The Satanic Panic (#983)
Kyle and Wayne have been listening to The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, a podcast by Christianity Today about the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 1990s. This spawns a conversation about spiritual warfare and how easily our fears can be manipulated to compromise truth. Our preoccupation with the forces of evil, especially in a fearful state, will do more harm than good. They both share their experiences, questioning what was real and effective and what now seems like a waste of time and spiritual passion. Evil seeks to delight us with something so engaging that we can't see where it will lead us until we're caught in its trap. That's why God invites us to engage him out of trust where we can see more clearly.
Podcast Notes:
- The video recording of this podcast. (New FB policy only preserves this link for the first 30 days after the recording date.)
- Poem by Benjamin Cremer
- The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea podcast
- Get Wayne's newest book, It's Time!
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I recently spent two months sharing the Gospel in the desert so Arizona with the nomadic community living in van, cars and buses. Many of the nomads have engaged in spiritual experiences using drugs
There was some talk of Sedona Arizona being like a hub for these experiences. Many go to Sedona to hike to the “vortex” locations to receive something spiritual. Do you think there could be demonic spirits facilitating these experiences for those seeking!
Honestly, I have no idea if it’s an anti-sacred spot for demonic influence, or if so many people come there seeking it bring the influence. It would all be speculative. Just like God will show up wherever people are seeking him, I suspect the enemy does too. I also don’t think we can discount the placebo effect of expectation, just like “faith healers” exploit to think they have experienced a miracle, only to go home and find they have the same disease they had before. I don’t ever dismiss the power of supernatural forces for good or evil, but there are also other factors in play for such things as well.
As I have been listening to your podcasts over the past few months, I find myself running parallel to much of your thinking. I have also been reading Catholic mystic Richard Rohr who has similar ideas. It is interesting listening to similar messages from different sources.
It’s been more than 10 year now since I walked away from the institutional church. I have never been more at peace in my life. The further I distance myself from my former iteration of Christianity, I find myself asking: “What was I thinking back then? ” I often overwrote my own internal voice and gut feeling in order to comply with what I was being told was true Christianity. It often felt off, but what did I know? Now I know that I that my heart was trying to tell me something. Ideas on spiritual warfare and deliverance ministries were two areas that I also really struggled with.
How did Christianity become so complicated? Now, I don’t believe a majority of the Church’s current direction and thought. Listening to radio and TV preachers makes ma nauseous. The other day, I joked with a friend that I am not even sure I am a Christian anymore, whatever that means. I don’t begrudge others on their own faith journey, but I am so glad I am not caught up in all that convoluted living. Without it, I am learning to live as my created self, operating in the gifts placed in me rather than what someone thinks I need to be.
But, I do I find myself now in a somewhat No Man’s Land.
Certainty has been replaced with uncertainty.
Clarity has been replaced with haziness.
There are more questions, very few answers.
Despite that, there is an authenticity to living in this place of “not knowing”.
I love where the journey has taken us both, John. I, too, think at times, “How did I get here?” But here, it is so much more liberating than where I was before, and so much easier to connect with Jesus in this space of love and truth. The uncertainty, haziness, and questions don’t bother me much anymore because I live at peace with him instead of the false security of my past illusions. It always makes me wonder what other illusions I have that I haven’t been able to see through yet.
Thanks for your comment. I’m sure it will encourage many others.
Any chance you could post the link to where the poem came from in the best thing I heard this week? There were some amazing lines in there and I’d like to read more of it if possible. Thanks in advance.
I’ll post the link under Podcast Notes, but here it is:
We want the warhorse.
Jesus rides a donkey.
We want the eagle.
The Holy Spirit descends as a dove.
We want the militia.
Jesus calls fishermen, tax collectors, women, and children.
We want the courtroom.
Jesus sets a table.
We want the gavel.
Jesus washes feet.
We want profit over people.
Jesus overturns our exploitative tables of greed.
We want to take up swords.
Jesus takes up a cross.
We want the empire.
Jesus calls the church.
We want Barabbas.
Jesus stands rejected in chains.
We want to define who our neighbor is in narrow terms.
Jesus asks us if we are being a good neighbor to all.
We want the roaring lion.
God comes as a slaughtered lamb.
We keep trying to arm God.
God keeps trying to disarm us.
— Rev. Benjamin Cremer
Thanks so much… amazing!