http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/Wayfarer/30551 I had the opportunity to watch a very moving movie based on Charles Dickens's &quot;Nicholas Nickleby.&quot;&nbsp; A quick summary is that a boy inherits the responsibility of caring for his family after his fathers death.&nbsp; He must then struggle to protect his family from an evil uncle and the inhuman degradations of a fallen society. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The background itself is representative of the evil, man has created for himself.&nbsp; Victorian England is characterized by inhuman institutions created by greed and sanctified by a warped religiosity shaped by Calvinistic/Puritan heresies.&nbsp; Men, women and children are&nbsp;treated worse than animals and the very air is choked by the foul, blackness of materialism.&nbsp; This is&nbsp;similar to our post modern world were people campaign for the right to destroy human life and&nbsp;dignity under the auspice of freedom of choice and tolerance.&nbsp; Where the atmosphere itself&nbsp;is choked in a smog of self indulgent ideologies. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Even though this tale takes&nbsp;place in a despairing world.&nbsp; Goodness and Light still manage to shine through.&nbsp; Like&nbsp; Mel Gibson's &quot;Passion of Christ&quot;&nbsp; in the midst of the horror God's love peaks through in acts of&nbsp;human kindness and love toward each other.&nbsp; The hero of our saga meets many kindhearted people who are willing to help and eventually&nbsp;bring to ruin&nbsp;all of the machinations of the evil one personified here by the evil uncle. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This&nbsp;is a timeless tale of morality were&nbsp;good over comes evil.&nbsp; Charles Dickens is a classic&nbsp;author known for his deep&nbsp;insight into the human condition.&nbsp; But don't take my word for it you can watch it in it's entirety here: &nbsp;http://www.hulu.com/nicholas-nickleby# &nbsp; I had the opportunity to watch a very moving movie based on Charles Dickens's &quot;Nicholas Nickleby.&quot;&nbsp; A quick summary is that a boy inherits the responsibility of caring for his family after his fathers death.&nbsp; He must then struggle to protect his family from an evil uncle and the inhuman degradations of a fallen society. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The background itself is representative of the evil, man has created for himself.&nbsp; Victorian England is characterized by inhuman institutions created by greed and sanctified by a warped religiosity shaped by Calvinistic/Puritan heresies.&nbsp; Men, women and children are&nbsp;treated worse than animals and the very air is choked by the foul, blackness of materialism.&nbsp; This is&nbsp;similar to our post modern world were people campaign for the right to destroy human life and&nbsp;dignity under the auspice of freedom of choice and tolerance.&nbsp; Where the atmosphere itself&nbsp;is choked in a smog of self indulgent ideologies. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Even though this tale takes&nbsp;place in a despairing world.&nbsp; Goodness and Light still manage to shine through.&nbsp; Like&nbsp; Mel Gibson's &quot;Passion of Christ&quot;&nbsp; in the midst of the horror God's love peaks through in acts of&nbsp;human kindness and love toward each other.&nbsp; The hero of our saga meets many kindhearted people who are willing to help and eventually&nbsp;bring to ruin&nbsp;all of the machinations of the evil one personified here by the evil uncle. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This&nbsp;is a timeless tale of morality were&nbsp;good over comes evil.&nbsp; Charles Dickens is a classic&nbsp;author known for his deep&nbsp;insight into the human condition.&nbsp; But don't take my word for it you can watch it in it's entirety here: &nbsp;http://www.hulu.com/nicholas-nickleby# &nbsp; en-us <p>Way, did you write that summary?</p> <p>If you did, nice job!&nbsp; :)</p> <p>I appreciate the characterization of Victorian England.&nbsp; Warped religiosity does more harm to the spiritual path that it masquerades as, than any direct attacks can possibly do.</p> <p>If believers of each path hope to inspire people to see its holiness, warped religiosity will never bring&nbsp;that about.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/Wayfarer/30551/#c_278780 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/Wayfarer/30551/#c_278780 <p>Way, did you write that summary?</p> <p>If you did, nice job!&nbsp; :)</p> <p>I appreciate the characterization of Victorian England.&nbsp; Warped religiosity does more harm to the spiritual path that it masquerades as, than any direct attacks can possibly do.</p> <p>If believers of each path hope to inspire people to see its holiness, warped religiosity will never bring&nbsp;that about.</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium">Thank you Apollo.&nbsp; Some of those&nbsp;English classes are finally beginning to&nbsp;pay off.&nbsp; Warped religiosity can come in many&nbsp;forms.&nbsp; Many of the criticisms of the&nbsp;Christian Faith reflect ignorance and stereotyping&nbsp;of what exactly Christianity is.&nbsp; Many people in the US have only been&nbsp;exposed to the Roman Catholic/Protestant/Evangelical sects that have grown far from the traditional teachings that has been preserved&nbsp;in the Orthodox&nbsp;Church.&nbsp; The more I study the Orthodox Faith the more I am corrected of my own ignorance of what true spirituality actually is.&nbsp; The mind set of Patriastic Christianity is quite alien to&nbsp;the modern secularized mind, that is the norm of modern society even in the churches.&nbsp; That is why&nbsp;there is such a hunger for spirituality, but be careful to be truly spiritual it means to die to yourself so that the likeness of God can blossom forth within you.&nbsp; With out&nbsp;the real grace of God it is impossible to do this yourself and risk falling into&nbsp;dead ends and delusions.</span>&nbsp;</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/Wayfarer/30551/#c_278795 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/Wayfarer/30551/#c_278795 <p><span style="font-size: medium">Thank you Apollo.&nbsp; Some of those&nbsp;English classes are finally beginning to&nbsp;pay off.&nbsp; Warped religiosity can come in many&nbsp;forms.&nbsp; Many of the criticisms of the&nbsp;Christian Faith reflect ignorance and stereotyping&nbsp;of what exactly Christianity is.&nbsp; Many people in the US have only been&nbsp;exposed to the Roman Catholic/Protestant/Evangelical sects that have grown far from the traditional teachings that has been preserved&nbsp;in the Orthodox&nbsp;Church.&nbsp; The more I study the Orthodox Faith the more I am corrected of my own ignorance of what true spirituality actually is.&nbsp; The mind set of Patriastic Christianity is quite alien to&nbsp;the modern secularized mind, that is the norm of modern society even in the churches.&nbsp; That is why&nbsp;there is such a hunger for spirituality, but be careful to be truly spiritual it means to die to yourself so that the likeness of God can blossom forth within you.&nbsp; With out&nbsp;the real grace of God it is impossible to do this yourself and risk falling into&nbsp;dead ends and delusions.</span>&nbsp;</p>