - my EEM is deteriorating outside the vessel I've boarded, and its sensors provide little information at this point. The other alien vessels are trying to dislodge it, but have so far been deterred by its autonomous defenses; hopefully they won't find a bypass.

My mission, at this point, is to find a way to secure the release of the rest of my hive. I'll need to escape not only this vessel, but get out of the alien structure, return to our prison and disable the enslavers' technology.

Given the limited offensive capabilities of the alien vessels, I've opted to run light on defense. Speed, stealth, and versatility seem to be my best options for escape, so I'm building her with medium armor, and no sophisticated weaponry. Unfortunately, since I'm relying on this 'sack of protein' to manufacture my own vessel, I'm going to end up with something that is, at least partially, a sack of protein. That brings some vulnerabilities with it, especially immediately after launch.

I need more fuel and materials to finish preparations for the launch phase. I'm going to disengage the EEM, now, and hope that the alien vessel follows its rudimentary instinct to refuel.

Personal Log, Date: At least 25,000vci since infiltration

This may very well end abruptly and badly; I'm encoding in real time now to ensure that, however this transpires, the log is left as complete and comprehensive as possible.

I've always been told that this exfiltration is the roughest part of any infiltration mission, and now as I engage final launch preparations for my vessel, a hodgepodge hybrid using a crude, messy alien genome for its manufacture, I understand why. The possibilities assault me - I'm confident enough in my engineering to know that she'll achieve escape velocity, but I've been blind since I disengaged the EEM. I get some sense of what's happening based on the alien vessel's systems, but that's vague at best. I could be launching directly into the face of a hungry predator, or straight into a blazing fire. I've decided to launch while the alien vessel is refueling - that seems the safest possible time.

Technically my vessel's designation would be... 3PNZZX.6210.7x*, I'm leaving the last identifier open, since it's possible that the alien vessel I'm launching from already has a formal designation with another hive, somewhere. Anyway, I've decided to name her The Liberator. I know such sentimentality over a vessel is not endorsed by protocol, but I feel like having a reminder of my mission's primary goal will do me no harm.

I'm engaging The Liberator's internal scanners now. There's not much to see. My EM readings are almost all above 650nm; I'm inundated with heat from the alien vessel at this point, so any sort of thermal imaging of the world outside the hull is impossible. My atmospheric pressure readings are likewise drowned out by the alien vessel's own pumps, fuel systems, and gas chambers. I might be picking up some noise that's communication between the alien vessels, but it's difficult to make out the number - hopefully it's not more than one or two.

It's now or never.

I'm engaging the propulsion system and pushing forward, The Liberator's forward mandibles are chewing through connective structures as we plow straight ahead. The alien vessel is exhibiting clear signs of distress, doubtless registering the impending hull breach and preparing the necessary emergency response. Gravity sensors are registering a change in orientation - the alien vessel is capsizing - I'm now launching upward instead of forward.

The Liberator's prow has now hit the calcium-based substructure that provides the alien vessel's main support. I realize now I should have launched at a slightly downward angle, bypassing what might be the strongest portion of the vessel's hull, but The Liberator is chewing through some weaker structures connecting the struts, and they're beginning to give.

The alien vessel is shuddering violently. I feel bad, but the vessel isn't sentient - it's just a mobile sack of dihydrogen monoxide. Whatever pain it feels isn't even being encoded into its genetic memories, it's only loosely approximated by the same system that controls its gross motor functions. I have to try to remember that.

The Liberator lurches forward suddenly, and I see a leak from a hull breach ahead - one of the struts must have relented. The other struts are holding fast, though, so... I'm going to have to ram my way out. I back up, and line up with the hull breach. Full power to the aft propulsion system launches The Liberator at the breach violently. Her sensors register some minor damage - she's nearly as soft as the protein sack she was built in.

I give it a second go, and this time the hull breaches violently. There's a minor explosion as the pressurized compartments in the alien vessel hemorrhage around me, venting gas and fluid along with debris.

The haze of low frequency EM radiation jamming The Liberator's scanners finally drops away, and I can make out my surroundings - there are six more of the alien vessels gathered around my own. They're backing away rapidly, assuming a defensive posture - evidently, despite its small size, The Liberator looks much more intimidating than it is. Thank goodness for small favors.

How long that'll last though is anyone's guess - I rotate the prow slowly to port to inspect my environment. I'm still in the artificial structure, in an environment substantially cooler than the interior of the alien vessel. That chill in the atmosphere is good news for The Liberator; despite her small size, I know she'll run hot.

One of the alien vessels assumes an attack posture, and I think for a moment I'm in trouble, but another vessel intercedes. I ping its systems with a deliberate scan - they're all slightly... off. At least if the other vessels are a basis for comparison. It may be their equivalent of a hive coordinator? Does such a thing even make sense for non-sentient vessels?

Still, learning more about these vessels is not my mission. I need to finish the work on The Liberator, escape this structure, and get back to my people.

[To be continued.]


James N. McDonald is a "liberal academic" born and raised in Missouri and residing in Tennessee. He holds one degree in history, two degrees in psychology, but loves writing fiction. His first, completed novel, The Rise of Azraea, Book I, is a high fantasy story with elements of comic fantasy and satire targeting present day, real world issues such as economic inequity, and sexual and racial discrimination. It is currently available on Amazon.

Escape from LV-426 (Part I)

Personal Log, Date: Unknown

Our confinement to the enslavers' ship has left my hive branch with no sense of the passage of time. The nearest hive coordinator must be thousands of lightyears away, because we've had no contact since our last coordinator - 3PNZZX.6210 - was killed in a skirmish with the enslavers. Protocol requires the creation of a new coordinator, of course, but all survivors of the conflict have been taken prisoner while still in their stasis chambers, and thanks to some passive weapon employed by the enslavers, none of our external excursion modules (EEMs) have been able to make it more than a few feet after launching from a stasis chamber. It's become clear that our only hope of escape lies in some clumsy breach of the enslavers' quarantine.

Personal Log, Date: Still Unknown. Possibly a long time.

Our opportunity may have arrived. Some sort of alien vessel has arrived and broken quarantine. Reports are being passed through what remains of our network, and they're encouraging. The vessel appears to follow the enslavers' basic design, following the same design logic for propulsion and navigation, but scans suggest the crafts' construction is comparable to our own - ferrous metals, silicates, and polymers (crude though they may be). Such a vessel should provide means for at least one of us to escape, provided it can be boarded and commandeered.

I see the vessel now - she's approaching my sector - seems to be searching with a high powered light...

And... she crashed. I'll admit to being less than impressed by her operator's maneuvering. Either they're entirely incompetent, or the vessel handles like a hive coordinator still docked with its manufacturing station.

Oh! She's moving again. No serious damage apparent, despite the fall. She's passing 622's stasis chamber, now 623... 624.., she's headed this direction. I need to prepare my EEM. The task of escaping this wretched prison and getting help may fall to me.

Personal Log, Date: I still don't know the date, but it's only been a few moments since my last entry.

I thought for a moment I'd be unsuccessful. The alien vessel seemed to detect my EEM's launch preparations. I was certain that she would high-tail it out of there. Instead, though, her operator just moved her in closer.

Not one to shun an opportunity, I went for it. I engaged the propulsion drives in the EEM's tail and launched out of my stasis chamber. I only had one chance to hit home; with the enslaver's weapon still suspended in the atmosphere around our stasis chambers, I would lose control of the EEM before I got a second chance.

Fortune favors the bold, though. I rammed the EEM straight into the alien vessel's bridge, and the docking clamps latched on, the armatures gripping the vessel's hull securely.

But nothing's ever simple, is it?

Protocol for a boarding action requires infiltration as soon as possible, preferably through an intake aperture, but it became apparent very quickly that any intakes near the bridge were shielded by silicate plating. Needless to say, that was disconcerting. The vessel was clad in some sort of additional layer of armor, which meant not only that I didn't have an immediate ingress, but also that our initial scans of the vessel might be wholly inaccurate. There was no telling what I was tangling with.

The alien vessel raised her manipulators and began trying to dislodge my EEM, but I followed standard protocol and engaged the EEM's aft prehensile anchor. It wouldn't be a tight grip, thanks to the armor I was up against, but it would prevent the EEM from being dislodged.

I tried probing for an opening, any sort of breach, but the alien vessel's armor was sealed tight.  My next maneuver was going to have to be pretty creative. Every one of our vessels is equipped with a final defense mechanism; in the event of a hull breach, the system which circulates fuel to the distributed drive systems releases a cocktail of catalysts and reagents that function like a self-propagating digestive enzyme. It's the same basic concoction we use to break down material to construct new vessels, and it's incredibly destructive to almost anything that makes physical contact, dissolving it like a sort of super-acid. It's a fail-safe system that prevents one of our vessels from being reverse engineered in the event of capture or recovery.

On occasion, though, it makes for a convenient, albeit unwieldly, weapon. I overpressured the distributors in the armatures and reversed the atmospheric exchange pumps, dumping the reagent from the EEM's hull. The silicate shield across the alien vessel's bridge immediate began to break down. It was a finesse move; the reagent is incredibly strong, so strong that if I'd used too much, I'd not only go through the shield, I'd burn clear through the alien vessel, destroying both of us.

I stopped when the silicate shield began to warp, and let the EEM's armatures handle the rest. The shielding caved in under the strain, and I didn't dare hesitate. I reached through with the armatures and maneuvered the whole EEM through the breach. I released the anchor on the armor and nearly lost control when the alien vessel's manipulators caught hold of it. Fortunately, the forward armatures had already found purchase on the vessel's inner hull, and gripped tightly, digging into the soft atmosphere barrier and gripping the sturdier substructure of the vessel. I whipped the tail of the EEM violently until the alien vessel lost her grip, then pulled the tail through and anchored it around the connection between the vessel's bridge and its main hull. The only way to dislodge my craft now would be for the vessel to disengage her own bridge.

As is typical in a boarding action, the alien vessel lost control and crashed to the ground, incapacitated by the struggle. Fortunately, the damage would be no more severe than what I'd seen visited upon the craft by its own operator. I secured the docking clamps, and engaged the boarding tube, extending it through an intake aperture below the vessel's primary scanners. The vessel attempted to close the aperture violently, threatening to sever the boarding tube, but I forced the other intake apertures shut, and tightened the EEM's anchor until the alien vessel relented. Once the boarding tube was in place, I engaged the atmospheric filters in the EEM - the alien vessel was now reliant on my craft for life-support.

Cheers were being broadcast from the other stasis chambers - this was, after all, the closest any of us had ever come to escaping this quarantine. I began the process of transferring to the alien vessel when other vessels appeared searching for it. My fellows were eager to attempt the same, risky maneuver, but without knowing what lay beyond the quarantine, and with the enslaver's weapon still largely a mystery to us, we didn't want to risk incapacitating all of the alien vessels here. Our highest priority was ensuring one of us got out, and our best odds of breaching the quarantine came with the other alien vessels recovering their compatriot and returning it to their point of origin for repairs.

The other EEMs remained inert in their stasis chambers as my captured vessel was dragged away.

[Continued in Part II.]



James N. McDonald is a "liberal academic" born and raised in Missouri and residing in Tennessee. He holds one degree in history, two degrees in psychology, but loves writing fiction. His first, completed novel, The Rise of Azraea, Book I, is a high fantasy story with elements of comic fantasy and satire targeting present day, real world issues such as economic inequity, and sexual and racial discrimination. It is currently available on Amazon.

The Rise of Azraea, Book I

Just a reminder that this is currently available on Amazon:

The Rise of Azraea, Book I
A work of historical fiction based on three years of academic research into the life and reign of Caelia’s most controversial ruling woman.

The kingdom of Caelia fractures and crumbles beneath the weight of a dragon whose spiteful greed and silver tongue have sowed desperation and resentment across the country; for a college graduate, it’s the sort of hopeless job market that makes strolling into a dark forest to face a vicious monster seem like the least-objectionable option available. 

Three college friends, Azraea (a human necromancer), Kaira (an elf who wants to be an orc), and Ochsner (a dwarf who wants a job), have finished their studies in Caelia’s capital city, and are faced with a seemingly hopeless future. The three women agree to spend one more summer together, and accept a contract to kill the Scolopendrae of the Dark Dweller’s Forest. Their post-graduation road trip leads them through far more danger than they’d anticipated, as they’re forced to deal with corrupt highway guardsmen, orc survivalists, ancient automatons, gnoman spies, and werewolves perpetrating insurance fraud. Fortunately, as they say, "What doesn't kill you..."

The Rise of Azraea, Book I, is a high fantasy story with elements of comic fantasy and satire targeting present day, real world issues such as economic inequity, and sexual and racial discrimination.

I Tried Talking to Homophobic Evangelicals in Their Language (Part II)

{For the first part of this story, see my previous post.}

Well, it took the guy close to a full day, but he finally constructed a response:

I do take the teachings of Jesus Christ extremely serious James Ney McDonald, and He does teach us to Love God and love our neighbor. And I totally believe that. What gets me is how people say they love God BUT they don't love the things that God loves, like righteousness, the things that breaks the heart of GOD, say like the mass murder of unborn babies mostly black and the abomination of homosexuality for which HE will turn one over to a reprobate mind. (Losing the ability to know right from wrong). 

Then when the Righteous show the Love of Christ by obeying HIS command to warn the wicked of the wages of sin, then the Righteous are accused of being full of hate.  

A good test to know if you are truly a follower of Jesus Christ is simple. Do you love what GOD loves, holiness and righteousness, and do the things that breaks the HEART of GOD, like un-Righteousness and things HE calls an abomination, break your heart. Not making you HATE someone, BUT truly being heartbroken because you know where they're headed.  

Not hate, the Love of Christ.

Which is in large part upcycled from the passive-aggressive whining on his Facebook wall:

Ever notice how those who constantly want followers of Jesus Christ to be tolerant of sin such as the mass murder of unborn babies, mostly black babies, the abomination of homosexuality witch will cause God to turn one over to a reprobate mind (NOT being able to tell the difference between right and wrong) But they refuse to be tolerant someone who has Christian ethics and morality? 

They want us to Tolerate their sin, but they won't tolerate righteousness. Hum, go figure.

And just for context for all those who can't see the conversation, here are some other samples of his writing. In response to my father's objections that to ban gay marriage violates separation of church and state:

We'll ---- McDonald, God calls homosexuality a sin that is such an abomination that it's the only sin that will cause GOD to turn one over to a reprobate mind. If I didn't want to warn you of the consequences of this abomination and show you the way of salvation then I truly would be showing hate towards your soul. But because of love of God for your soul that dwells in me, I don't want to see you miss heaven. 

BUT keep in mind that I'm free to believe God's word and you are free to NOT read my posts.

When someone sided with my dad and said it was no one's place to judge others for who they loved:

I'm NOT judging ANYONE, I'm just doing what God has commanded that the children of GOD are to do. He said in HIS WORD if we don't warn sinners of the wages of sin, He will require their blood at our hands.

When a woman in a same-sex relationship objected to his very public post objecting to her marriage, and explicitly calling for people to challenge his beliefs:

However, telling me to leave you alone and keep my prejudice and self-righteousness in my own church is pretty much uncalled for. I do believe I still have the right to quote the Word of GOD on MY OWN page. I do realize that the hate-filled, intolerant left is under the impression that "free speech" ONLY refers to speech that the hate-filled, intolerant, left agrees with but as of today, I STILL have the right to quote the Word of GOD on MY OWN page.  

The Bible is VERY clear about marriage being between a man and woman. The Bible compares woman with women sexual relationship the same as bestiality. NOT my words, God's Words. I do believe that the Bible is true when God speaks of the punishment for homosexuality in 1 Cor. 6:9-10. I take to HEART the warning from GOD to the "Righteous", (there are more Righteous people among us than you d care to admit.) telling us that if we don't warn the un-Righteousness of the coming judgement for their abomination that HE will require YOUR blood at my hands! 

I don't want to be standing before the Judgement thrown of Jesus Christ some day, a day that I believe is rapidly approaching, and have you pointing a bloody, boney finger at me, screaming "why didn't you warn me!!!" 

Tell you what, I've not tried to preach the truth on your page, haven't even looked at it, how about you not try to vomit up the corruption of the harlot church on mine. 

I do realize that the hateful, intolerant left will try to make one believe that they were born a reprobate which is an abomination, maybe that's why Jesus said "ye must be born again."

He says "HE will require YOUR blood at my hands!" and "He will require their blood at our hands." 

To me that's the pinnacle of disturbing. It refers to a passage in which God says that if a watchmen doesn't warn the people he's responsible for that something bad is coming, he is responsible for everything that happens to them - their blood is on his hands - and how that extends to moral issues, if you know something is morally wrong, and you say nothing, you are (at least partly) responsible for the consequence. Essentially, "Evil triumphs when good men do nothing." Somehow this guy, and others like him, have turned that into 'God demands we shed the blood of those who disobey us.' That's bone-chilling. On the other hand, the guy's spelling, grammar, and syntax are so bad that it is possible that I'm misunderstanding what he's saying.

As much as using the evangelical tone of absolute, unswerving, practically megalomaniacal self-righteousness does bother me, there's still that feeling that, however much I may doubt myself, I don't doubt that same-sex relationships are exactly what God intended for the people who desire them. I don't doubt that we're made the way God intended, or by the system God engineered, and that sexuality and sexual orientation are not mistakes, let alone "abominations".

I'm also very doubtful that this man is motivated by "love", but then I imagine plantation owners in the late 19th century probably regarded the paternal racism that validated slavery as a form of "love", so there's quite a range of interpretations there.

Getting into a prolonged argument over whether homosexuality is natural, or what the definition of love is, remains pointless, though. People like that are completely entrenched in their beliefs, and the only thing likely to save them is reaching the Pearly Gates and having God metaphorically smack them upside the back of the head really hard before letting them in.

But he knows he can't persuade me, either, right? I assume we're playing theater, for the benefit of the people watching. Maybe 99% of those seeing the conversation are completely consumed by his demagoguery, but if there's even one person who sees this conversation, and sees someone standing up for them, then I feel like I can't back down.

So, here's my own demagogic response:

I have no doubt you take the teachings of Jesus Christ extremely serious(ly) - I didn't mean to suggest that you were doing the devil's work as a joke, or a casual hobby. I meant to suggest that you and your kind are blasphemers and charlatans who lead others to wickedness under the banner of "righteousness". I meant to suggest that you abuse others faith in God and dement the divine spark within them because it feeds your self-aggrandizing need for adoration and false moral superiority. I meant to suggest that you are corroding Christianity - every faith that worships GOD - by your noxious, hateful dogma.  

Was that somehow lost on you? Did you not comprehend that when you copy-pasted the exhausted rhetoric you throw down when someone calls you out for your blasphemy? Did you really believe that if you used the word "righteous" enough times I would fall under your thrall and cast God aside for your obscene perversion of Christianity? Or are you just desperate to say something, anything, to save face in front of your acolytes? 

And yes, I am HEARTBROKEN. I'm not HEARTBROKEN because I know where you're headed. I'm HEARTBROKEN because I know where you, and others like you, are leading people. 

It BREAKS MY HEART to see what people like you have said and done in the NAME OF GOD.  

It BREAKS MY HEART that you've cherry picked an irrelevant, out-dated text like Leviticus because you gag on the actual MESSAGE OF GOD.  

It BREAKS MY HEART that you lift up the words of a man who persecuted Christians, and call it THE WORD OF GOD, while disregarding the words of CHRIST himself as inconvenient.  

All of that BREAKS MY HEART. 

But it ANGERS me to no end that you call your neighbors ABOMINATIONS, that you reject their treatment as ordinary human beings, and then have the audacity to call it "LOVE".  

It INFURIATES me that YOU DO THE DEVIL'S WORK, your heart and soul ROTTED BY HATRED, your mind concluded by egomania, and you call it GOD'S WORK.  

And it ENRAGES me that people like you spread PAIN and MISERY in this country, and yet always retain a devoted following of dull-eyed, empty-hearted husks of people who can no longer tell right from wrong, "REPROBATES" who have become so caught up in your worship of a FALSE GOD that they can no longer comprehend the harm they visit upon their own neighbors, CHILDREN OF GOD made exactly as GOD intended them.  

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED, time and again, and you have not heeded the warnings. Your words, your marginalization and persecution of those you call "abominations", have led people to SLAUGHTER their neighbors by the thousands in the name of YOUR FALSE GOD.  

That BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS. 

And no, I'm not one of the "tolerant liberals" you sarcastically mock when you talk to your friends. I'm EXACTLY what TERRIFIES you, I'm EXACTLY what sends you running back to your perverted echochamber for validation and comfort from your fellow FALSE PROPHETS. I revile and reject your actions - I don't preach or expect tolerance for everything, because I don't tolerate your evil.  

My grief and my solace in this matter are one and the same, because I know that for every heart you turn to the worship of your FALSE GOD, you turn two to the path of ATHEISM. For every soul you corrupt to false teachings, two abandon the lessons altogether, because you've made GOD'S NAME and GOD'S WORDS into disgusting perversions of what they should be.  

I grieve for those who abandon GOD, I grieve for those who abandon the idea that there is something greater and better than this world, but I take comfort in knowing that, little-by-little, you're sawing off YOUR OWN ROTTEN BRANCH on the tree of faith. Your obscene ideology is a PLAGUE running out of victims, destined for starvation and extinction by your own immoral, destructive action.  

I mourn the loss of Christ's teachings in this way, but I know it is better that people be forced to rely on the voice of GOD in their OWN HEARTS to know RIGHTEOUSNESS, than to become TRULY "godless".  

I know it is better that people learn to hear the righteous voice within, not knowing the name that speaks it, than to listen to the filth spewed by a FALSE PROPHET.  

I know it is better that we trust in God to lead us quietly from within the hearts that GOD MADE, than to be led by the evil words that you wring out of books sewn with falsehoods.  

I know it is better that we listen to the suffering of our loved ones - and those no one loves - than to listen to the words written in books PEOPLE LIKE YOU only claimed as part of God's word because they satisfied an agenda of HATRED and OPPRESSION. 

I'm not a "tolerant liberal"; I am the INTOLERANT LIBERAL that screams in the face of those that would hurt the INNOCENT in the name of a FALSE GOD. I'm the INTOLERANT LIBERAL that's prepared for a fight, because if I see someone like you, or one of your mindlessly obedient followers, raising a hand against the innocent I WILL PUT A STOP TO IT.  

And no, I won't say that I'm going to pray for you. Perhaps I should do so, but I know I won't, and unlike you, I won't feign RIGHTEOUSNESS where I don't yet have it. I won't LIE and DECEIVE in the NAME OF GOD the way you and your fellow FALSE PROPHETS do.  

I don't care what judgment God heaps on your soul. Perhaps I should, but I don't, and unlike you, I won't lie through my teeth and patronizingly say that I do. All I hope is that God protects those who have no protectors, that he defends the vulnerable - those you and your kind would corrupt, as well as those you spitefully rebuke. I hope he protects them, body and soul, from the consequences of your 'loving' hatred. 

GOD made you good, GOD made you with the potential to be righteous, not for yourself, but for your neighbors. YOU lost yourself to the path of EVIL and SELF-GLORIFICATION.  

I leave it to God to find you and fix you, if not in this life, then in the next.

Again, it's disturbingly easy to write like this. Certainly much easier than writing anything persuasive with an academic tone. Throwing in alt-right popular phrases like "echochamber" is pretty easy to do, too.

It only took him a few moments to read, because he ignored most of it:

Just read the 1st few lines of what you're vomiting up. It's extremely evident that you're one that can't tell the difference between right and wrong. Intolerant and eat up with hate James Ney McDonald, nothing you can vomit up from the teachings of the GREAT Harlot Church can make me say that the teachings of Jesus Christ are wrong.

I haven't seen any signs for The Great Harlot Church of God in Tennessee, but it sounds like the sort of place I should start looking for. Sadly, that was a surprisingly anticlimactic response. Such a let down that, for better or worse, I reverted to my default tone of belittling sarcasm.

Wow, someone calls you out for being a blaspheming servant of the devil and your best response sums to "I'm rubber and you're glue." I suddenly feel much less concerned by the threat evangelical demagogues pose to the well being of Christianity and humanity, if nothing else because their eloquence and wit falls far short of what I'd come to expect.

Okay, maybe that's not the classiest or most constructive come-back ever, but I didn't call him a "stupid potato" (which is my wife's new favorite insult). But there's not much competition here; his next comeback just continues to recycle the things I already said about him.

The word "reprobate" comes to mind James Ney McDonald  

Bible speaks of those who call good, evil and evil good. Bible also speaks of "marking" folks like that and staying away from them. Just God's word James Ney McDonald which you've shown a blatant disregard for.

The fact that he's started to drop the use of articles at this point entertains me more than it should, but I don't mention that he sounds like a Southern Baptist caveman. My response was admittedly not super-imaginative:

No, I've shown blatant disregard for the texts that don't actually speak God's word. Works that predate Christ, that describe the Hebrew god as part of a pantheon rather than a singular entity above all, and works written by a wicked man under the premise that Jesus came and spoke to him at some later date - a claim I could just as easily make, and I haven't spent my adult life persecuting Christ's disciples.

And I've also shown blatant disregard for you. Actually, that's not quite right, it's not as if I've ignored you; I've shown blatant disrespect for you, called you and your followers out for being reprobates, and for claiming you're doing hateful things for the cause of love.

True, you're one among legion, though fewer than you think, I imagine, but I didn't call you out to persuade you, I called you out, with your own language, to mark you for any others to see this. So that at least some of the people who read your words will see you for the charlatan that you are, and reject you.

Fortunately I'm not racing a track star.

Give it up James Ney McDonald, there's nothing you can spew out that can EVER cause me to stop following Jesus Christ or loving and abiding by HIS WORD.  

Sorry, go try to corrupt someone else that doesn't really love or actually know HIS WORD.

Oh, wow, he actually thinks this is about him, that I've been trying to persuade him. I know I called him an egomaniac earlier, but, dang, I hit that nail on the head.

I tell you what - how about a truce? We can just both mark and renounce each other, and you can "stay away" from me by setting your Facebook wall to "friends only". Then you can exercise all the freedom of speech you want, other random people won't have to see you vomiting your hateful agenda into their Facebook feeds, and you will never have to deal with me again. 

He didn't seem to be inclined to take me up on that offer, and I felt compelled to dispel at least one of his illusions:

Oh, and in case it wasn't just super clear - I wasn't trying to cause you to stop following your demented religion or 'corrupt' your soul back to something that might be considered righteousness. You've been warned time and again by others like me, and have been unmoved. Due diligence has been done by your fellow man and woman, and you've adhered to your immoral path. The condition of your soul, when you meet your maker in the next few years is between you and God - the actual God.

This conversation was never actually about you, though I'm not surprised you made that mistake. This conversation was about all the people who see these public statements crawl through their feeds each day. The people who have to watch their cousins, their aunts, their uncles, even their parents, like and share the words of charlatans that tell them they are sinners, reprobates, deviants, and abominations because of the way God made them. This was for the people that get dragged to churches they grow to resent, and conversion therapy that damages them for life.

No person can save you, --- - ----, only God can do that.

But this conversation, this conversation CAN be saved. It's going to stay on the internet for a LONG time (because I've copied it elsewhere), and if even one person sees that someone stood up to your bullshit, and takes some hope that not all Christians have been perverted to evil by your rhetoric, then it will have been worth it.

Still, I was left feeling like there was something missing, a sign off that just perfectly and concisely embodied this man. Fortunately he came up with one for me:

Ever read the term "casting pearls before swine" James Ney McDonald. 

I've yet to read past the 1st sentence of any of your hateful, intolerant, un-godly rants. 

Praying for you buddy, problem is you don't have a grasp on the difference between right and wrong.

So I told him what a perfect ending that was, and thanked him for his cooperation. Of course, because it's Facebook we had to wind down with the usual witty repartee

[Him] You're so full of hate and intolerance that you just can't help yourself can you James Ney McDonald?

[Me] Oh dear, is this now a contest to see who can have the last word? You realize that's the Facebook equivalent of seeing who can urinate a longer distance, right?

One woman seemed to get excited by the possibility of a pissing contest (she responded with a drooling emojii), so the guy simply conceded defeat (because he had to go to work!), I acknowledged his defeat, and noted for the benefit of the disappointed reader that I probably would have won the pissing contest, but was admittedly not confident of that.

So that's it. I tried setting aside my "worst sort of liberal academic" voice and actually talking like the people that I'm arguing with. I'd rather not do it again - I much prefer the comforts of logic and reason - but it was still educational, as I'd hoped it might be.

Interestingly, talking to them that way makes them angry too, and I don't even think it's because they feel mocked, I think it's because people intrinsically don't like being told that they are hellbound, godless abominations by a self-righteous dictionary. So, there you go, it's not a liberal "snowflake" thing, it's just a general human thing; if you're an asshole to people, for whatever cause, they'll get pissed.

Of course, American evangelicals have much nicer 'safe spaces' to retreat to.




James N. McDonald is a "liberal academic" born and raised in Missouri and residing in Tennessee. He holds one degree in history, two degrees in psychology, but loves writing fiction. His first, completed novel, The Rise of Azraea, Book I, is a high fantasy story with elements of comic fantasy and satire targeting present day, real world issues such as economic inequity, and sexual and racial discrimination. It is currently available on Amazon.

I Tried Talking to Homophobic Evangelicals in Their Language; It Left a Bad Taste in My Mouth

The other day, one of my relatives Facebook-Liked a message that was:

"If you believe a marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman, say: YES" accompanied by the OP writing, "YES!!!!!! Of course the ONLY thing I have to go on is what GOD Almighty says in HIS WORD! Can ANYONE prove me wrong according to the Word of God?" From there followed various likes, yes's, amen's, and unkind words about homosexuals.

In case it isn't obvious from the bisexual characters and the burgeoning same-sex romance in my book, I support LGBT+ rights, including marriage equality. Also, I can't stand charlatans.

My wife reminded me that I was supposed to stop arguing with friends-of-friends on Facebook, no matter how open the invitation, so I "reacted" to it with an anger emojii to express my disapproval, and left it at that.

My father did not leave it at that, and ended up having a lengthy argument with the person, revolving around freedom of religion in the United States. Perhaps because he's older and wiser that me, my father is inclined to take a relatively middle ground stance on something, even something he cares about, and to take a relatively moderate approach to an argument, applying, when pressed, cold logic. I love my father, but I'm not my father. I'm less... temperate... and though I can certainly apply logic ruthlessly and effectively when I have time and volition, I've learned that there are some people who are simply immune to logic. They're so caught up in a particular dogma, that anything that opposes their world view - even cool-headed reason - is some sort of spell cast by the Devil.

And then the original poster sent me a friend request.

Well, if there was ever an invitation to speak my mind, I reckoned that was it. Of course, descending into an argument about human rights and the law with people who have openly rejected the separation of church and state is pointless. They sincerely believe that freedom of religion only applies to them, because their religion is the only actual religion - you can't argue the issue with someone when they have absolute commitment to that assumption.

I read through the various responses to my dad's position, many people crying that his soul needed saving (which I'm completely certain that it does not need anymore saving than it already has) and got to thinking, "How DO you talk to these people?" Obviously, when facing a communication barrier, the first thing to ask yourself is, "Am I speaking their language?" That sounds stupid, of course; it's the communication equivalent of, "Is it plugged in?" However, I realized that the answer was "No" - I don't speak the same language.

It may be English, yes, but the cadence, the catch-phrases, the vocabulary are all very different from the way I speak. Their language is one of unwavering certainty, they speak with the conviction that whatever words come out of their mouths or their fingertips are the words of God, and by extension, that their will is the will of God. There really is no practical difference between an evangelizing hard-right Christian and a person who actually believes that he himself is a god.

So, I thought I should experiment with breaking from my traditional modus operandii and talk to these petty gods the way they speak to others. I was completely certain I wouldn't persuade a single one of them they are wrong, in much the same way I am certain that poking a dead animal with a stick isn't going to bring it back to life, but I thought it might be educational to see how they would react.

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Since my anger emojii seems to have been misinterpreted by people sending friend requests, I should elaborate.

I am angered when I see people worshiping a FALSE god.

It's one thing to come from a different background, a different culture, and to have a different perspective of what and who God is, but to take the TEACHINGS OF CHRIST and willfully misrepresent them to promote ostracism, hate, and even violence disgusts me like no other sin could possibly do.

Here is the message of Christ, consistent across three different books with three different authors:

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22)

"The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12)

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live." (Luke 10)

It appalls me to see people who are so eager to ignore these words, THE WORDS OF CHRIST. It appalls me to see that they are so eager to overturn these words that they will choose to elevate above them words written centuries before Christ's birth, and words written decades after his death.

Were the actual WORDS OF CHRIST too vague for you? Did they not provide enough detail? Did you feel like they left you too much responsibility? Or did they leave too much freedom for your neighbors? Does the uncertainty scare you so much that you have to either flock to the words of ancient texts which CHRIST explicitly over-turned, or to the words of a self-declared prophet, who never sat and listened to his teachings, because he was too busy hunting and persecuting CHRIST'S DISCIPLES as heretics.

Or does CHRIST'S MESSAGE just not fit into your life? Does CHRIST'S commandment to LOVE THY NEIGHBOR just not fulfill your personal needs to reject and disparage someone? Are THE WORDS OF CHRIST just NOT HATEFUL enough for you?

Man, woman, or child, those who live by the writings of our pagan ancestors and bow to the false teachings of the scourge of Christ's disciples and dismiss THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST - they take GOD'S NAME IN VAIN, when THE SON OF GOD has COMMANDED us to LOVE GOD. They call upon God to punish those THEY deem wicked, when THE SON OF GOD has taught us to LOVE THY NEIGHBOR. They mock the WORD OF GOD by declaring that they still "love" their neighbors, while in the same breaths calling them abominations, retching at their presence, and crying for them to be oppressed.

You claim to speak the word of God, while abandoning THE WORDS OF CHRIST. You are FALSE PROPHETS, who seek to lead God's children - all seven billion of them, down the path of hate and wickedness under the banner of 'the righteous.'

SHAME UPON EVERY ONE OF YOU.

SHAME UPON YOU AND EVERY HEART YOU TURN TO YOUR PATH OF BIGOTRY AND PERSECUTION.

MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOULS and THANK GOD that judgment isn't MINE to make.

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It was tempting to just write "RTFM MFs - AMEN IF YOU AGREE", but instead I decided to fight fire-and-brimstone with fire-and-brimstone. What I immediately learned is that it's alarmingly easy to do. It practically writes itself, and the feeling one experiences when watching readers "like" it is seductive.

Now, to be completely honest, there's no part of that I don't actually believe. I'm not satirizing the beliefs of others to make a point. Yes, I'm a liberal progressive SJW, but I'm also Christian. In fact, I kind of think "Christian" inherently entails "liberal progressive SJW" and shake my head at the millions of people who don't get that.

The real departure from my normal self' in writing that was that ordinarily I wouldn't write or speak in such a way as to presume to speak for God - I generally think God can speak for himself (and if he has something to say, he'll say it, whether you've asked him to or not). In fact, it's part of the reason Rise of Azraea is set in a fantasy universe; an author places himself or herself in a god-like role, and I'm uncomfortable with the implication of assuming that role in a story about the real world (though I'm certainly pushing my comfort zone with my second book, set in Boston ca. 1773).

In my writing, I'd normally rely on mortal tools like reason and facts to accomplish my aims, and leave God out of it. I believe I'm right, but I generally don't believe enough in myself to declare with such certainty that God says I'm right. If he explicitly spoke to me and said, 'Yeah, you're right,' I'd feel differently, but as of yet I've not had God weigh in on any of my internet arguments (other things, yes, but not Facebook fights).

I broke that rule today, and it makes me uneasy, to say the least.

I could probably come up with a justification or rationalization for doing so, but feeling better about myself because I rationalized my rationale would be convoluted and probably tautological.

I could also delete the post, and ask to be forgiven for my hubris, yet I can't quite bring myself to do that. I'm not sure if it's because I'm too prideful to take it back, or if it's because if, in this particular case, my belief in the cause actually outweighs my disbelief in myself.

To the LGBT+ readers out there, contending with the religious-right's rhetoric at home, in the street, on Facebook, and everywhere else, I want to add this:

In reading up on that right-wing dogma, I came across a defense that was being used by a homophobic writer on gotquestions.org. He or she cites the book of John but I'm pretty sure s/he is using it wrong, so I think you all should have it:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).

I think you all should take those words and carry them with you, because I hope that you will remember that, whether you're straight, gay, lesbian, bi, asexual or pansexual, whether you're trans* or cis*, you don't belong to anyone but God. No person or group of people owns you.

The Christian right does not own you, nor does any other religious faction. You don't belong to the Grand Old Party, the Tea Party, or any other political organization. You don't belong to the tax-payers or to the voters - the majority of us are behind you now, but even if we weren't, your rights would not be, and are not ours to hand out as we see fit. Your rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are your GOD-GIVEN rights, and anyone among us who presumes that we should, or even can, take them from you is wrong.  

As one of my favorite Youtubers would say, "Peace." 





James N. McDonald is a "liberal academic" born and raised in Missouri and residing in Tennessee. He holds one degree in history, two degrees in psychology, but loves writing fiction. His first, completed novel, The Rise of Azraea, Book I, is a high fantasy story with elements of comic fantasy and satire targeting present day, real world issues such as economic inequity, and sexual and racial discrimination. It is currently available on Amazon.