Thank Grog It’s Firday!
I’m writing this a bit early as we have my Mom’s service Saturday, and have a lot to do to prepare. So, I started doing notes on this, as the Clash of Creeds event was winding down.
I loved this event. I thought it was one of the best of the year, until…
This is where I wish I could cue the “Dun, Dun, Dunnnn” music that always plays when they reveal the villain in a cartoon. Three notes…that almost always signify dread. And for me, the weird, almost lost dialogue at the end of this event came far to close to real life events that have blown up over the last 10 days.
I am going to find it. Because I really need to use it to make my points. I mean, wouldn’t it be great if we had a warning when we are doing something stupid in life, that we either didn’t see coming, or we ignored the warning signs?
In so many cases, everything seems OK, until…
I found one! Now…where were we?
That’s right… I LOVED THIS EVENT, UNTIL…
…until the bit with Herod came in. Sorry. But, King Herod is one of the worst villains of Christianity, and that is saying a lot! There are so many bad guys in the Judeo Christian history and bible…some of whom are far from being just myths, or metaphoric beings (like the poor maligned snake of the Garden of Eden, or Lott’s “would you like more salt with that?” wife).
No. The worst part about King Herod, besides the whole killing, and enslaving bit, was his “pass the buck/blame” when he had the chance to do the right thing.
Let’s face it, there are loads of leaders in history who are best known for doing the right thing, when things are tough, even in the face of public scrutiny. In fact, we almost always just forget about the kinds of leaders who do things only in their own best interests, and create conflicts, mayhem and ruin. Unless they are REALLY bad guys…Like King Herod.
But, let’s remember…poor old King Herod is a confusing fellow, in that there were more than one of them, and none of them were actually king of anything.
According to the WIKI; Herod Antipater (Greek: Ἡρῴδης Ἀντίπατρος, Hērǭdēs Antipatros; born before 20 BC – died after 39 AD), known by the nickname Antipas, was a 1st-century ruler of Galilee and Perea, who bore the title of tetrarch (“ruler of a quarter”) and is referred to as both “Herod the Tetrarch” and “King Herod” in the New Testament, although he never held the title of king. He is widely known today for accounts in the New Testament of his role in events that led to the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. (Matthew 14:1–12)
After being recognized by Augustus upon the death of his father, Herod the Great (c. 4 BC/AD 1), and subsequently by his brother, the ethnarch Herod Archelaus, Antipas officially ruled Galilee and Perea as a client state of the Roman Empire.
So right away, we get that Herod had a couple of roadblocks to happiness. First, his name was Antipater. Holyfreakinshirt! Who names their kid Antipater??
Next, his Dad was “The Great.” Now we know from modern history that anyone with a “Great” dad, (even if people say “great” sarcastically because he is actually a jerk) knows that he will likely be held to a very high and difficult standard. He was most likely taught that “Only Winners Count,” and that anyone who didn’t agree was a “Loser.” Poor Herod Antipater.
He also had an older brother who got to rule before him, who was apparently universally liked, and did a good job, until he died, but may have suffered by telling his Dad to “pound sand,” and that he didn’t want to be in the family business, and so the little brother got his chance at leading.
This is of course, is all rumor.
What we do know is that Herod Anitpater did some bad stuff. But, one of them wasn’t doing what the writers said he did.
They imply something dastardly when he makes his entrance into the game…
And it doesn’t get any better as the game progresses…
So it was Herod who decried that all first born males be executed???
Nope. Fake News. Didn’t happen. In fact, it was GOD who did that, as one of the plagues of Egypt. And is actually celebrated as part of “Passover.”
In the Bible, it says, “That night, God sent the angel of death to kill the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. God told Moses to order the Israelite families to sacrifice a lamb and smear the blood on the door of their houses. In this way the angel would know to ‘pass over’ the houses of the Israelites.”
So…the writers, like so many other “facts” on the internet, just spun a convenient story to make you dislike Herod. Which really shouldn’t have been that hard, if they just told the real story…as he did have John the Baptist killed, and passed the buck back to Pontius Pilot, when he had the chance to spare Jesus.
So, while I had a very good reason not to want to buy Herod (the whole bit about being culpable in the killing of Christ bit), it was actually because the writers were so lazy as to mix up who actually killed the babies (God). Who needs that kind of confusion roaming around town????
And besides. Once Marge and her Sexy Santa outfit showed up, I couldn’t concentrate on what the idiot men were doing in the game anyway. 
Mmmmmmm….Marge.
So let’s wrap this up.
Nobody likes leaders who foment bad actions, pass the buck, and then demand that they be called King, when in fact they are not. History is full of guys like that, and it never ends up well for them. So, no…I didn’t want Herod running around town, spewing Fake News from the writers. The decision on who to believe was easy…and once the Movementarians lost the battle to a woman in a Sexy Santa Suit, all was right with the world.
Oh…that real life were so easy.
To Recap…
Herod wasn’t a King.
Herod didn’t order babies killed.
Herod in real life was a buck-passer who was plagued by trying to be “Great” even though he didn’t have the tools or smarts to do so.
Sex sells…and diverts attention away from bigger problems. Ask the Kardashians.
Let’s see where next week takes us. Will it be an entirely new event, with a chance to forget Herod altogether? Let’s hope so.
UPDATE ON HEROD——as with many of our worst leaders, it appears there is a lot of conflicting info on their dastardly deeds. As far as Herod goes…I concede that there are clearly too many of them…and they may or may not have committed infanticide.
I add this article as further proof of the confusion…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/herod.shtmlhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/herod.shtml
But in all fairness, actual historians were few and far between. Even the primary Gospels of the Bible were written 2nd and 3rd hand…and not actually “published” hundreds of years after the fact. So…yeah…the Simpsons writers messing around with history again, isn’t surprising.