At The 2025 82nd Golden Globe Awards Ceremony Did The Celebrity Attendees Tolerate, And Some Even Applaud, The Mocking of God Only To Then Have A Fire Sweep Through A Community That Hosts Many Acting Celebrities' Homes Shortly Afterwards?

     If you are the comedic entertainer at the Golden Globe Awards you are tasked with entertaining a room full of actors and people from associated fields as well as the watching TV viewers elsewhere around the country.  As for the actors, it is widely held in the court of public opinion that they are a liberal and left leaning group in the main, and not overly religious. Also they are largely witty and self aware and social, often with strong political opinions, and especially talented quite honestly.  So, as the comedic host for the night you come up with jokes that will hopefully delight such a crowd as that so that you will be well appreciated, and later, embracingly reviewed for your efforts as the night's comedic presenter.  You probably want to be asked back!  And...comedians often get more laughs if their humor pushes the  boundaries, so you tend to get a lot of that with comedians.  But...did I mention that the Hollywood types aren't always viewed as a very religious bunch?  They are not always focused on promoting Jesus to this world.  Some of them very much are, but a good number just aren't strong Christian believers or even believers at all.  We've all heard this before.  And many in Hollywood are Jewish, a religion that is supposed to hold God's name in honor, yet some say that Hollywood produces far too many movie scenes that dishonor God or even offend Him.  And those scenes and movies are pumped into American living rooms.   

     So, that said, among the comedic comments made on that night, in the spirit of Golden Globes levity, were the following sort which were spoken during the mid-show recap.  I will just summarize a few of the remarks the comedian host made:

     Shout outs are comments made up on stage at the microphone when accepting the awards.  They are usually words of thankfulness to and appreciation for whoever worked with the recipient and helped them or inspired them to win the award.   The night's various award winners normally do this when they go up to accept an award; they deliver a short acceptance speech, they give kudos to those they owe a debt of gratitude to.  So, concerning these acceptance speeches, the comedic presenter pointedly said, at about the show's halfway point, that the show's acceptance speeches had so far "been on fire". (Take notice of the words "...been ON FIRE!")  The presenter then pointedly mentioned  that a tally of those persons who had been thanked so far in the shout outs included cast and crew members and moms and various others, but that not even one single winner had thanked God, the Creator and Maker of the Universe.  There was general polite laughter among the attendees when this joke was made.  No one called out any objections to making fun of or disparaging  God in this way.  Also the comedian mentioned that this was no surprise in such a godless town.  (The 2025 82nd Golden Globes were being held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles just as Hollywood is.)   

     Maybe the comedian literally meant to chide those in attendance for not giving some of their thanks to God, or maybe it was a joke at God's expense to a group that - let's face it - makes a lot of movies and shows that showcase behaviors that are highly displeasing to God based on His teachings to us, His created humans.  And to be fair to Hollywood, the American TV or cinema viewer watches the shows anyway, making all of us who watch them (when we know they contain a lot of this 'God condemned' bad content) complicit in helping Hollywood purposely displease God.

     But...you can make the argument that this Hollywood crowd that makes these shows, shows which often have a lot of God-condemned sort of content anyway, also allowed God to be publicly mocked in their midst as being sort of irrelevant and even an unpopular figure, and they did it on a very high profile and widely viewed venue and stage.  And this is God Almighty that was being mocked...the same God Almighty who sent His only begotten son Jesus to be crucified at Golgotha near Jerusalem for the sins of mankind (whoever among us would gratefully accept Jesus' New Covenant.)  In fact, these same people who may have been mocking God at the 82nd Golden Globes were some of the souls that Jesus died to extend an offer of possible salvation to!  This great Jesus died on Golgotha on a cruel and painful cross, publicly displayed in a humiliating manner for all passers by to see!  (Golgotha is the name of the hill Jesus was crucified on.  It means 'Skull'.  The hill Jesus died on for us was said to have a rock formation that looked like a large skull.)

     So, the particular Golden Globe Ceremony just discussed occurred late on January 5, 2025.  By January 7th a fire had broken out near a Los Angeles area trail called the Temescal Ridge Trail (Temescal ironically means 'House of Heat' in the Nahuatl language) more specifically breaking out near a spot (ironically?) called Skull Rock.  That is near a neighborhood called Pacific Palisades in the Westside region of Los Angeles, California.  Perhaps ironically also, Hollywood, as we know, lies within Los Angeles.  Pacific Palisades is a large and quite prestigious neighborhood with many beautiful and expensive homes, some owned by well known actors.  The fire quickly spread in the dry brush and grasses, there were very powerful and swift Santa Anna winds fanning the flames along, and various unexpected obstacles to successfully extinguishing it, such as that a relied upon reservoir of fire fighting water had been allowed to go almost dry prior to those days.  The fire became epic in size and destructive effect.  There have been a reported 24 deaths per some reports and quite probably will be more.  The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is reporting that about 12,300 structures have burned so far.  The fire is still burning and expanding at the time of writing this (Jan 15, 2025.)    

     Obviously most of those many people who have thus far lost their homes were not at the 82nd Golden Globes and I expect that a fairly small fraction of them even worked in the film or television industry either (though a number of them certainly do or once did.)  This fire may or may not be any sort of message from God.  It is a definite painful tragedy in human terms, let alone commercial terms.  It absolutely may not be any sort of message from God despite the strange timing.  Many Christians and Jews, many other very kind people are doubtless victims caught up in this disaster of a fire.  It is currently suspected of being a man-caused fire, possibly originating from arson, they are speculating.  We'll see how that plays out.  We Americans have American neighbors in great need right now no matter what the circumstances or motivations might be - that much is for sure - and we should act like it.

     But here's the point of writing this:  We may never know what caused the fire and only God knows if mocking his name at the Golden Globes is in any way related to this fire, but either way it is never, ever, ever wise to mock the powerful and holy name of Almighty God the Maker of both us and all of the universe.  We are a nation dedicated to God from its very founding.  His name is even on our money.  He deserves  the deepest respect, admiration, love and loyalty, as does Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  And history is replete with examples of very good reasons to never, ever, ever mock His name.  There were 185,000 Assyrian soldiers that found that out one night long, long ago.  They felt mighty, victorious, safe and untouchable.  They weren't!  There were Philistine soldiers that found out that you don't touch anything God holds to be holy, and you certainly don't steal such things.  They felt victorious and mighty.  They stole the Ark of the Covenant.  They should not have!  They quickly came to rue the day.   God the Father holds His own name in very high regard, as it tells us clearly numerous times in scripture.  The third commandment of the 10 is even about not misusing His name when we speak:

     Exodus 20:7: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

     Or consider Revelation 15:4 : "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."

     There are a great number of Bible scriptures highlighting how truly holy the name of our Almighty Father actually is.  Scripture says angels bow when Jesus' name is spoken.  Angels are a greater and higher creature than humans, the scriptures tell us.  Jesus openly acknowledged that the Father is greater than He.  So the name of God the Father is at the top dead center of all holy things.  It's so easy to forget that these offences are noticed and remembered because the Holy Father chooses not to immediately enforce the penalty each time when people misuse or slander His name.  Yet we are not held guiltless at all.  It's merely that He may choose not to address it immediately.  Yet sometimes He may!

     In the Book of Daniel a Babylonian king named Belshazzar threw a party for his many important Babylonian celebrity friends and associates.  He decided to serve his pagan guests using the holy vessels of gold and silver stolen from the very Temple of God in Jerusalem when it was sacked nearly 70 years earlier.  He used these blessed and holy dedicated temple vessels as if they were just common articles fit for common usage at this party for heathen Babylonians.  In response God had a hand emerge from a stone wall in the room where they partied away and the hand wrote a dooming message of rebuke.  It read something like 'Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin."  The terrified and trembling king, seeing this, sent for the elderly Hebrew wise man and prophet named Daniel who informed the king candidly that it meant "You have been weighed, you have been found wanting, and your kingdom will be divided between the Medes and the Persians." The Medo-Persians penetrated and sacked the city of Babylon on that very night, using a low water level to do their damage to Babylon, which had been considered next to impregnable.  There was a river that ran under the mighty walls of Babylon and out the other side so that if they were ever under siege they would have water and some fish to eat.  The attacking Persians and Medes had secretly diverted part of this river onto another course at a place upstream, and during the darkness of that night of Babylonian revelry they waded in under the city walls when no one was watching because the river was now so much shallower after they diverted part of it that there was a tunnel of sorts under the city wall.  Who knows how many of those reveling Babylonians were dead before noon the next day?  But scripture reports that King Belshazzar certainly was.  It was the end of the Babylonian Empire.  God crushed Babylon at His selected time with speed and ease, but spared his chosen Jewish people within the city who were slaves to the Babylonians. 

***Yet again, it's sort of ironic that a low water level was involved in both the destruction done to Babylon and the destruction done by these wild fires in the Los Angeles area.***

     Those stolen temple vessels that Babylonian king Belshazzar served his guests with were holy to God and the captive Jewish slaves in Babylon were holy to God and the Ark of the Covenant stolen by the Philistines was holy to God and the city of Jerusalem which the 185,000 Assyrian soldiers surrounded with intentions to destroy was holy to God, and importantly, the Holy Father's name is likewise holy to Him both in ancient days and in the modern times...He has great regard for the glory of His name.  He lets us know that in many places in the scripture.  Know that, and fear offending Him!  That is wisdom for all people everywhere to keep in mind and teach their children.   

      In 2022 a fiction movie called "Babylon" was released which was about 1920's Hollywood.  It had a lot of subject matter that God might quite probably find very offensive but it received its cinematic accolades, such as a Golden Globe nomination in 2022 for one instance.  So ironically, Hollywood sort of honored the idea that Hollywood was somewhat like ancient, pagan Babylon, but only a couple of years later they smiled and laughed along with the characterization that they were a godless town and God was not someone they enjoyed giving thanks (shout outs) to.  There are therefore various links you could mentally make between Hollywood and Babylon.  Arguably, Hollywood even provided us with some of those links, right?

     Cinema can be for good or for bad, just as an ink pen can write good or bad stories or words.  But like all of us, the people of Hollywood should walk carefully and wisely when it comes to issues concerning God.  It could affect your salvation.  He is certainly no one to fool with...for so many different reasons He is the last personage you would ever want to anger or disrespect.  And whatever He holds in high regard we should also hold in even higher regard.  We're just men and women, made from dust, and we are sinful and lowly in so many ways.  He is guiltless, sinless, and all powerful, all knowing and even more.  Having respectful fear of the Lord is, in part, realizing that you don't impudently mock your own all powerful Creator.

     But as with parts of North Carolina and some other American disaster zones, we Christians should pray for our brothers that are struggling to recover, and we should send some material help to them if we are able.  It's God's place to judge, and it's our place to reach out to help and to love our neighbor in not just spiritual ways but practical ways also.  Practical help is urgently needed some times.  We all know that.  Being without a home is a desperate feeling.  Maybe we should give to a relief fund if we can.  These disasters can happen to any of us, and they are devastating to be caught up in.  There's the old saying, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."  It's a good sort of time to show people what Christian love can really mean, where the rubber hits the road.  There are a lot of hurting Americans right now.  If we have money for fancy coffee or junk like that, maybe giving to a cause like this is far better.

     Maybe this is just the latest outbreak of fire.  But maybe it's meant to be a wake-up call for any of us who are willing to listen.   

Proverbs 14:31 :  Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

Proverbs 11:25 :  A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

Proverbs 1:7 :  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.