Oh captain my captain ... why??
Live look at Not the Bee getting blocked:
(For the record, Mr. Shatner, we actually have a few Trekkies on staff who greatly appreciate your career.)
One has to wonder: What led to this penalty? What caused us to fall out of Mr. Shatner's good graces?
The inclusion of the date was oddly specific, but it allowed us to go back and take a look at what was published that day ... which led us to this opinion piece by one of our contributors, Peter Heck👇
In that article, Peter commented on this quote of Shatner's:
Shatner: 'People ask about a legacy. There's no legacy. Statues are torn down. Graveyards are ransacked. Headstones are knocked over. No one remembers anyone. Who remembers Danny Kaye or Cary Grant? They were great stars. But they're gone and no one cares. But what does live on, are good deeds.'
For background, Shatner is an animist who believes everything in the material world "emanates a spirit, an energy" that is connected together. I'll let Shatner's rival franchise explain:
Peter pointed out that good deeds, while nice, are hollow if you do not believe in eternity ... and cannot save you even if you do:
While I can admire someone like Shatner promoting the performance of 'good deeds' done on behalf of your fellow man, there's an unmistakable hollowness to it all. With nothing waiting on the other side of death, what does it really matter? If there exists no ultimate justice, no reckoning for our mortal choices, why make any effort to do something good for another? Why even pretend that there exists something called 'good' in the first place? Absent a transcendent, eternal justice, the concepts of good and bad are entirely personal, subjective, and irrelevant.
When Shatner went to space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket, he said it filled him with "dread." It was an ironic statement, considering Shatner was made famous for his role as a starship captain who boldly goes where no man has gone before.
Shatner: 'My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.'
Peter noted that this sense of dread is understandable if you believe nothing awaits you in the cold void after death.
In short, he is living the only heaven he will ever know.
But Peter's intent wasn't to leave Shatner there. He said there is a hope - that eternity and salvation do not rely on our good deeds measured against the vastness of space and time, but rely what God has done for us.
He then offered a defense of the Christian faith's ability to address these difficult questions, noting that God's redemptive plan demonstrated through Jesus Christ is the best and only hope for mankind.
Even if we are blocked, I pray you're still wrestling with that good news, Mr. Shatner.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
