White people who engage in crass, public, performative acts make themselves look foolish — and it’s not what black people want Two weekends ago, I was browsing Facebook — terrible habit; don’t recommend — when I saw a post highlighting The Babylon Bee’s article titled, “Chick-Fil-A Now Open On Sunday But Only For Black People.” I…
Last month, Jon Steingard, lead vocalist for the Christian rock band Hawk Nelson, revealed that he no longer believes in God. His revelation is the latest in a long line of well-known individuals who have publicly walked away from the Christian faith. Not to mention the even longer line of those raised in the Church…
On the strange “either/or”-ism in the wake of George Floyd’s murder It’s been over a week since George Floyd was senselessly killed by (now former) Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Despite the lockdown and social distancing measures invariably enforced around the globe, protests sprang up in Floyd’s community and in over 100 cities worldwide. Riots, looting, and vandalism also…
Published in Speculative Faith on May 20, 2020. It’s almost a miracle that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is returning for a seventh season on May 27. A little over a year after The Avengers brought together “Earth’s mightiest heroes” in 2012, cementing the launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that had begun in 2008, this little show began…
![Screenshot from Purity Ring's lyric video for "i like the devil" [YouTube]](http://danielwhyteiv.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/i-like-the-devil.jpg)
The song skillfully expresses the complex demonization and deification of womanhood throughout history If there were ever a musical act to embody the adjective of rebel, Purity Ring is that act. Starting in 2012, with debut album Shrines, vocalist Megan James has delivered dense, mysterious, beautifully threatening lyrics, and producer Corin Roddick has turned the idea of…
WOMB delivers a complex spiritual reflection for today’s distant world The electro-pop band, Purity Ring, might not be a household name, partly because the two-member act’s overwhelming sound and often gory lyrics don’t subscribe to the modern majority’s palette of musical taste. But, after a five-year hiatus since their sophomore album Another Eternity, writer/vocalist Megan James and…
What IT: Chapter Two Teaches Us About Defeating the Devil SPOILER WARNING: This article contains spoilers from IT: Chapter Two. Read at your own risk. IT: Chapter Two finds seven childhood friends reuniting after 27 years to face off against an enemy that has returned to terrorize their hometown. The film, while offering up plenty…
This article was published in Church Leaders on July 10, 2019. Last month, actress and singer Selena Gomez confessed that she is “scared” by what she sees as the exposure of young girls and boys on Instagram and other social media platforms. Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, she said, “for my generation, specifically, social…
This article was published in Fathom Magazine on April 22, 2019.
This article was published at Speculative Faith on January 25, 2019. What Gotham needs is not a dark knight, but a hero who operates by a different code. Fox’s Batman origin series, Gotham, has returned for its fifth and final season. The show features a bevy of proto-villains from the future Dark Knight’s Rogues Gallery—Poison…