Detective Carter, where are you? |
You thought I was going to post a picture of Robin Williams, didn't you. This post is about Robin Williams, but I'm going to start with someone who really made me laugh; Chris Tucker.
I first discovered Chris in The Fifth Element, my very favorite SciFi flic. He's starred in some of my favorite movies besides The Fifth Element (all of the Rush Hour franchise) but hasn't done a lot of work because he doesn't agree with the parts he's been offered. Chris is a born-again Christian and does not want to play a part that compromises his Christian beliefs. Chris has huge financial difficulties ($12 million tax debt) and is paying it off and Chris knows he can't overcome this issue by himself. He leans on God to help him. You can't believe how much I admire that.
There's actually several Christian celebrities in Hollywood that have the guts to say "No" when offered a roll that compromises their Christian morals. Probably the most well known Christian in Hollywood, Chuck Norris, also refuses to compromise his morals. But to many the most attractive temptation is fame and adulation, and they'll do anything to reach it.
As the Preacher in Ecclesiastes warns us: fame, fortune, wisdom, pleasures of every sort are just trying to grab the wind if we exclude God from our lives. For Robin Williams his Christianity was little more than a punchline, at least in public. When asked by by James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio “If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say at the pearly gates?” Robin made a couple of jokes, I'll give him that, he's a comedian, then he got serious and said "If heaven exists..." and cracked another joke. Unfortunately Robin Williams trained himself that God is a punchline, not a lifeline.
A higher power was guiding Robin for years, and it wasn't God. Robin described what happens to him on stage to James Kaplan in US Weekly, January 1999 (page 53)
“Yeah! Literally, it's like possession ‑ all of a sudden you're in, and because it's in front of a live audience, you just get this energy that just starts going…But there's also that thing ‑ it is possession. In the old days you'd be burned for it…But there is something empowering about it. I mean, it is a place where you are totally ‑ it is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where you really can become this other force. Maybe that's why I don't need to play evil characters [in movies], 'cause sometimes onstage you can cross that line and come back. Clubs are a weird kind of petri dish environment. I mean, that's where people can get as dark as they can in comedy ‑ in the name of comedy, be talking about outrageous stuff and somehow come out the other side. I mean, that's one place where you really want to push it”
Here is Robin Williams telling the world that he was being possessed, becoming "this other force" and he's not alone to describe being posessed. Jimi Hendrix, Alanis Morissette, Carlos Santana, Claire Danes, Denzel Waashington, all know that their talents come from something that is not themselves. They imply that they are channeling "a muse" while other entertainers are more honest about it:
“I can’t explain it to you man. I go through my Rain Man, and I just start mumbling. I got possessed by the spirits. My soul is possessed by devils. - Jay-Z
“I’ve got many, many demons that affect me on many, many levels. A few years ago, I was convinced of that – I thought I truly was possessed by the devil. I remember sitting through the Exorcist a dozen times, saying to myself, ‘Yeah, I can relate to that. I really wish I knew why I’ve done some of the things I’ve done over the years. I don’t know if I’m a medium for some outside source. Whatever it is, frankly, I hope it’s not what I think it is - Satan.”” - Ozzy Osbourne
There's so many more entertainers that use terms like "channeling spirits" and calling their possessors "a muse" but sadly it's all the same thing, if you're filled by an entity and it's not the Holy Spirit, it's always a demon. Even the worlds most famous satanic authority Anton LaVey (founder of the Church of Satan) admits there's no other choice available:
Good article. Thanks for sharing this.
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