New Identity Magazine

The Monsters & The Stranger Things

Steve Limkeman — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 16:43:12 +0000

They’re out there. Lurking in the woods, hiding in the shadows… waiting for the cover of darkness to strike. Monsters are heralds of death, ever seeking new victims whose bones will be discarded with the host of prey they have devoured. The grotesque, horrifying nature of their attacks terrifies us, but in the context of the story, it also feels right. Why do we, like Mike Wheeler and his friends…

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(Super) Natural Consequences and the Wrath of God

Steve Limkeman — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 19:14:37 +0000

Faced with the prospect of his own death, all Kaecilius wanted was to live. We all have an innate aversion to death, though experience or philosophy might teach us to try to embrace death rather than to run from it. Most of us, if we believed such things were possible, would choose life. Thus, many have enshrined myths regarding a quest for immortality, whether through the discovery of the…

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Evil Will Come

Steve Limkeman — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 16:54:21 +0000

Do not open your heart to evil… because if you do, evil will come. Yes, very surely, evil will come. It will enter in and make its home within you, and after a little while it will no longer be possible to drive it out.” – Hercule Poirot, Death on the Nile Hercule Poirot is the best detective ever to grace the pages of a novel. Before you object, let me explain. Yes, I have read every single…

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Tumbling Down The Rabbit Hole

Steve Limkeman — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 21:27:31 +0000

The Matrix Trilogy is fully loaded with Christian symbolism, so much so that anyone familiar with both Christianity and The Matrix will not be surprised to hear that the overarching narrative is nearly allegorical in nature. The protagonist, Mr. Anderson (who goes by the hacker alias “Neo”), is pegged from the beginning of the first film as a Christ figure, though a first-time viewer might miss…

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Tenants of the Tenet

Steve Limkeman — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 21:29:09 +0000

“Mine.” “No, mine.” “NO, MINE!” If you’re chuckling and shaking your head right now, it’s because you’ve spent some time around small children lately. I have two of my own, ages 2 and 4, so the conflict is very real, very personal and always lurking in the background of what is mostly a cute and loving sibling relationship. There’s something especially threatening about someone…

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Rescuing The Passion of the Christ

Kevin C. Neece — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 21:00:50 +0000

At this time of year, as Christians worldwide are focusing on the passion—the suffering and death—of Jesus, there is a perennial resurgence of interest in films on the life of Christ. Of course, in recent years, The Passion of the Christ has risen to the top of a short list of such films as a favorite for many people. Since its release in 2004, it has incited intense emotion—from pastors urging…

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A Hidden Life

Steve Limkeman — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:38:57 +0000

“For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” –George Eliot It happens all the time. We’re going about our lives, our work, our play, our families and our friendships, and then it hits us.

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Trading Bad Habits for Zakah

Jeffery Porter — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 17:29:52 +0000

How do I get my life together when it seems like a mess?” That is how I translate Psalm 119:9. Most English language Bibles use something similar to the NIV’s translation of “How can young people keep their way pure?” However, I am no longer a young man, and the word “pure” does not seem to apply to all of the ways that I feel like I stumble. For me, the word “pure” sounds like it has more to do…

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Eatable Heroes

Steve Limkeman — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 00:35:27 +0000

When I learned that Chadwick Boseman had died of cancer this past August, I was both shocked and deeply saddened: shocked because I never even knew that he was sick and deeply saddened because I admired him so much as an actor – not just as the Black Panther, but also as real-life heroes Jackie Robinson in 42 and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall. I’ve come to appreciate him even more since that time…

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God, What Do You Want Me To Do With My Life?

Christopher L. Scott — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 21:42:24 +0000

That must have been choreographed,” someone said after my wife and I danced the first dance at our wedding. But our first dance at our wedding was not choreographed. I led, and she followed, which is the key to a good dance. When dancing, the lead provides the “picture frame.” The dance happens inside the picture frame. The lead plans ahead; is the organizer of the dance…

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