An interesting critique & reading thank you. Why was Stanley, or any Evangelical, so taken with OT cosplay? Why not the Jesus teachings- to which he is totally indifferent. But Genesis, in a very peculiar reading, is the only really central Evangelical text. Stanley goes on and on, and on, about it.

Why not Jesus as an aspirational model? I think of the "mind of Christ" as being independent, weighing evidence, seeking for balance, humor, a measured responses. Seeking for love & connection.

Maybe there's a progression in consciousness that needs to occur. Maybe the blood/temple/doom-eager phase has to be endured.

But I rather think there's many religious influences mixing, and who knows, perhaps many spirits looking on. It was so long already, but I had a section prepped about Stanley's odd habit of praying while totally prostrate on the ground, with a garden shed being his preferred site for this approach to the divine.

Strikes me as nearly pagan, some kind of chthonic deity being invoked.