Lucifer in LA
November 16, 2025
Dr. Roger Ray
I didn’t think that I would care much for the Netflix theological fantasy, Lucifer. In fact, I managed to assiduously avoid it for nearly a decade until, for want of other options, I gave it a try. It was mostly what I expected . . . simultaneously childish while salacious with all of the dialogue depth of a Saturday morning cartoon, albeit, with a lot more sex. And yet, I got sucked in for the very reasons I expected to hate it. The characters in the series are mostly based on Catholic mythology but blended with and told in somewhat the style of Greek mythology, featuring demigods with very fragile human egos.
As such it explores and exploits a lot of what I detest about organized religion. Beliefs which hail from ancient times that have somehow managed to survive into the modern world. In many ways, the existence of orthodox Jews, Christians, and Muslims, is an indictment of the failure of reason in modern civilization. As Karen Armstrong famously said, "If your understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathetic, and impelled you to express sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this was good theology. But if your notion of God made you unkind, belligerent, cruel, or self-righteous, or if it led you to kill in God's name, it was bad theology"
On one level, we can say that faith or spirituality is an attempt at interpreting our experience of life through a lens that is focused on ethics, morality, justice, and character. Sadly, however, when the myths and ancient expressions of personification of nature are taken literally, that’s not just juvenile or primitive thinking, it is dangerous thinking that leads to all manner of prejudices, abuse, and even violence.
Just as a footnote: the personification of nature is a gift that comes to us from the most ancient time when humans were first becoming thinking beings. We experience the world through our feelings, our emotions, our person, and so the ancients projected personhood onto aspects of nature, the sun, the moon, oceans, rivers, and forests. Explaining the seasons, natural disasters, rain and droughts, on the moods of the gods, and the chaos of the universe, life and death itself, was explained in mythic tales about the romances and battles between the gods.
These tales can inspire art and poetry but when they are taken literally they discourage critical thinking and blur the lines between reality and make believe.
Last weekend my wife and I went to a Thai Buddhist temple in Melbourn, Florida to participate in the Loy Krathong ceremony in which we floated small boats in a body of water. One of the things I love about Thai Buddhism is that it does not cling to any kind of Buddhist orthodoxy. This ceremony is mostly Hindu and maybe even older than Hinduism.
Originally, it was in honor of the goddess of the river, seeking favor with the goddess to provide water in times of need but not too much water in the monsoon season. But like everything in Thai Buddhism, it is subject to reinterpretation in a modern age when the meaning of things needs to evolve. Now the emphasis of the Loy Krathong ceremony is respect for the river, avoiding pollution and trying to clean up our relationship with the river. . . not a primitive belief that the river is a goddess who might get jealous and flood your fields and towns.
We are on a vegetarian diet this week because my wife wanted to show gratitude to Buddha for having finally gotten her visa to come live in the United States. However, I am aware that the real reason is to help me lose weight. It is a religious gesture aimed at better health, not that Buddha is really keeping count of how much fried chicken we eat.
However, western religions seem to encourage adherents to continue to deny reality and invest themselves in fantasy beliefs. It can be funny when, on an episode of Lucifer, he is embarrassed by his angel wings popping out at inconvenient moments, but it is seriously embarrassing when people take that stuff seriously.
I would remind you that Harry Reid, the former Democratic majority leader of the senate, in 2007, helped to create a government agency to investigate sightings of UFOs. He did so, not because he believed that he had been abducted and possibly probed but because he is a Mormon and a part of the Mormon list of hilarious beliefs is that God lives on the plant Kolob and that there are many inhabited planets in the universe. There may be intelligent life in many places in the universe but the silly imaginings of Joseph Smith about good Mormon men getting their own planet to rule over in the afterlife should be enough to have made people abandon the Mormon religion generations ago but true believers, like Harry Reid, who for many years was third in line for the presidency of the United States, promote belief in UFO sightings, even wasting tax dollars on the search, in order to support the absurd teachings of his church.
I am confident that when Donald Trump says that he is trying to get into heaven, that he does not mean that literally, but, sadly, more than 70% of Americans believe that heaven is real, and about 60% believe that a literal burning hell is real . . . when makes the Lucifer Netflix series as much of a documentary as the evening news.
I am eating a lot of salads and vegetable soups, ostensibly to fulfill a promise my wife made to Buddha, though I know that if Buddha ever lived, he has been dead for more than 2000 years and he doesn’t care or know if I sneak in a hotdog at Sam’s Club, but I am willing to participate in the vegetarian observance because it is good for my health and it is good for the health of the planet.
But when I drive by one of the mega churches in Florida on a Sunday morning and sea the ocean of cars in the parking lot, I shudder to think that so many people continue to indoctrinate their children into the mythological beliefs of conservative Christianity. If I could believe that all of those people were, in community, encouraging one another to greater acts of kindness, compassion, empathy, and greater sensitivity to the differences which are a part of humanity, then I could be glad that such institutions continue to thrive . . . but, sadly, I know that what they are being taught is myths about a God who supports and encourages their belief that women are second class citizens who cannot be trusted, that gays, lesbians and the transgendered among us are an abomination to be loathed and punished for simply existing. I know that they are being trained to doubt science whether that is in regard to global climate change or the efficacy of vaccines.
As Carl Sagan said in the previous century, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Still, if a person painting park benches puts a sign on a freshly painted park bench that reads “wet paint” you can bet that someone will come along and touch it to see if the paint is, in fact, wet. It is not a terribly important claim and yet the cynics among us are not inclined to just believe a sign . . . we will test it. But tell a young teenager that they will go to hell for having sexual thoughts and many of them will have anxiety about the fact that they can’t help having sexual thoughts. What evidence is there for the literal existence of a place of eternal burning punishment and torture? There is none and yet we continue to groom century after century of young people to be gullible enough to simply believe the most extraordinary claim with no evidence at all.
Though they often try to deny it now, the Mormon church historically teaches that exceptionally good Mormon men will one day rule over a planet of their own and that sounds just stupid to the ears of those who were not brought up to be Mormons. But how different is it from the claim that we all have immortal souls and that we will not ever die but the righteous will live forever in heaven, enjoying the rewards of our piety. There is no more evidence in support of the classic Christian, “die and go to heaven in Jesus’ name,” that there is for the Mormon promise of your own planet. People who cannot successfully keep a houseplant alive for six months believe that a part of themselves, their essence, their consciousness, will remain intact for billions and trillions of years without ceasing! The absurdity of the claim should embarrass anyone with enough sense to operate a doorknob and yet, this morning, cathedrals and megachurches are packed with doctors, lawyers, professors, and baristas who shamelessly believe this drivel without question.
For nearly 30 years I had to pretend to give lip service to these beliefs when I was a pastor in the Disciples of Christ. I knew better. My staff knew better. I assume that most of our members knew better. But still, there was this employment, denominational prison in which you had to make gestures of agreement with the whole heaven and hell thing. When I finally burned that bridge and decided to start a progressive church without any pretending about ancient myths we latched onto the Jamaican Reggae singer, Bob Marley’s song, Get Up, Stand Up, as our anthem.
We sang it church very often, especially in the early days as a reminder of the mental prison from which we had escaped. I wish I could play it for you but that isn’t legal… I’ll stretch the law enough to tell you a part of what the song says:
Preacher man don't tell me heaven is under the earth
I know you don't know what life is really worth
It's not all that glitter is gold
Half the story has never been told
So now you see the light, ay You stand up for your right
Get up, stand up Stand up for your right
Get up, stand up Don't give up the fight
….
Most people think great God will come from the sky
Take away everything, and make everybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your right, yeah
….
We're sick and tired of your ism and schism game
Die and go to heaven in Jesus' name, Lord
We know and we understand
Almighty God is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you can't fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light (what you gon' do?)
We going to stand up for our right (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Folks, do not be easily fooled. Don’t let your religion be about an unknown and unknowable after life. Your spirituality is here and now. Social justice is our religious practice so, even though my preaching career is coming to a close soon, please, don’t give up the fight.
