By Morgan Mizell

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — A 1950’s science fiction film may not be a familiar method to explore faith, but for one Natchez minister, it just seemed to fit.

Nance Hixon, the minister of Grace United Methodist Church in Natchez, began his first of a four-part sermon entitled, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” last Sunday.

The series will cover four different “snatchers” — guilt, pride, anxiety and fear.

“People can have their entire lives taken over by these things,” Hixon said. “We can really become unlike ourselves and become different in the way that we treat others.”

In the film, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” residents of a town are overtaken by “pod people” who resemble friends and family, but are actually aliens. They were look-alikes, but were nothing like the people whose bodies they had taken.

“I think that it can work that way. These emotions can really change us and hold us captive. I have had experience with both guilt and anxiety. They were relevant to me,” Hixon said. “I think we can really all relate to this topic.”

In last Sunday’s sermon, Hixon explored guilt and the way that people can be changed by it.

“We have done something, or maybe not done something. We begin to hide or avoid people and we can even become withdrawn,” Hixon said. “God wants us to be free to live and open to receive what He has in store for us. We can not do that if we are burdened by something. He can remove our guilt, as far as the East is from the West, if we ask Him.”

Hixon pointed out that the use of this theme, as well as others, would hopefully bring a more light-hearted approach to some of the topics that he would discuss in his sermons; however this theme in particular was an appropriate analogy with regards to the way these emotions can work in our lives.

This Sunday’s sermon will focus on pride.

“I think pride is a little different,” Hixon said. “When we talk about pride in the sense of self-respect, it is positive. When we look at pride from a place of comparison, I think we see where that can lead to bad habits and other negative emotions and actions. This is when it becomes a bad thing because it changes us and the way we interact with others.”

Hixon pointed out that he believed anxiety and fear to be similar.

“Both of these can really zap your will to go and do, to participate in life. They are kind of paralyzing,” he said. “Anxiety can really mix up your thinking and fear can really stop you from doing anything sometimes. We see it over and over in scripture. God wants us to be free. He wants us to be free from all of these things and other malevolent powers of the world.”

Hixon hopes that people will really become interested in the series and follow it. He also wants people to learn ways to combat these problems in their lives.

“I think anyone can find a message here,” he said. “I welcome any and everyone to come hear about this. We can learn to defend ourselves against the ‘Body Snatchers’ together.”

Services for Grace United Methodist are at 10 a.m. every Sunday.