“And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain…” (Luke 4:5)

The expression “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain…” (Luke 4:5) is a biblical verse that becomes the name and defining reference point of a protest group in Clanton. Its image of the devil displaying the kingdoms of the world gives the group an ominous religious identity, but in the Fisher family’s immediate life its force is concrete and local: protesters appear on Main Street, Burton has a history with them, and the group turns its attention to Coldiron.

The verse and its local meaning

The passage is identified by its familiar opening: “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.” In conversation, the verse is called a spooky choice for the group’s name. One speaker admits having paid little attention to white people’s religious references, making the exchange less a theological explanation than a moment of cultural distance: the words are recognizable, but their place in the group’s identity is not self-evident to everyone around them.

The biblical scale of the image—one figure shown all the kingdoms at once—contrasts with the group’s visibility as local protesters carrying signs. That tension helps the name retain its unease without requiring the group to possess any supernatural significance. The verse supplies a charged emblem; the events that give it narrative weight are ordinary political actions and the violence attached to them.

Protest, recognition, and Burton’s history

The group first re-enters the family’s attention through two young men Leon sees on Main Street, outside the old Farmer’s Bank. Leon recognizes them not by signs or uniforms but from an earlier encounter in Davisville, where they had held a sign outside the VA hospital. Burton was then in Homes custody, seated in the middle of the high-school track, while the protesters stood beyond the police tape. That earlier scene connects Luke 4:5’s public protest to Burton’s own public confrontation with its members.

Leon concludes that the two men have come looking for Burton, who had caused their boy sharp discomfort in Davisville. The verse is therefore not merely a name overheard in town: it marks a group whose grievance has followed Burton home. When Flynne asks why the group chose the name, the answer she receives is that the reference is probably meant to be spooky. The conversation then turns to Burton, who is known to recite the passage when he hears that Luke 4:5 plans a protest. His scripture-reciting habit makes the verse part of their antagonism as well as the group’s public identity.

Coldiron becomes the next target

The expression returns when Macon warns Flynne that Luke 4:5 is outside with signs. The protest has shifted to Coldiron, which the group has decided God hates. The demonstration is aimed not only at the company: its signs name Flynne, her brother Burton, their mother, and their cousin Leon. A corporate protest thus reaches into the family’s private circle, turning a religiously framed public grievance into a direct pressure on people already living with threats and violence.

Across these appearances, Luke 4:5 links separate kinds of power and exposure. The verse evokes the devil’s vision of worldly dominion; the group uses it as a public sign, Burton answers it with his own repeated recitation, and its protest against Coldiron puts the Fisher family’s names on display. The expression’s significance lies in that conversion from scriptural image to local conflict: an immense biblical claim becomes a recognizable, unsettling presence on the town’s streets.