Review of Let The Right One In

The movie, Let The Right One In, starts with a 12 year old boy named Oskar who looks to be on the path of becoming a serial killer. Oskar is a vulnerable boy and is mercilessly harassed by bullies. Oskar's cereal killer type fantasies come from a desire to get revenge and gain freedom from the bullies. A young girl, Eli, moves into Oskar's apartment complex along with an elderly man. The girl turns out to be a vampire and the elderly man kills people for blood to keep Eli alive. Eli and Oskar become friends and through their relationship Oskar is able to grow and defend himself against the bully. The closer the relationship between Eli and Oskar becomes the more healthier Oskar seems to get. The old man get's caught. Eli kills the bullies and Oskar takes on the new role that was left void by the old man's death.

The movie is not scary, as in I didn't have a fight or flight reaction when watching it. There was some gruesome scenes but this is not the true source of the horror in the movie. The horror came 5 minutes after the show ended when something was nagging at me. After getting emotional connected to Oskar and Eli's relationship and even cheering them on, the horror then came with the realization that the movie was about pedophilia. The movie is told from the perspective of a sex offender and how the offender rationalizes the process of grooming a victim. The horror comes from the moral level of cheering on a sex offender.

Vampire movies are about sex. The Vampire's taking of blood symbolizes the lust of making someone a piece of meat for ones own desires. The tension always comes with how this is violently opposed to how Christ, gave his blood, by laying down his life for his bride the Church. From the view of a sex offender everything that is done is good for the victim. Oskar was vulnerable and really had no one he felt he could turn to until Eli came and used this vulnerability to groom Oskar to be a victim. It was Oskar who let Eli in, yes he was open to it, but to truly believe this you have to rationalize and ignore what Eli did to groom Oskar to get to that point. This is what a pedophile and sex offenders do. At the end of the movie there is a quasi-baptism scene. Oskar is held under water at a swimming pool by a bully and is about to die. Eli then comes to be the savior and kills the bullies and brings forth Oskar to a new life.

The point of view of the movie is that of a pedophile and as such the movie is sick.

There are some things that can be learned about sex offenders from the movie that can be used to protect children.

1. Looks are deceiving. Eli looks like an innocent 12 year old girl. The reality is that she was hundreds of years old and that her motives were anything but innocent. Sex offenders like religion because they can use it to easily gain trust to gain access to children. Anything that has power for good has the power for evil. That is why, as someone once said, the corruption of the best is the worst. We need to be aware that there will always be a Judas in the Church.

2. The process of grooming a victim. Sex offenders spend a lot of time fantasizing about how they are going to perpetrate. Sex offenders are very good at manipulation and they know how to use people's weaknesses to get what they want. An analogy of how it works it that they hand the victim a hand grenade and pull the pin. This puts all the pressure off the perp and onto the victim. The victim and the sex offender know that no matter where the victim throws the grenade that the truth is going to hurt someone. As parents we need to make sure that our children are supported and love so they are not as vulnerable to sex offenders. As parents we need to make sure we let our children know that it is ok for them to tell us anything and that we can handle it and take care of it. If we do have reason to believe that a child is being abused we need to contact law enforcement or child protective services.

3. Sexual perpetration is repetitive. The movie shows how Eli got ride of the old man. The old mad poured acid on his face when he got caught so no one would know who he was to protect things from getting back to Eli. Eli went to the old mans window at the hospital. The old man willingly came to the window for Eli to drink his blood. She then disposed of him by throwing him out the window to his death. The movie gives clues that this process had happened repeatedly in the past. It is possible for sex offenders to stop but they will always have a strong temptation to do it again. The temptation will not go away in this life time and because of this perps should never have any access to children. It also means that if one victim is found that it is highly likely that there are a lot more.

If your are wondering why I know so much about sexual assault the reason is that I'm a social worker and I have conducted sexual assault investigations.

The Natural Origins of the All Male Priesthood

The tradeoff approach yields a radical theory of gender equality. Men and women may be different, but each advantage may be linked to a disadvantage.

Hence whenever you hear a report that one gender is better at something, stop and consider why this is likely true — and what the opposite trait might be good for. LINK

This article written by Roy F. Baumeister is from a secular evolutionary perspective but I think it has a lot of truth to it. It lays the foundation for the natural basis of why the Catholic Church has institutionalized an all male priesthood. There is too much good stuff to quote so I will just let you read it and draw the connections yourself. I highly remcommend reading the article.

This is the authors conclusion of a male lead society...

Again, I’m not saying it’s right, or fair, or proper. But it has worked. The cultures that have succeeded have used this formula, and that is one reason that they have succeeded instead of their rivals.

scandle as "evidence"

A Winchester post on Phatmass...

Offered as "evidence" of the corruption and falsity of the Catholic Faith are sins of Catholics, clergy, laity and religious.

I submit that this is a pointless and completely dishonest tactic. I myself know that Catholics do evil things all the time. I cannot locate in my (admittedly larger than a Protestant or "fundamental" Baptist, whatever that is) Bible the passage that indicates becoming a Christian removes the capacity for free will. I cannot find the passage that says once one becomes a Christian, one never, ever sins again, or that sin proves the invalidity of the religion the sinner claims as his own. I cannot locate the passage that says sinners are prevented from claiming a religion, misusing the religion, attending services of said religion without any real faith. I have personally witnessed avowed atheists walk into churches of several denominations and neither burst into flames nor writhe in any form of agony. Apparently, one can enter and even participate in a religious service and not truly believe.

I submit to you that the Bible, inspired by God, is accurate in claiming that man has free will. I further submit that defects in man's nature, due to the stain of sin, permit him to hold opposite beliefs at the same time. This is due to various things, such as an unwillingness to release all the things of this world, personal experience, habit, obstinance, or stupidity. I submit that people are stupid. I submit that I am stupid in at least a few areas of my person, and further that you are stupid in some areas as well. Free will is given to us by God, and He does not take it away. Our capacity for sin, our capacity to partially accept beliefs, to mingle beliefs, to pervert beliefs, does not end. The Bible never indicates that we can make a single decision and live free of sin. Temptation is not simply the result of actual sin. Jesus was tempted, and He was undoubtedly sinless. He did not give in. He could have. He was, if one believe the Bible, fully human and fully divine. A belief rejected by, among others, Arians and the Cathars. If, indeed, one remains capable of choosing sin, then sin is no proof against the validity of the religion of the sinner. Mentioning these acts, then, as an attack against the religion is disingenuous. In shorter terms, it is a deception. Another word for deception is lie. One who pursues lies as a matter of course is a liar. The father of lies is Satan. The lather of flies is very tiny and can only be observed using a magnifying glass. The magnifying glass was invented by Morgan Freeman in "Prince of Thieves," a harmless Kevin Costner movie depicting the legend of Robin Hood. Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. The Poor Knights of Christ, according to their website (Predicting thread: "How can the 'poor' Knights of Christ afford a website?" (answer: THEY ARE EVIL! THE POPE IS THE ANTICHRIST) particularly addres those who: "contemn to follow their will and wish to serve with purity and courage in the Chivalry of the true and supreme Sovereign." The will, specifically free will, is the original topic of this thread.

Thank you very much. (Link)

The Argument from Pedophilia

I try to stay non-political as possible on this blog. But I am making an exception to address two common arguments made against the Catholic truth. To see the two arguments watch the following exchange between Sean Hannity and Father Euteneuer.



The main argument made by Hannity was, “Judge not lest ye be judged” If we were to follow this statement in the way that Hannity is using it then we would never be able to correct anyone. You wouldn’t be able to tell anyone there wrong. Jesus is not saying not to correct people, he is saying not to judge peoples souls. Father Euteneuer did not say that Hannity was going to hell. What he was doing was one of the Spiritual works of mercy, admonish the sinner.

The other argument Sean Hannity made was playing the priest sex abuse scandal card. Here is Father Euteneuer’s response...

Most surprising of all, however, was Hannity’s use of what I call the “argument from pedophilia” namely, the tendency to fall back on the Church sex abuse scandal when you’re losing an argument with a priest and have to grab for something. I have had people do this to me in front of abortion clinics, at Da Vinci Code protests and in private conversations about Catholicism for the past several years. Let’s just say I didn’t expect it from Hannity! Link

Using the priest abuse scandle as an argument against the Church is like saying Jesus' teaching is not true because of Judas. The priest abuse scandal does not stem from the teachings of the Catholic Church. It stems from sinners that are in and always will be in the Church.

"Accountabalism" and the sex abuse scandal

As an amature computer chair apologist it is hard to deal with the sex abuse scandal. How do you defend the indefensible? You don’t. I have heard it said that the corruption of the best is the worst and this is true with the Priests who abused. This is really the only response that I know when the subject is brought up. And I have spent many sleepless nights thinking about the issue.

I guess it’s the 5th "anniversary" of the breaking of the sex abuse scandal. (Let the confetti be thrown and blow the party horns) I have seen/heard these "anniversary" type specials on both PBS and NPR. They seem to push the idea that the scandal stems from some systemic problem of the Catholic Church. There is a problem with this view, a view that has been coined as "Accountabalism".

Accountabalism assumes perfection—if anything goes wrong, it’s a sign that the system is broken. That’s not true even of mechanical systems: Entropy, friction, and manufacturing tolerances ensure that no machine works perfectly. Social systems are incapable of anything close to perfection, so if something goes wrong in one, that need not mean the system is broken. If an employee cheats on expenses by filling in taxi receipts for himself, the organization doesn’t have to “fix” the expense-reporting system by requiring that everyone travel with a notary public. (Breakthrough Ideas for 2007)

There are some basic, common sense things that were implemented like reporting to police when there is an allegation of sex abuse. I think this is great and what any decent Bishop would have done anyway. But for NPR and PBS this is not enough. Women need to become priest. Priest need to be married. The Church needs to turn into a democracy so that public opinion can tell the holy Spirit that abortion is a right. Religion should be compartmentalised as much as possible. Basically they have the agenda to twist the Church into their own image and it has nothing really to do with sex abuse but more to do with their own agenda.