The Prince of Darkness and the Orange Messiah

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” I Samuel 16:7

 

Growing up in the white Evangelical subculture, I was inculcated with a lot of fearmongering and moral cautionary tales. 

 

“If you reject Jesus and Christianity, you will become like _______”

 

Insert bogeyman in the space provided. In retrospect, these cautions were a mixed bag, with some proving to be valid, and others….not as much. 

 

During the 1980s, I remember two people being particularly popular as bogeymen, the ones that our parents and their peers most feared and loathed:

 

Ozzy Osbourne

 

And….

 

Donald Trump

 

That’s right, the Prince of Darkness, and the Orange Messiah. 

 

“You had better believe in Jesus and live as a Christian, or you will become like them” they told us. That’s how atheists turned out. They were the epitome of bad, evil, ungodly people. 

 

Ironically, both of them ended up on reality television, which revealed a lot about the American people, for better and worse. 

 

In retrospect, now that Ozzy has passed on, and Don the Con slips ever further into paranoia and dementia, we can perhaps reevaluate both men, and also take a look at the fruit which Evangelicalism has wrought. 

 

***

 

The Prince of Darkness

 

It is kind of hard to believe, being a Gen Xer, that Ozzy and Black Sabbath actually started in the late 1960s, when the Beatles and Beach Boys were still cranking out the hits, and Simon and Garfunkel were all over the radio. 

 

The raw sound of Metal must have come as a shock, as did the band’s aesthetic, so different from the hippy “peace love and weed” vibe. Black Sabbath was angry, loud, and, well, dark. Surely they were of the Devil, right?

 

That’s definitely what we were taught as kids. 

 

It didn’t help, of course, that Ozzy, like so many rock stars now and then, struggled with addiction to alcohol and drugs. Not that he was the only one, of course - many “cleaner” artists throughout history have had the same issues. In fact, “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” is nothing more or less than the latest version of “wine, women, and song,” which surely dates back to when humans (or more likely their ancestors) discovered mind-altering substances like ethanol, and invented music. 

 

Also, that bat incident, which, believe it or not, led to Bakersfield enacting an ordinance… 

 

My own relationship with music as a child was complicated. On the one hand, I loved and continue to love Classical. The fact that I get to play the greatest music ever written and get paid (not that much, but still…) to do so is one of the most pleasant surprises about how my life turned out. 

 

But also, my parents…well, mostly my mom…had issues with secular music, and eventually with all music that was influenced by genres created by black people. (Yes, that is every bit as racist as it sounds. I need to do a whole post on that someday.) 

 

So, I really didn’t grow up with the music of my generation. My dad and I cheated when my mom wasn’t looking, and listened to oldies, which back then was the 1950s and 60s. (KRTH back in the day was great…) 

 

It really wasn’t until I moved out, and finally didn’t have to kow tow to my mother anymore, that I was free to start exploring modern popular music. It has been an incredible journey, to say the least. 

 

I came to Ozzy a bit later, and found that pretty much everything I had been taught about him wasn’t exactly true. 

 

Yes, he was an addict. And yes, that led to predictably erratic behavior and his eventual firing from Black Sabbath. 

 

But, as I have come to realize through experience both personal and professional, addiction really isn’t primarily a moral failing, but a sadly predictable response to trauma and pain. It is a disease of humanity, and strongly correlated to other social issues. 

 

Ozzy grew up poor in a post-industrial town in Britain. He was sexually abused by bullies as a child, attempted suicide multiple times, and did a stint in prison for a robbery. That he ended up self-medicating for his trauma is unsurprising. 

 

Most likely, Ozzy never completely overcame his demons. Few if any of us do. Trauma leaves scars that we work around and adapt to, but they never fully heal. But eventually, he seems to have found some degree of peace. 

 

For younger people, Ozzy may be more familiar from his reality TV show, which centered on him and his quirky, somewhat dysfunctional, yet loveable family. As my brother put it, the Osbournes are British white trash. That’s not an insult, but a description. For those of us who grew up in working class neighborhoods, we can still smell the stale secondhand smoke. Just saying. 

 

Unlike so many rock stars, Ozzy didn’t rip through an endless procession of women. He married Sharon fairly young, and she stuck with him through his darkest days all the way through to his death. 

 

While his family had its share of difficulties - again, generational trauma sucks - they seem to have been loving and close until the end. 

 

I also have a friend and colleague who spent some time with him back in the day, and confirmed what many others have said about him: he was a genuinely nice guy who treated everyone well. This appears to have been his pattern, never forgetting his working-class roots.

 

So, strike one against those who thought he was in league with the devil. He had a long marriage, loved his wife and kids, was nice to people, and struggled with addiction. We all know people like that, right? We are probably related to them. 

 

Really, though, the biggest revelation was his music. Where were the evil anti-Christian lyrics? Was it lyrics like this, from “War Pigs”?

 

Generals gathered in their masses

Just like witches at black masses

Evil minds that plot destruction

Sorcerer of death's construction

 

In the fields, the bodies burning

As the war machine keeps turning

Death and hatred to mankind

Poisoning their brainwashed minds

 

Politicians hide themselves away

They only started the war

Why should they go out to fight?

They leave that role to the poor, yeah

 

Time will tell on their power minds

Making war just for fun

Treating people just like pawns in chess

Wait 'til their judgement day comes, yeah

 

Now in darkness, world stops turning

Ashes where their bodies burning

No more war pigs have the power

Hand of God has struck the hour

Day of judgement, God is calling

 

On their knees, the war pigs crawling

Begging mercy for their sins

Satan laughing, spreads his wings

Oh, Lord, yeah

 

If THAT is an example of Satanic lyrics, well….I hate to think what Evangelicals thought about Jesus Christ. (Don’t think too hard about that…it will depress you.)

 

Or maybe they were thinking of “After Forever”? 

 

Have you ever thought about your soul can it be saved?

Or perhaps you think that when you're dead you just stay in your grave

Is God just a thought within your head or is he a part of you?

Is Christ just a name that you read in a book when you were in school?

 

When you think about death do you lose your breath or do you keep your cool?

Would you like to see the Pope on the end of a rope do you think he's a fool?

Well I have seen the truth, yes I've seen the light and I've changed my ways

And I'll be prepared when you're lonely and scared at the end of our days

 

Could it be you're afraid of what your friends might say

If they knew you believe in God above?

They should realize before they criticize

That God is the only way to love

 

Is your mind so small that you have to fall

In with the pack wherever they run

Will you still sneer when death is near

And say they may as well worship the sun?

 

I think it was true it was people like you that crucified Christ

I think it is sad the opinion you had was the only one voiced

Will you be so sure when your day is near, say you don't believe?

You had the chance but you turned it down, now you can't retrieve

 

Perhaps you'll think before you say that God is dead and gone

Open your eyes, just realize that he's the one

The only one who can save you now from all this sin and hate

Or will you still jeer at all you hear, yes I think it's too late

 

Is that something from the Evangelical Apologetics Industrial Complex? You say that is actually a Black Sabbath song? Next thing you will be claiming that the band’s name came from a Cheesy Boris Karloff movie….

 

Okay, so maybe the Black Sabbath stuff wasn’t too bad. Maybe it was Ozzy’s solo career? What was that big hit, “Crazy Train,” right? How does that one go?

 

Crazy, but that's how it goes

Millions of people living as foes

Maybe it's not too late

To learn how to love and forget how to hate

 

Mental wounds not healing

Life's a bitter shame

I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

 

I've listened to preachers, I've listened to fools

I've watched all the dropouts, who make their own rules

One person conditioned to rule and control

The media sells it and you live the role

 

Mental wounds still screaming

Driving me insane

I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

 

I know that things are going wrong for me

You gotta listen to my words, yeah, yeah

Heirs of a cold war, that's what we've become

Inheriting troubles, I'm mentally numb

 

Crazy, I just cannot bear

I'm living with something that just isn't fair

 

Mental wounds not healing

Who and what's to blame?

I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

I'm going off the rails on a crazy train

 

Surely all that talk of love and not hate is of the devil, as well as all that talk about the pain of living in a world filled with lies and death. That’s real emotion and and an indictment of our fucked-up world. More like the old prophets than anything. 

 

Maybe we could go with “Mama I’m Coming Home,” his love song to his wife. Dang all these devilish lyrics!

 

Times have changed and times are strange

Here I come, but I ain't the same

Mama, I'm coming home

Time's gone by, it seems to be

You could have been a better friend to me

Mama, I'm coming home

 

You took me in and you drove me out

Yeah, you had me hypnotized, yeah

Lost and found and turned around

By the fire in your eyes

 

You made me cry, you told me lies

But I can't stand to say goodbye

Mama, I'm coming home

I could be right, I could be wrong

It hurts so bad, it's been so long

Mama, I'm coming home

 

Selfish love, yeah, we're both alone

The ride before the fall, yeah

But I'm gonna take this heart of stone

I've just got to have it all

 

I've seen your face a hundred times

Every day we've been apart

I don't care about the sunshine, yeah

'Cause Mama, Mama, I'm coming home

I'm coming home

 

You took me in and you drove me out

Yeah, you had me hypnotized, yeah

Lost and found and turned around

By the fire in your eyes

 

I've seen your face a thousand times

Every day we've been apart

I don't care about the sunshine, yeah

'Cause Mama, Mama, I'm coming home

 

Or maybe my favorite Ozzy song, “Road to Nowhere.” 

 

I was looking back on my life

And all the things I've done to me

I'm still looking for the answers

I'm still searching for the key

 

The wreckage of my past keeps haunting me

It just won't leave me alone

 

I still find it all a mystery

Could it be a dream?

The road to nowhere leads to me

 

Through all the happiness and sorrow

I guess I'd do it all again

Live for today and not tomorrow

It's still the road that never ends

 

The wreckage of my past keeps haunting me

It just won't leave me alone

 

I still find it all a mystery

Could it be a dream?

The road to nowhere leads to me

 

Ah-ah, ah-ah

The road to nowhere's gonna pass me by

Ah-ah, ah-ah

I hope we never have to say goodbye

I never wanna live without you, yeah

 

The wreckage of my past keeps haunting me

It just won't leave me alone

 

I still find it all a mystery

Could it be a dream?

The road to nowhere leads to me

 

The road to nowhere leads to me

The road to nowhere leads to me

You got, you got, you got to lead to me

The road to nowhere leads to me

You got, you got, you got to lead to me

You got, you got, you got to lead to me

Oh, the road to nowhere

 

That’s not evil, it’s some honest introspection, self awareness, and bittersweet yet hopeful. 

 

Even the songs that gave Ozzy his “evil” reputation - think “Black Sabbath,” or “N.I.B.” - read not as satanic but as haunted confessions of a man drawn to his own inner demons. They are also macabre art - something that has always existed, and was fairly popular in the Christian Europe of the Middle Ages.

 

In fact, all of these songs are far more mild than the stuff written by priests in the Middle Ages. 

 

Seriously, nobody is worse at understanding poetry, metaphor, myth, and parable than white Evangelicals. No wonder most “Christian” music and art are so unsubtle and derivative. 

 

Discovering Ozzy as an adult was a great experience. Between the musical creativity, and the raw, introspective lyrics, there was a lot going on here that Evangelicals completely missed. 

 

What they didn’t miss, however, was that Ozzy was indeed undermining their values - not the ones they said they held to, but the ones they actually had. He undermined their commitment to the military industrial complex. He exposed their hypocrisy. He outright said that their politics were of the devil. He exposed their hate and fearmongering and obsession with “purity.”

 

And he was so fucking right. 

 

I also feel that, as Evangelicals so often do, they mistake aesthetics for substance. Ozzy had weird makeup, a dark look, a persona, a stage character. Or, as we say these days, he was cosplaying. Beneath the dark exterior, though, was a sensitive heart who sang thoughtful lyrics. 

 

Remember the style versus substance thing, though, because I will mention it again. 

 

Ozzy passed on recently. As his wife said in a press statement: 

 

"He was with his family and surrounded by love.”

 

That’s a good way to go. I really hope that is how it goes for me. Although it is entirely probable that I will keel over of a heart attack suddenly - it is the family way. But even so, if I died tomorrow, I would know that I was surrounded by love. 

 

***

 

The Orange Messiah

 

It is strange to try to explain to my own kids these days how different their grandparents are from who they were when I was a kid. 

 

And to explain that in the 1980s, Donald Trump wasn’t the Orange Messiah that millions of white Evangelicals worship today. They didn’t love him back then - they hated him.

 

He was a cautionary tale, a warning to children as to what atheism made you. A monster. 

 

A man who cheated on and divorced his wives. 

 

A man who sexually assaulted women and young girls and got away with it because he was rich and powerful. 

 

A man who consorted with a disgraced lawyer who was disbarred for unethical behavior. And then died of AIDS because he was an evil homosexual. And who previously worked for Joseph McCarthy. (Who, believe it or not, wasn’t a hero to Evangelicals back then. Now? A different story.) 

 

A man who bragged about the fact that he didn’t spend time with his own children. 

 

A man who used bankruptcy to cheat his creditors and those who did work for him. 

 

A man everyone knew had raped, and had paid for abortions for his mistresses. 

 

A man who was a notorious racist. 

 

In contrast to Ozzy’s humble roots, Trump was born rich, and used his utter lack of morality and conscience to bully and abuse his way into even more money. 

 

Yes, THIS is who you became if you left the religion and became an atheist.

 

And yet….

 

Fast forward to 2016, and a higher percentage of Evangelicals voted for him than any presidential candidate in history. 

 

What the hell happened? 

 

I could write a post or even a series on how Evangelicals outsourced their morality to Fox News and other right wing media. I could write about how the Religious Right co-opted the faith and stoked racial anxieties to build a political movement. I could write (and probably will) about how Evangelicalism isn’t really a religion, but a social and political identity, and that identification with the tribe is far more important than any doctrine could ever be. And thus how Evangelicals followed the Republican Party like the rats followed the Pied Piper, right out of Christianity and into the cesspit of the Klan. 

 

Those can wait for another post. 

 

But the fact of the matter is that, by 2016, all Donald Trump had to do to become the Orange Messiah, the new god of white Evangelicals, was to put an (R) after his name and say a bunch of racist shit. That’s all it took. 

 

And us children of the 80s are left here wondering what the hell happened.

 

The Orange Messiah’s message turned out to be exactly the opposite of Ozzy’s too. Where Ozzy was singing about rejecting hate and embracing love, Trump preaches hate. Where Ozzy was warning about the futility of war, Trump preaches belligerence and bullying on the international stage. Where Ozzy engaged in self-examination, introspection, and acknowledged his demons, Trump refuses to admit errors or flaws. And expects the United States to become like him. 

 

And, of course, where Ozzy left behind a legacy of being kind to people, Trump will be remembered as a jerk, a bully, an asshole, who treated everyone like shit. 

 

And, make no mistake, as his life continues to wind down, he will not be surrounded by love. His wife clearly hates his guts. His kids will be circling like vultures, eager to grab what they can of his money and his brand. 

 

There will also be millions of us raising a glass to celebrate his demise. The world will be a far better place with him dead. He brought nothing whatsoever of value to the world, preferring to abuse and harm everyone he could. 

 

I can think of no worse fate than dying like that. Imagine exiting life having spent one’s entire life doing evil and harming others. 

 

The saddest thing to me is that Evangelicals like my parents, who freaked out about various “secular” figures, got this one so badly wrong. 

 

It wasn’t Ozzy, the “Prince of Darkness,” who was the threat. It was the Orange Messiah. 

 

It wasn’t a guy with silly makeup singing about the military-industrial complex and his struggle with the dark side who was the embodiment of evil. 

 

It was the guy who worshiped money and power, who acted without morality, who abused those lower than him in society, who treated women as disposable trash, who bragged about his own greed and prejudice and criminal behavior. 

 

Who knew?

 

Okay, anyone who actually took the teachings of Christ and the rest of scripture seriously. 

 

I mean, really. It isn’t as if the sort of person who was evil was a mystery - it was the greedy, unethical, misogynistic braggarts that Proverbs warned about constantly. 

 

This is the root of my puzzlement, honestly. I guess when I was taught to follow Christ and read my Bible, and take its teachings seriously, I missed the unspoken core of the religion? I should have realized that “vote Republican” was the 11th Commandment? 

 

No wonder I feel lied to. 

 

And no wonder I do not trust Evangelicals (or my parents) to be able to accurately assess character. They get it wrong most of the time. 

 

I mentioned earlier that Evangelicals generally mistake aesthetics for substance. In the case of Trump, this is incredibly apparent. He has no substance. What he has is hate, bigotry, and narcissism. He is not actually competent at anything other than manipulating stupid, bigoted people into voting for him and sending him money. The only job he was ever competent at was reality television, and we all know how fake that is. Other people made him look competent. But he could do the aesthetics of competence. Cosplay. 

 

And again, a minimal knowledge of the Bible would serve well here. “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks to the heart.” “Whitewashed tombs who look pretty on the outside but inside are filled with dead men’s bones.” 

 

An application of these words of wisdom would have revealed that the Prince of Darkness looked “scary” but was really all about shining an honest light on the darkness in society and the human psyche. And it would have revealed that beneath the veneer of wealth and privilege, the Orange Messiah is full of nothing but evil. Elementary Christianity 101. 

 

I’ll end with a thought about the end of life, and the fruit of our actions. When Ozzy passed on, I was surprised at the outpouring of positive stories about him, and the number of people in my life who were positively affected by Ozzy and his music. It was a wider range of ages, beliefs, skin colors, and genders than I would have assumed. No, he wasn’t perfect, but his legacy - the fruit of his life - was a blessing to many. And he died surrounded by love. 

 

The Orange Messiah will instead leave a legacy of hate, of division, of setting Americans against other Americans that he dislikes - people of color, women, LGBTQ people, disabled people, ill people. He will have presided over a massive transfer of wealth to the obscenely rich at the expense of the rest of us. Millions will hate him forever, and his historical legacy will be a byword. Even those who have worshiped him will find themselves worse off in the end. A god who fed the worst in human nature will leave behind hearts hardened toward others, filled with fear and hate. And many of them will, like my parents, have severed relationships that could have benefitted them. The fruit is toxic. 

 

I cannot guarantee or control my future, but I do hope that the legacy I leave behind will be one of love, that I will be missed, and that I will die surrounded by love. 

 

I’ll end with Ozzy’s own sendoff song: 

 

Voices, a thousand, thousand voices

Whispering, the time has passed for choices

Golden days are passing over, yeah

I can't seem to see you baby

 

Although my eyes are open wide

But I know I'll see you once more

When I see you, I'll see you on the other side

Yes, I'll see you, I'll see you on the other side

 

Leaving, I hate to see you cry

Grieving, I hate to say good-bye

Dust and ash forever, yeah

Though I know we must be parted

 

As sure as stars are in the sky

I'm gonna see when it comes to glory

And I'll see you, I'll see you on the other side

Yes, I'll see you, I'll see you on the other side

 

Never thought I'd feel like this

Strange to be alone, yeah

But we'll be together

Carved in stone, carved in stone, carved in stone

 

Hold me, hold me tight I'm falling

Far away, distant voices calling

I'm so cold, I need you darling, yeah

I was down, but now I'm flying

Straight across the great divide

 

I know you're crying, but I'll stop you crying

When I see you, I see you on the other side

Yes, I'll see you, see you on the other side.

I'm gonna see you, see you on the other side

 

God knows I'll see you, see you on the other side, yeah

I'll see you, see you on the other side

I'm gonna see you, see you on the other side

 

God knows I'll see you, see you on the other side

I want to see you, yeah, yeah, yeah, see you on the other side

 

God knows I'll see you, see you on the other side

I'm gonna see you, see you on the other side