What You Need To Know About Noah

 What You Need To Know About Noah

The Movie, The Controversy, The Biblical account, & What to take away from it all

By Deborah L. Kunesh

Was Noah an angry, vindictive man who truly felt that God’s will was to eradicate all of humanity to the point where he was at one point determined to kill his granddaughters?  Or was Noah an honorable man of God following directions and trusting in his Creator?  Can ultimate truth and dramatic license, co-exist?

That’s what I wanted to find out.

There has been a lot written in the past few weeks about the recently released movie “Noah”.  Everything from some in the Christian community asking people to boycott it due to its serious detour from the Biblical account, to others in the Christian community discussing the pros and cons of the movie more openly or asking people to share more Biblically-based Noah movies in their churches, to the movie being banned in certain countries, to commercials stating that this is the #1 movie. 

 This movie and it’s telling of a story, has caused an uproar, and in the world of entertainment, the uproar is sometimes seen as a positive thing…creating a buzz of curiosity that lends itself to a surge of popularity.

But the real issue here, for me, was finding out what was really in this movie by first-hand account and then comparing it to the Biblical account to bring light to all of the hoopla and madness.

Never one to simply believe whatever I hear, I felt it was important to see for myself where the truth lies.  

Everybody has something to say about this movie and I’m no different.  But I did go into it with no expectations, open eyes and I actually saw it and processed all that I was seeing and did the research so I could write about it in hopes of bringing some perspective.

It all started with my husband wanting to see the movie weeks before the controversy began.  He loves Biblical movies and add to that the typical guy movie characteristics of special effects and battles, and you’ve got a serious draw.

The main concern I have with those of my fellow Christians attacking the movie out of anger rather than addressing the truth, in love,  is that it is my concern that in doing so, we become ineffective.  We lose our voice.  We can’t be effective if we don’t understand the enemy.  

Sometimes we have to dig our hands in the dirt a bit and uncover the facts, in order to be able to effectively share the truth with an unbelieving world.  I can definitely understand the concerns, however, and I respect everyone’s opinion of either going to see the movie, or deciding not to.

Stay with me here…I’ll show you what I mean.

I can understand the sanctity of God’s Word and of a desire and necessity to honor God and not be drawn into the darkness of the world.  I also, at the same time, strive for a Christian walk more closely resembling that of Jesus, who sat down with sinners, got to know them and then showed them the truth, in love.

 If there is a large buzz about a movie whose baseline story (even as minimally baseline as this is) is taken from the Bible, then to be able to intelligently discuss the facts and what is in the movie, could very well be a door opening for someone who might previously not consider listening.

So, let’s find out what this movie was all about and compare that to what the Bible says.

It’s not a stretch to say that this movie is a lot of dramatic fantasy with some bits of Biblical truth thrown in.  The movie was really emotional and disturbing in parts and a big deviation from Scripture, but at the same time, I think there are some important things to take away from it.  In all fairness, the Biblical account of Noah is minimal and to do a 2 hour movie would require some additions and embellishments, though my preference would be for those to stay more true to a scriptural account.

For someone like me, who takes everything in and processes it through an internal filter to find truth, the experience of this film was emotionally exhausting, to be honest.

One thing I will say right off the bat is, this film takes a lot of creative license and in some areas, really pushes the envelope.  I have not seen a Biblical movie yet, as of late, that doesn’t take creative license to make the movie more dramatic and engaging or, even, controversial. But this movie has to be the one to win the prize in that department.

So, in order to set the record straight on a few things...The Biblical Noah never threatened to kill his grandchildren (this is a complete and admittedly disturbing fabrication added to the story and one that, if this had taken place, my husband and I were ready to walk out of the theatre truth be told).    In fact, Shem and his wife had sons with no mention of twin daughters.  The Biblical Noah also does not leave a young girl, trapped, to be trampled by a stampeding crowd in order to save himself and his son (though I think this holds a deeper meaning which I will discuss shortly).  

We must keep in mind that in interviews, those involved in the movie stated that they had used not only the Bible as a source, but also other religious texts as well as old rabbinical texts.

Throughout the movie also are gold-like nuggets that start fire.  According to Slate.com

The evil men have mined the land for “zohar.” This element looks like gold and has essentially magical powers—it’s used to make light and, later, for a sort of antediluvian pregnancy test. Zohar is not mentioned in the story of Noah, but the Hebrew word does appear later in the Old Testament in Ezekiel and Daniel and is commonly translated to refer to a light of some sort. It’s also the name of the foundational text of Kabbalah, something Aronofsky has used before, most prominently in Pi.

In agreement with the theatrical version, the Biblical Noah was, in fact, someone who found favor in the Lord and according to Genesis 6:9 

“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.”

Though the movie has Noah receiving his revelations about his calling in 2 dreams, one at the hand of a hallucinogenic type agent, the Biblical account had God directly communicating with Noah, even to the point of telling him how to build the ark, what it was to include and even the size that the ark needed to be.

Genesis 6:13-22:  So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. ¹⁴ So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵ This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high ¹⁶ Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. ¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
²² Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

According to this source

“It is given in cubits as being 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. A cubit in the OT was generally about 17.5 inches. However, an Egyptian royal cubit measured about 20.5 inches. Since Moses was educated in Egypt we must allow for the possibility that the longer measurement was meant here. The Ark, therefore, could have measured from 437 feet to 512 feet in length! It was not until the late 19th century that a ship anywhere near this size was built.”

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this movie and in reading reviews stating that the movie made Noah out to be a vegetarian environmentalist, I have to say that this is NOT what I found in general.  While there is a scene where Noah is with his son Ham and they see an animal who was killed by the sons of man (the descendants of Cain) and other thoughts interjected that indicate an affinity for the earth and animals and the evilness of man, the main theme is that they are saddened at man’s inhumanity to creation.  

The truth is, Biblically, meat was eaten generally just at special times, for festivals, etc., especially in a pre-flood world, so this element of the movie, and that interpretation, did not surprise me.  God states in Genesis 9:1-3, which indicates that prior to this, eating meat was not a regular practice.

“ Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. ² The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. ³ Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”

The additional truth is, the film does attempt to show what the Bible states in Genesis 6: 

“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” and also “God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.” 

The film does show all types of corruption and devastation.  It does not, however, go into all of the types of sin, but it does show savagery, evil intent, violence, man’s inhumanity to man and animal alike, and the fact that though the Bible states that we are to be stewards of the earth and to treat others as we would want to be treated, that humanity, has failed at all of that.

Early in the movie, I had mixed feelings, especially with the addition of these jagged rock type monsters that came onto the scene.  They later explain that they are fallen angels called “watchers” whom the Creator had punished due to their trying to help Adam and Eve when they left the Garden of Eden, and that though they had been made of pure light, that they were cast down and covered in jagged rock, forever imprisoned in this form unless God decided to bring them home.

This of course is a fabrication.  Some have stated that it could refer to the Nephelim, which the Bible describes as giants or mighty men.

What I did like about this interpretation was that it openly spoke about the battle between darkness and light and how man, most times, will gravitate towards the darkness rather than the light, when left to his/her own devices.

The movie holds true to Noah’s 3 sons as far as their names, but not their stories.  The Bible states in Genesis 5:32 

“ After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.”

But the Noah movie has all 3 of the boys as young men as the ark is being built, with the help of these rocklike monsters aka trapped fallen angels, with Shem finding a wife in a girl they find along their nomad trek through barren land and once formed cities, who has been left for dead with her reproductive organs removed, via the sons of man (descendants of Cain) and leaves the other 2 sons, Ham and Japheth, without mates.

The Biblical account, however, states that Noah, his wife and their 3 sons and their respective wives, all boarded the ark together, so all 3 sons were married at the time of the flood.

Genesis 7:6 “ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. ⁷ And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, ⁹ male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.”

The Noah movie has many deviations from the Biblical account,  none of which were spared in regards to the sons of man, descendants of Cain, including Tubal-Cain, all revving up in a panic to take over Noah, his family and the ark, in an attempt to survive.  Tubal-cain did, in fact, exist.  However, in the movie, it is in this angry and panicked stampede that Ham’s love interest and apparently future wife, is caught in a metal trap set by Tubal-Cain and his men, and while Ham sees the men coming, he seems willing to risk his life for this girl, whom he just met that same day.

Noah, in an attempt to save his son and get back to the ark seeing this angry stampede approaching at lightning speed, makes a heart-wrenching decision in a heartbeat, to save his own son at the expense of Ham’s innocent girlfriend who just seconds later is killed in the angry stampede.  

Prior to this, the audience is treated to lots of disturbing imagery of animals being slain and women being dragged, screaming, to Heaven knows what kind of fate…it’s hard to gauge what exactly the thought was here and one even got the idea that these women were going to be used for food or abuse.  Some state that this was a glimpse into the concept of hell.

In the Biblical account, none of that takes place and as we are reminded in the Biblical account, all 3 sons were already married at the time of the flood and boarding the ark.

As for Tubal-Cain….Tubal-Cain was said to be the original inventor of metal weapons, and the movie does hold true to showing Tubal-Cain with lots of metal weapons.

Genesis 4:22 “Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.”

According to Jewish history, Tubal-Cain’s father, the sixth generation from Cain, was Lemech.

The movie gets more intense from here, with the rock-encased fallen angels fighting off the crowds as Noah and his family try to board the ark as the rain comes pelting down.  Noah is not on the ark as the flood waters rise, which is not true to the Biblical account and, of course, the fallen angels are not mentioned in the Biblical account.

During this struggle, due to their good fight against the sons of man, the light comes forth and the rocks crumble, as the Creator takes each of these light beings, home, as their actions have pleased God.  Again, this is all fabrication and is not included in the Biblical account.  However, these light beings listening to and pleasing God and God holding to a promise of redemption, is a spiritual concept that is explored in this dramatic display.

Genesis 7:13:  “On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. ¹⁴ They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. ¹⁵ Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. ¹⁶ The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.”

The movie has Noah’s family upset over hearing the people outside of the ark, screaming and drowning in the flood and watching as their father does not help them.  He responds with stating that there is no room for them on the ark and that he is following God’s orders.  Though we are not sure of exactly what happened in this regards to those left to die in God’s judgement according to Biblical accounts, the understanding has to come from an understanding of God’s callings and, His ways and listening and obeying even when it seems contradictory to what we would normally do.   

That aside, thoughts on the Biblical account state that it took Noah 120 years to build the massive ark (and some say it could have been less, maybe 60-70 years) and 2 Peter 2:5 tells us he was a “Preacher of Righteousness”, but the Bible is not clear as far as I have seen, on if Noah preached for the people to change their wicked ways in regards to the impending flood.

All manner of chaos ensues throughout the journey, including Tubal-Cain making it onto the ark as a castaway and trying to turn Noah’s son Ham, against him.  Also interesting to note is Tubal-Cain's eating of a snake in Ham's presence and the symbolism of evil going back to the snake in the Garden of Eden.

Then, it gets more disturbing, with Noah finding out that Shem and the young girl that Noah helped to save prior, were now expecting a baby.  Noah is angry that all of creation is corrupt and threatens that if the baby is a girl, he will “cut her down”.  He also, at this point, believes that not only were the sons of man evil (descendants of Cain), but that indeed, all of creation, including himself, and his family are evil and that all will die while only animals inhabit the new earth.  This of course, is a serious deviation from Scripture.

The longer the movie went on, the more we were ready for it to be over with.  The more disturbing the imagery and insinuations became.  

The movie’s direction began to show that the weight of responsibility for following God’s calling began to weigh on Noah and one could surmise that he was going mad and beginning to lose the plot, not necessarily hearing from God, but beginning to add his own interpretations and self-importance, into the picture.  Of course…all of this was added for dramatic effect and were not true to the Biblical account.  But it did speak strongly to human nature and the difficult task at hand of following an important calling.

The movie became an emotional rollercoaster of disbelief and emotion.  The very real feel of darkness vs. light was evident, despite the serious deviation from the Biblical account.  The tug of war between evil vs. good, the lure of selfishness versus God.

Throughout the movie, Methuselah, Noah's grandfather who lived to be nearly 1,000 years old, was pivotal, meeting with Noah, his grandchildren, Noah's wife, performing a healing miracle allowing Shem's wife to conceive and then dying in the flood.  None of this is factual from the Biblical account.

Once they arrive on dry land, Ham leaves the family, still angry at his father, but not before finding Noah drunk and naked.  There is a small bit of truth in this telling of the story in that Noah did plant a vineyard and became drunk and his son found him in drunkenness.

Genesis 9:20
Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. ²¹ When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

The Biblical account goes further into anger by Noah about what he felt was done to himand Noah shares curses against his grandson, the son of Ham, who saw him in his nakedness.

The Creation account is included in the movie and I have to say I give props to the director, an atheist, for including that, because, truth to be told, he could have left that out.

The rainbow imagery was also included at the end of the movie, indicating the covenant that God had made with Noah, with the scripture Genesis 9:7

 “As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” 

There is also an additional line “maybe we will learn how to be kind to one another.”

I will tell you that after my husband and I saw the movie yesterday afternoon, we both pulled out the pertaining Scripture to refresh ourselves on the Noah account from the Bible, my husband with his physical Bible, me with my online Bible, and we read, and we discussed it, and we both searched and compared.   We talked about it.  We scoured.  And I wrote this review, which I hope will reach some who don’t know or understand the Biblical account of Noah and who may just be interested in seeking and searching further, for the truth.

This was definitely a movie that kept you on the edge of your seat and the all-too-human struggle of goodness vs. evil was palpable.  

 Would we see it again or buy the DVD?  No.  It’s not an experience either of us wish to relive.  The movie was dramatic, edgy and emotionally draining.  But am I glad I saw it for myself so that I would have first-hand knowledge and seek further?  Yes, absolutely.

And I’m not the only one…Bible apps and websites have seen increasing traffic.  People interested in learning the truth.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04/07/heres-the-effect-the-controversial-noah-movie-is-having-on-bible-sites/

Just goes to show that God can use anything, even a movie with such controversial content, to draw others to Himself.

Additional Resources

I encourage you to read the Biblical account of Noah, surprisingly only a few chapters long, for yourself:

Biblegateway.com Noah Account 

Once there, you can read the story in whichever Bible translation you would like. 

Answers in Genesis

ABC News Jennifer Connelly on Noah

The Journey...My Story

Having posted here on this blog the 2 writings that would eventually lead me to what I have been doing for the past 4 1/2 years, I felt this blog would be the perfect place to recap this journey that has been part of my life now for the past nearly 5 years.

I am going to share with you some stories and some photos I have not shared before, in hopes that it will bring understanding, as well as make everybody think about how we treat one another. 

My life changed drastically on June 25th, 2009.  Many people's did.  But my life changed in a different way.

Shortly thereafter.  I felt a definite calling of the spiritual kind, to take definitive action.  To do something that would show the world the truth...to show the world who this man was that had been so vehemently lied about prior to his death with the lies continuing fiercely after his demise.

I have written before about this process, about the spiritual elements involved, about the very spiritual and powerful experiences I had while creating the Reflections on the Dance website.

When I look back on the last 4 1/2 years, it is with a mix of emotion.  It has come time, to talk about this in hopes that it will wake us up to what we do to one another and bring about positive change.

What started out as a journey that came deeply from my own heart and that was sparked in the Heavenly realm, became something that I look back on sometimes fondly, with humility as I remember the blessings, and sometimes with sadness and at times, even horror, at all that has taken place.

When I undertook this journey in July of 2009, I knew that it was not going to be easy and was going to bring with it HUGE challenges.  I remember feeling in my spirit a sense that God was saying to me "Something HUGE is about to happen and you must be strong."  I didn't know what that meant, but I knew I had to go forward with it because I was being called to do so....but I admit that at times it made me shake in my boots.

I was never a "public person".  I am a writer by trade and have interviewed other celebrities as well as doing various other genres of writing, but I was not used to my name being more public.

When the website came out, it was met with so much love...from MJ fans, from the public.  People were learning the truth and it reached around the globe very quickly without my having to do anything other than posting it on Facebook.  Within a few short hours, the site was being seen around the globe, in every continent and country.  It was being seen in the English Parliament, the US Government offices, in the middle east, and every place in between.  That's God at work.

My goal always was to bring out what God wanted me to bring out...the truth, about Michael Jackson.  This was never about me.  Only about God, and one of His children, Michael.

As time went on, I met and/or spoke with many people who knew Michael Jackson.  Some who had worked with him, some who had been close and personal friends.  I was told that Reflections on the Dance was TRUTH....and that made me very emotional as it confirmed to me that God had brought me the right information and the right people, as I would not have been able to portray this man that I had never met, in the way that I did, without Divine intervention.  Michael's family was shown the ROTD website through some of these people.  I made a lot of new friends...and, at the same time, some enemies.

The more the website was out there, the more contacts I received constantly, with people asking me to help them with their projects.   Early on, I felt God had told me that the website must stand on it's own, that I was not to collaborate but to do this mission and then to move forward.  It wasn't about me.  This was not always looked upon favorably by others (bloggers, others who ran sites, etc.) because they felt that I was being standoffish.  But that was never my intention.  My sole intention was to do as God asked me to do, and that was all.

Back towards the end of 2011, I was asked to be part of a charity project.  I believed from my heart that the person had true intentions and a true heart for Michael and felt I should help.  This was a well known person who had worked with tons of famous clients, including Michael.  I had no real reason to doubt.  But went against my better judgment and against what I had felt God had directed me about.  This turned out to be a mistake.

I worked for 4 months straight, 10-12 hours a day, with the promise of being paid for creating the website for this project, once it launched.  While Reflections on the Dance has always been non-profit, additional work I do I must take on as paying projects as I cannot work without pay just as any of you cannot on a regular basis.  My husband and I pay $1200 a year to keep the website running and online.  I was never paid for any of that work and though this person pulled out practically unscathed by allowing me to be the fall guy, it got very fierce for me.

Note to self...giving and helping is one thing.  Giving of your heart with the naive thought that everyone else's intentions are as upright as you hope is a no-no.

When this project went belly up due to the promises made to me not being followed through,in addition to fans coming up with and distributing false information without the full facts, about the project, things went bad, quickly.

Lies began to circulate fiercely, along with extreme internet bullying and a fierce smear campaign.

During this time my name and reputation were smeared all over the place and people who did not know me, and just went by what they had heard about me, were saying the most awful things.  I was constantly being harrassed and bullied and even people I had thought were friends, attacked. 

I knew that my intentions were honest, but no matter what I said or shared or the questions I tried to answer, nothing was good enough.  I couldn't get clear answers from the person whose project it was and was left to handle all of the fallout with no answers.  I was hired to partner with, but had limited information on the details.  My job was to create the website and let the fans know about it, and I was assured everything was on the up and up throughout. 

I was beginning to clearly see why God had given me the trepidation about what would come once the site went live and I also began to clearly see why God had given me the directive of the site standing alone and not getting involved in other projects in regards to the website and the subject matter.


During this time, I dropped 20 pounds within about 2 weeks time.  Below are some photos from that time.  I became skeletal.  Lost my appetite.  I thought I would end up in the hospital.  I was quite ill.

Lies are powerful.  Lies can kill the spirit and the body.  We knew that was true about Michael Jackson, but we hadn't yet learned the lesson as we continued to turn around and do the same to others.  Not only to me...this continued and still continues to this day, even within the fan community itself.  A place that should know the lessons of Michael's life, by heart.

The photo above clearly shows how skinny I had gotten.  I had no body fat, at all.  You can see how thin and bony my arms, wrists and hands were.  My family was worried.  People I hadn't seen in a while were asking me if I was seriously ill.  I was very slight and if I turned to the side, it looked as if there was nothing to me.

These are not photos I have shared before, but felt it was important to show the TRUTH about the damage we can do to one another with our lies, suppositions and a desire to want to bring others down because we want to believe the worst or feel we can reach higher, or that we can feel better about ourselves, if we bring someone else down.  Even if it means lying.

This is not a becoming picture, but shows very clearly how in a couple of weeks time, not only did I lose a ton of weight and my appetite, but I went about 50% gray.  We've all heard about how stress can turn hair gray.  Well, it's the truth.

This was extreme stress.  The people who were lying thought it was a game, thought it was funny, thought it was somehow their mission to say or insinuate things about me that weren't true.  They thought it was their way to elevate by bringing someone else down.  Some honestly doubted my honest intentions and felt that this was just the "evidence" they had been waiting for.

Fast forward to the healing process, which I have written about before and shared links to.   This healing took TIME.  My life had to be put on hold even more than it had been as I gave all of my time, attention, effort and help to who I was able to, once the site launched in October 2009.

 Because of all of this, I decided to close down the ROTD FB page and to move forward in different ways as I was finding that the community that so embraced the website and what I was doing, was so quick to turn on me because of false information.  Or at least a segment of that community.  There are of course many loving people with good intentions and honest and pure hearts.

Despite the good and the fact that those with ill intentions were a small portion of the community population....I felt betrayed.  By those I tried to help, by the person who had put me in that position.  I had given everything for this project and the treatment I was receiving was just unbelievable to me.  I was upset at times at God because I had done all He had asked me to do and I could not understand how He would allow such treatment to come at me, falsehoods, lies, character assassination, after I had heeded His call.

We had learned over and over that when you have pure intentions to do good, that people will try to find something wrong with you and they will look for it with abandon until they find something, even a lie, to prove their point.

I just didn't think that the very people who had seen that happen to Michael Jackson, would turn around and do that to me after how much I had given to show the truth about this man.  It wasn't so much just what was done to me, but the sadness of how Michael's message, still wasn't being heard, or understood or truly put into practice.

I won't lie.  I was hurt.  I was tired.  I was 2 1/2 years into this and the love turned to bullying and hate.  It was disappointing.  I wasn't sure if I was to continue the calling.  I had many people who were asking me not to quit, and, for the sake of feeling that the Facebook page and the help was still needed, I still tried to keep giving, despite my own misgivings.

This was a definite low in my life and something that I will admit, was not easy to recover from.  It made me realize just how difficult it was for Michael Jackson to keep coming back from so many lies, again and again.  I was so disheartened.  I truly only wanted the truth out there about Michael.  The site and nothing I did, was ever about me.  It was always about Michael, God, and the Truth.

I would be lying if I didn't say that at times, I have looked back and wondered if it was all worth it.  I know the website has affected many and that it helped to change the opinions of many, about a man who was so vehemently lied about throughout his life and even in death.  I know that is a true blessing and I'm humbled that God called me to, and allowed me to, do this.  But it has not been without much blood, sweat and tears, and a LOT of pain.  More so than most of you will ever know.

Fast forward to mid-summer of this year.  I had finally recovered and was beginning to embrace life again.  I was writing, I was feeling better and getting back into a groove.

Out of the blue, I was approached to be part of a show.  First asked to be the creative assistant, and then co-producer.  I hesitated, seriously, on this.  This was not connected to the website and it was a tribute show, but again, that same subject matter again.  I felt called to be there, even if for a short time, because I truly felt that God wanted me to share some things with people who needed to hear it.

But once again, I found myself  in a situation where I had worked my butt off for someone else for 3 1/2 months this time, only to once again have what was originally discussed, changed and not being paid yet again for months of work.  The way I was treated and spoken to, was inexcusable.  The things I put up with, including some really nasty talk, again, inexcusable.  But it's not my intention to go into any of this in detail, other than to say, that I felt like, once again, I had allowed my desire to help and to give when I was asked, to help to further clear Michael name and pay tribute to him (until I found out that this was not going to be the case, and that what had been discussed and agreed upon, was never the intention, or, was changed along the way) to once again pull me away from the direction that God wanted me to go in.

I knew very clearly when God told me that my work with the continuation of Reflections on the Dance, was done.  But in many ways, this also means a tearing away in other respects.

This does not mean that I don't still stand for the truth about Michael Jackson.  ROTD will always remain as it was a project that I feel was given to me by Almighty God (and no, this doesn't make me better in any way....God gives us all things to do, it's whether or not we are listening and heed the call, that makes the difference.).

It is due to all of this, that I will not be involved in anything else.

Many still approach me to be involved in their projects or to be involved in different ways in the fan community.  I cannot.

I hope that, after sharing my story, it will be very clear as to why I have to move forward and move in new directions.  Why I am not as involved in the fan community at large.  Why I cannot and will not be involved any further in any other projects that come up.

I have given all that I have via Reflections on the Dance and it is time for me to move forward and to go in new directions that God has for me.

If God sees fit, then projects I have had in the works before all of this happened, will still come out as time permits and as God chooses.  But any outside projects, any fan projects, any shows, any charity events, I cannot be involved in.

As you might imagine, all of this has taken a toll on my life, my time and even at times, my health.

What I truly wish is that in all of that, that something good comes out of it and people continue to learn the truth about a man who was vehemently lied about, and truly learn the LESSONS from his life.  We haven't gotten there yet.

With much love and wishing all of you the very best,
~Debbie