Come on Down and Meet Your Maker

I was visiting the "A Purple State of Mind" website to find information about this film about two ex-college roommates reuniting 25 years later to discuss issues and friendship. While in college one was entering into a life of faith and one was just leaving it behind. Craig Detweiler is now a filmmaker and professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and John Marks is now a journalist, author and former 60 Minutes producer. The film and friendship sounds interesting and although I haven't seen the movie, I would like to view it.

In John's blog I came across an interview he had with Steven King. I am not a Steven King fan but I did read "The Stand" and this interview "Steven King's God Trip" sounded interesting. So I read the article and listened to the audio interview. Now it has been over 20 years since I have read the book, but I remember bits of its apocalyptic nature with the plague and also the elements of faith. Here is a snippet of the interview between John Marks and Steven King:

In the introduction to the expanded edition of "The Stand," you also called the novel a work of "dark Christianity." What did you mean by that?

I was raised Christian, and I was raised to believe in the idea of the Antichrist. My wife said that -- she was raised a Catholic -- the attitude of the Catholic Church is, give them to me when they're young, and they'll be mine forever. It isn't really true. A lot of us grow up and we grow out of the literal interpretation that we get when we're children, but we bear the scars all our life. Whether they're scars of beauty or scars of ugliness, it's pretty much in the eye of the beholder. I'm interested in the concepts. I'm particularly interested in the idea that in the New Testament, you're suggesting a moral code that's actually enlightened. Basically what Christ preached: get along with your neighbor and give everything away and follow me. So we're talking pretty much about communism or socialism, all the things that the good Christian Republicans in the House of Representatives today are railing about in light of this bailout bill. Of course, Christ never preached give away everything to Wall Street, so they might have a point.

I was able to use all those things in "The Stand." It's an effort to say, let's give God his due here. Too often, in novels that are speculative, God is a kind of kryptonite, and that's about all that it is, and it goes back to Dracula, where someone dumps a crucifix in Count Dracula's face, and he pulls away and runs back into his house. That's not religion. That's some kind of juju, like a talisman. I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to explore what that means to be able to rise above adversity by faith, because it's something most of us do every day. We may not call it Christianity. I wanted to do that. I wanted it to be a God trip.

It has been many years since I read The Stand and I don't believe I will take the time to read it again. I first read the book because I enjoyed the Welsh group "The Alarm". One of the first songs I had heard of theirs was called "The Stand". I liked it and the lyrics intrigued me. When I found they were based on Steven King's book I had to read it. Here is the old video of Mike Peters and The Alarm singing The Stand.

The Stand

Oh I have been out searching with the black book in my hand
And I've looked between the lines that lie on the pages that I tread
I met the walking dude,religious, in his worn down cowboy boots
He walked liked no man on earth
I swear he had no name (had no name)
I swear he had no name

Come on down & meet your maker
Come on down & make the stand
Come on down, come on down,
Come on down & make the stand.

As I crawled beneath the searchlights
Looking through the floorboards of this life
I met Doctor Strangelove's cousin
He bore the marks of time
"Hey! Trashcan where you going boy
Your eyes are feet apart
Is that the end you're carrying Shall I play the funeral march" (play the march)
"Play the funeral march"

Come on down & meet your maker
Come on down & make the stand
Come on down, come on down,
Come on down & we'll make the stand.

Come on down & meet your maker
Come on down & make the stand
Come on down, come on down,
Come on down, we'll make the stand.

When I looked out the window
On the hardship that had struck I saw the seven phials open
The plague claimed man and son
Four men at a grave in silence With hats bowed down in grace
A simple wooden cross,
It had no epitaph engraved (it had no)
It had no epitaph engraved.

Come on down & meet your maker
Come on down & make the stand
Come on down, come on down,
Come on and make the stand

Come on down & meet your maker
Come on down & make the stand
Come on down, come on down,
Come on down, & we'll make the stand.

I always thought that the chorus would make a cool alter call for Billy Graham.