Earlier this month, Prime Video dropped the series Carrie, based on Stephen King's 1974 novel of the same name. Even though I was already familiar with the story through the three previous movie adaptations, I'd never really dived into it before. I'd only caught a few clips of the movies over the years without ever watching them all the way through. But with the new series out, I finally decided to give it a try. It's currently the most-watched show in my country.

After thinking it over, I realized that the Christianity portrayed in Carrie can seem intimidating to people who don't really know what true Christianity looks like. And while it's true that some Christian families unfortunately resemble the Whites, we know that's not what Jesus teaches us.

In the story, Carrie White is a teenager who's been tormented since childhood by her own mother, Margaret White, a woman who twists religion and distorts God's love beyond recognition. I feel like this portrayal, much like in many other works, might be an attempt to discredit Christianity. Margaret raises Carrie according to a twisted, false version of God that she's created herself, keeping her daughter from ever living a normal life. As a result, Carrie grows up deeply traumatized and struggles with serious emotional and social issues.

On top of that, she's bullied both at school and in her neighborhood. What caught my attention, though, was realizing that despite all the cruelty around her, there are also people who treat her with genuine kindness. On her street there's a younger boy who usually picks on her, but there's also Stella, a neighbor who's a few years older and has known Carrie since childhood. She helps her whenever she can. At school, Carrie has the support of her PE teacher, Rita Desjardin, who stands up for her and treats her with genuine kindness and care.

Then there's Sue Snell, a character I really want to talk about.

Sue is gorgeous, smart, and popular. She's dating Tommy Ross, the most handsome and popular guy in school, and she's best friends with Chris Hargensen, another popular girl who's just as pretty but extremely problematic. Chris loves picking on the more vulnerable kids, including Carrie. She's basically the leader of the popular girls and is dating Billy Nolan, an equally problematic guy who's been expelled from school.

At the beginning of the story, Sue joins in on the bullying alongside Chris and the other girls. However after the shower incident (which I won't spoil here), she starts reflecting on her actions and becomes deeply shaken and remorseful about what she did. From that point on she completely changes her behavior and begins treating Carrie with kindness, even standing up to Chris, her own best friend, to defend her.

Sue's biggest dream was to go to prom with Tommy and be crowned prom queen by his side. Tommy, just like Sue, is one of the few people who treats Carrie with kindness. But after realizing the harm she's caused, Sue puts her own feelings aside and tries to get closer to Carrie, desperately looking for a way to make things right.

When she realizes that Carrie has a crush on Tommy, Sue asks him to take Carrie to prom instead. She wants to make up for the pain she's caused and give Carrie a chance to experience something beautiful, something she's never had before.

Going to prom with Tommy and being crowned queen by his side was Sue's ultimate dream, her own real-life fairytale moment. Yet she gives it all up for Carrie, hoping she'll get the chance to experience that kind of happiness herself. While everyone else is out having fun at prom (at least until the horrific incident takes place), Carrie is living Sue's dream, and Sue is at home watching TV with her family, seemingly at peace with her decision.

To me there's something deeply moving about that. Sue doesn't just feel bad about what she did; she actually tries to make amends. She gives up something she'd been looking forward to for a long time, partly out of genuine concern for Carrie and partly because she seems to feel that she deserves to sacrifice something as a consequence of her actions. At one point she even says that she deserves it. In a way, her gesture resembles a form of penance, an attempt to make things right after recognizing the wrong she's done.

Another example of kindness is Ms. Desjardin herself. She defends Carrie in the locker room and punishes the girls involved in the bullying, especially Chris, during PE class the following day. Her decision even gets her a lecture from the principal, but she still stands up for Carrie instead of simply looking the other way.

In the Prime Video series, there's also a character named Emaline, whom only Carrie can see and interact with. Emaline feeds Carrie's hatred, whispering things to her that fuel her ego and desire for revenge. This character doesn't exist in the movies or the original novel; she was created specifically for the series. In my interpretation, Emaline represents the devil tempting us, encouraging us to give in to hatred, pride, and vengeance.

The way I see it, Carrie presents a stark contrast between a deeply distorted version of Christianity and the values Christianity actually teaches. Margaret White represents the former, while Sue Snell and Ms. Desjardin demonstrate the latter through their actions.

I'm not saying Sue Snell and Ms. Desjardin are examples of good Christian, because they're not even Christians in the story. What I'm saying is that their actions are profoundly Christian in nature, especially when compared to the bizarre, twisted version of Christianity represented by Margaret White.

Sue begins as someone who contributes to Carrie’s suffering, but she eventually recognizes her wrongdoing, feels genuine remorse, and tries to make things right. Ms. Desjardin, meanwhile, stands up for someone who's being humiliated and mistreated when others would rather ignore what's happening. Their actions reflect values that are at the very heart of Christianity: repentance, compassion, self-sacrifice, justice, and love for those who are suffering.

And that's what inspired me about this story.

After finishing the series I decided to watch the 1976, 2002, and 2013 movie adaptations as well. Honestly I liked the movies much more than the show. Now I'm planning to read the book too. I don't know whether Stephen King's intention when he wrote the novel in 1974 was to make Christianity and faith seem oppressive, harmful, or opposed to freedom. But if that was his intention, then the message I took away from the story was completely different from what he might have intended.

Margaret White doesn't represent Christianity. She's the opposite of it. Sue Snell and Ms. Desjardin, on the other hand, are two characters who despite not being Christians and certainly not being perfect, show us what genuinely Christian actions look like. To me they're the real examples of Christian behavior in this story, not Margaret.

And I really wish everyone who isn't Christian, including atheists and people who are anti-Christian, could understand this. Just because someone calls themselves a Christian doesn't mean they actually represent Jesus or what Christianity teaches. Margaret may use religious language and claim to speak for God, but her actions reveal something entirely different.

Sometimes we can see God at work in a sinner who genuinely repents, just as Sue does. Other times, we can see Him reflected in someone who stands up for the vulnerable and cares for those who are forgotten, much like Ms. Desjardin. That's exactly why I wanted to write this analysis and share it. I wanted people to look at the story from this perspective, too. I wanted them to understand that someone can misuse religion and claim to represent God without actually reflecting Him, while someone who doesn't even profess the faith can still perform an act that beautifully reflects Christian values.

After watching all these adaptations, I pray that God grants me the grace to be more like Sue Snell: someone who makes mistakes and isn't perfect, but who's capable of recognizing her faults, sincerely repenting, and doing what she can to make amends, even when it requires sacrifice and self-denial. Her actions remind me of what we should strive to do when we sin: not simply feel sorry for ourselves, but take responsibility and try to repair the harm we've caused. I also pray that I may learn to be more like Ms. Desjardin, welcoming the humiliated, the vulnerable, and the forgotten with love and compassion, offering them the dignity and kindness that are so often denied to them.

And perhaps that's the most meaningful thing I took away from Carrie: God's truth and goodness can shine through places where we least expect to find them, even in a horror story by Stephen King. We don't have to limit ourselves to explicitly religious books or the writings of saints to reflect on God and our faith. Sometimes a story that seems completely removed from religion can still inspire us to think more deeply about what it means to love, to repent, to sacrifice, and to treat others as Christ would have us treat them.

I believe God can speak to us through all kinds of things, in ways we might never have anticipated. And if the Holy Spirit wants you to recognize something about God in a work by Stephen King, then you just might find Him there, just as I did.

Hello everyone,

I am both a Marxist and a Christian, and I am tired of being rejected by both Christians and some communists.

Although Marx was an atheist, he was not opposed to religion, and there have been many Christian-Marxist movements.

Furthermore, contrary to what some Marxists claim, religion will continue to exist in a communist world.

I am tired of being rejected by people—both Christians and Marxists.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the Parable of the Lost Sheep and how it applies to the UK church landscape today. We all know the text: the shepherd leaves the 99 to radically pursue the one that got separated.

But I feel like we have a massive blind spot in our modern evangelical culture. A whole chunk of the flock hasn’t walked away from God, but they’ve been completely lost in our structures.

I’m talking about the people who physically cannot make it to a 90-minute service on a Sunday morning. The 24/7 unpaid carers who can’t leave a loved one, the NHS nurses and emergency staff working brutal shift rotas, and the saints dealing with severe chronic illness or disability. Their faith is deep, tested, and vibrant. But because they aren't physically visible in a building once a week, they gradually drift off the radar.

Now, let me be absolutely clear: This is NOT a dig at pastors.

Our ministers and elders are already running on fumes. Between prep, governance, safeguarding, counselling, and trying to keep the church afloat, expecting a pastor to personally maintain a robust visitation schedule for every single isolated member is a recipe for burnout. It’s a logistical impossibility, and it's unfair to put that entirely on them.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep isn't just a job description for the guy in the pulpit. The "shepherd" is the whole body of Christ.

Too often, the rest of us treat a live stream link as a digital band-aid. We think, "Oh, they can watch online, so job done." But a live stream is passive entertainment; it isn't community. We end up putting the burden of staying connected on the most exhausted and vulnerable people in our communities. If they don’t have the energy to text us first, we accidentally forget they exist.

If we want to actually live out Luke 15, the entire congregation needs a shift in mindset. We need to stop expecting the isolated sheep to walk to the pen, and we—the church body—need to go to them.

That doesn't mean giving the pastor a longer to-do list. It means everyday church members stepping up:

• Setting up asynchronous WhatsApp or Signal prayer groups that work around shift patterns.
• Volunteering as a "Roofbreaker" (via the Through the Roof charity framework) to coordinate care.
• Popping round to watch a service with a homebound member or taking a small pocket of the church community to their living room.

If our church structures only function for the healthy, mobile, and unburdened, we aren't actually mirroring the Good Shepherd. We're just running a comfortable club for the 99.

I’d love to hear from others. If you are a carer, shift worker, or dealing with chronic illness, what has your experience been? And for those in local leadership, how can the wider congregation better support you in carrying this pastoral weight?

Every time I ask Jesus to speak to me, I open the Bible. First, I ask Him my question, and then I open the book. And every single time I do this, it literally feels like He’s answering my exact question.

This time, I asked Him, “Is the path I’m on going to lead to a good ending?”

Guess what I opened to? Peter’s confession in John 6:68.

And the message was basically, “Just have faith in Me.”

BRO, HE’S LITERALLY TALKING TO ME 😭✝️

Pray for my marriage . I feel like wife wants nothing to do w me.

My spouse is getting an MRI due to concerning symptoms that may point to a brain tumor. I really need prayers right now. Thank you.

Admittedly I’m running out of hope. I love this community and I’m glad I found such loving and accepting people. I have a feeling the other side will not change. It won’t be like the abolition movement. When some Christians used to use the Bible to justify the owning of another human being. Now racism is less common (not completely gone completely) but at least the argument of “but the Bible said so” is nearly gone.

I have a feeling this won’t apply to an LGBTQ movement. Only god can touch their hearts now. Only god can open the eyes of someone so ridiculously blinded by prejudice.

I have debated conservative Christian’s online for a while now. Don’t waste your energy or your rage. They have every argument planned out and a (not so good) counter. They have obsessed over this. Dreamed about “saving our souls” and showing us “the real love of god” (apparently progressive Christianity is a religion built on “serving the flesh” and looking for a place that your sins are accepted). They have convinced themselves that this is love. That they are righteous and you aren’t. At this point it’s an ego boost for them. They aren’t telling gay people anything new so there is no need to “open their eyes” and “tell them the truth”. If it was anything less than ego and really about trying to save your soul then they would worry about getting you more involved in Christianity rather than arguing and nitpicking Bible verses.

Here are somethings I’ve (pointlessly) argued and their responses,

“You quote Leviticus but I guarantee you don’t follow Leviticus 19:19. (This Bible verse just says that one can’t plant multiple seeds in their farms, wear mixed fabrics, or selectively breed cows)”
-I wasn’t quoting Leviticus (names more clobber verses)
- you are nitpicking verses, read the actual Bible.
-that was the Old Testament. Jesus died for our sins so we don’t have to follow this anymore. Homosexuality being sinful is stated throughout the Bible

“Telling me I’m going to Hell for the way I was born is not love. Jesus is love and Christianity is about love. How can you call yourself a Christian and not follow the number one rule?”
-it is love to speak the truth
-(ignores the question and continues to type more clobber verses)

“Preaching that homosexuality is a sin enables abuse for homosexual teens. This is called a bad fruit. They are several more times likely to be abused and abandoned in a Christian household. Is that who we want representing our god of pure love and compassion”
-(ignores once again. Shocking.)
-I’m not advocating for abuse
- someone actually got mad at me because i didn’t capitalize “god”

Here are some common sayings or arguments.

“Repent. You are running out of time”

“You can’t serve two gods. Your flesh and Jesus”

“I’m going to pray for you”

“Open your eyes your lifestyle is a sin”

So here's the deal. I am in my denominations process for becoming a member of the church. I say none of this to make bitter...or angry...or anything. I like Jewish theology, I like the conception of God and the utter sanctity of God demonstrated within the Hebrew scriptures. It comes very intuitive to me. My issue with Jesus' presentation in the Gospels is that there is little ties back to the that sanctity, and equally no strong ties to the human experience. It's jarring. I have to read the gospels in a weird way. I have to do the mental math all the time. I have to think about just taking Jesus' messages sincerely, and at face value. I have to think about him being human, but God. I can't help but think that Jesus is not acting like God. The humility doesn't compute--it just doesn't show up. To me, it makes no sense for Jesus to be God. Not in act, or impression.

This is my struggle. I have no idea how Jesus connects back to O holy God. To actually word it better, it's very difficult for me to see Jesus and feel that same sanctity I feel towards God. As said many times in this post, that connection hurts. It makes more sense (in my mind) for Jesus to be connected to God as an independent figure, outside of God.

I wonder to myself, do I go further into Judaism? Do I delve into lectio divina and really dive into learning more about Christ? Do I go out into the desert and just sit there, and pray, and think until something clicks? That last one was dramatic, but yeah, I'm in a struggling place. People have told me thta to struggle is associated with doing good in a strange way. That is my spiel, may God take care of, and bless you all.

I might delete this in a few hours, but I really need to get this off my chest. I’m not sure where else to turn, and I would genuinely appreciate advice from other Christians who might understand what I’m going through.

I’ve been a Christian my entire life, but around the age of 12, I began developing an unhealthy relationship with pornography. Over time, the content I watched changed, and I found myself increasingly drawn to hyper-feminine guys and transgender women. This group of people that I wasn’t necessarily familiar with became my primary attraction. I honestly wasn’t really attracted to cisgender women as much, and to this day still haven’t had sexual relations with one. Eventually, my curiosity extended beyond pornography, and I began questioning what these attractions meant for me.

For a while, I kept these feelings private and tried to suppress them. I dated women and assumed these interests would eventually fade away. I was also a virgin at the time and wanted to wait until I felt ready for intimacy. However, after a relationship of mine ended, I went through a dark period of depression. I was 16 and started earning my own money, which was when my behavior began to escalate. I started seeking out encounters with people I was attracted to, including paid encounters. Eventually, I became sexually active and contracted an STI.

My mother eventually found out about the first incident. She was understandably upset, and I promised her I would make better decisions. I stopped for a while, but eventually returned to the same behavior. Some encounters were paid, while others were not.

Several months later, I contracted another STI, which required more complicated treatment. I was ashamed and went to great lengths to keep it from my mother. I told myself that I would stop, particularly when it came to making unsafe decisions, but I struggled to follow through on that promise.

Eventually, I entered another relationship with a woman who genuinely loves God. I realize that it’s not fair to her because I hadn't properly addressed my own struggles. I assumed that getting into a relationship would make these feelings disappear, but it didn't.

Recently, I began talking to a feminine guy from my area, and we developed feelings for each other. This confused me because I had never fully acknowledged these feelings before. However, when I look back on my childhood, I can remember being drawn to feminine boys even before I understood what same-sex attraction was. There were also friends growing up who flirted with me, but I never acted on those feelings because I was afraid of the social stigma surrounding SSA.

Now I'm beginning to realize that these attractions may not simply be a phase or something that will disappear if I ignore them.

I'm still in a relationship with my girlfriend while continuing to communicate with this guy, and I've also started developing a crush on/attraction for another feminine guy at my school. I feel deeply conflicted, not because I believe having these feelings makes me a terrible person, but because I'm being unfair to the people involved. I know that I’m not a good person, and that I risk hurting others while I'm still trying to understand myself. I’m avoiding telling the people that I’m involved with the truth, since I know it’ll hurt them.

I've also started questioning whether my attractions are genuine romantic and sexual feelings, a pattern influenced by years of pornography consumption, or some combination of the two. I don't want to reduce anyone to a fantasy or treat transgender women or feminine men as objects. I want to learn how to approach people with genuine respect rather than viewing them through the lens of my own desires.
I've spent well over a thousand dollars purchasing adult content over the past two years, including content from transgender creators. I come from a low-income family, and I know that spending that much money this way has been irresponsible. I want to regain control over my habits and make better financial decisions.

Above all, I'm struggling with how to reconcile all of this with my Christian faith. I still believe in God, and I don't want to feel as though I'm drifting farther away from Him. I want to grow spiritually, develop self-control, and become someone who acts with honesty and integrity. I've always imagined myself eventually getting married and having children with a woman. That's still something I hope for, but I'm beginning to question whether I've been honest with myself about my attractions and what I genuinely want. I don't know whether my feelings will change, and I don't want to build a future around the assumption that they eventually will.

I know I've made mistakes, especially by continuing certain behaviors when I knew I needed to address them and by entering a relationship before I was ready to be fully honest with myself. I'm not trying to excuse those decisions. And I deserve any judgement or condemnation that may come my way. I want to take responsibility for my decisions and figure out how to move forward and become more Christ-like.

I'm not expecting anyone to have all the answers. I'm looking for honest advice from people who understand how confusing this can be. I just want to grow and find a healthy way to move forward from this.

PS: My parents are good people. Just super occupied with work and their lives. Of course it’s not easy to come to them with something like this, and I probably never will. They were raised differently and experienced a different time growing up. This has been my own journey and I’ve made these bad choices on my own.

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to read this.

I am the father of two trans kids. I love and support them to the best of my ability, which has occasionally put me in the position of having to defend them from others (including my own parents, sadly). I believe this is part of my duty as a parent, and I want to do it as well as I can.

The problem is, I never know quite how to defend a gender identity that is not mine. I tend to deflect the conversation back toward me, defending instead my actions as a father. I can take the punches, so I do.

My questions are: How do I best defend my trans kids against transphobic attacks? Is it my job to defend their gender identity? Or is that something they are better suited to do? What do you think is the healthiest thing for a parent to do in this situation?

Thank you, again, for taking the time to read this. I value whatever feedback you can give me (unless you happen to be here to troll, in which case you can keep your opinions private).

This has been bothering me really badly for a couple of years now and I literally made a reddit account just for this because my family and friends aren't really helpful. (It turns into a lecture with them a lot) I'm a fourteen year old girl and grew up Christian, but ever since two years ago I started thinking about death a LOT. I can't get it out of my head and the thoughts are worst when I'm alone. I'm absolutely terrified of death, and I so desperately want to believe in God and the afterlife but it's so so difficult for me because it just feels so impossible for that to exist. And I'm so scared of losing myself to death if that makes sense? Im scared of losing my consciousness and individuality, and I'm scared of my life just being a short burst in a history of a world that will inevitably move on without me. I really want a god to exist because then I won't just be gone and I'll be in heaven and stuff but I just can't find myself actually believing in it. And I'm also scared because what if God does exist, I somehow die one way or the other in this period of my life of immense doubt and he sends me to hell? Im just really stuck, I don't know what to do and I can't stop thinking about it. Any advice would help, thank you so much.

My search for faith ended in failure because, when I adopt Christianity or Buddhism, I stop feeling that my “worldly” affairs and ideas have any real meaning, and I develop a desire to simply become a hermit and wait for the apocalypse. But by rejecting faith, I also feel that my worldly affairs stem from human beings, which means they lose any perfect idea and turn into sheer hedonism — everything turns into a kind of “have fun to have fun, eat to eat more” mentality, resembling the world of beasts.

When i at comments about religions , i continue to read posts,not from atheist, but from antitheist, saying that all religions are fundamentally bad, that they Need to be obliterated , and that they are controlling sociaty , accusing US for believing that non Christians Will go to hell, that we are homophobi, mysoginist, manipulator and unjust for sending people to eternal suffering.But when trying to tell them that there are christians Who think otherwise,they either never reply, or they continue to talk about how that's Just a small fraction of chrisitans, and that MOST of them are like that, and that me, for believing in the same religion, are no different from them. One time i Heard a story of a Trans woman talking with One of these people, telling them that She and many Christians aren't like that, that we don't think that gay people go to hell, that people from others religions go to hell, that hell Isn't real(though i don't agree with that conclusion) , but the other Person replied saying that It a small percentages, and that her, for believing in christianity , Is a disgrace and a traitor for the lgbtq community..... I don't get why these people don't mention progressive or semi progressive Christians , Are they Just trying to find a way to justify their hatred for religions? Do they know how many of us actually are? I dunno, i have nothing against them, and i'll pray for them like i Always do