The Devil wears a tin foil hat
Every Walt Disney movie has a bad guy: An evil genius or crime boss who is smart enough to have built up an evil empire but so incompetent that a bunch of kids can outsmart him / her. Similarly, Christianity has a suitable evil bad guy who is strangely easily defeated – at least all we have to do, we are told, is to mention JC and all the bad stuff vanishes in a puff of smoke (or is that a puff of logic?).
I really despise leaders who use the concept of the devil and demons to exercise control over their subjects. In America, the fear of Hell is used to get people voting Republican and the fear of demons is used to keep people away from activities that might get them voting Democrat. Similarly, Christians are warned not to get up to anything dodgy as they will end up possessed by demons and need to be exorcised.
Once you go down this road, you can’t help but see demons everywhere. When I was a fundamentalist Christian (back in the day), I used to make sure I did a quick exorcism of the New-Age section in Dymocks if I was wondering through. I was told that it was a Christian’s duty to ‘bind Satan’ in all places and at every opportunity. Also, I was warned about ‘speaking evil into life’ – that by saying anything negative, I would be allowing Satan to have power. It’s a handy concept to use if you don’t want anyone criticising you for having an affair with the teenage music director of the church.
The concept of demons running about as invisible trouble makers that can possess people just doesn’t work for me and as I’ve mentioned, it leads to a lot of weird paranoid behaviour. However, the idea of demons as a kind of pattern of negative thought that can be ingested into your personality makes sense to me. I think that these demons are very real but I’m not quite as scared of them as I am of little leprechans who are so magical that they can melt bibles or whatever the demons do in the movies. It is something to be taken seriously but not to the point where you are wearing a tin foil hat (or clove of garlic) to defend yourself. Casting out demons is about confronting your fears or getting help from your friends or a counselor – it’s a process of self discovery and discernment. Ultimately, the power to defeat demons comes from within: Perhaps the seed is planted by external help, but when hope takes hold, it drives out that which opposes it.
One final point: I am very scared of the kind of demon that can possess a nation, turning it into a bloodthirsty war machine and oppressor.
Posted: March 28th, 2007 under Blasphemy.
Comments: 3
Comments
Comment from djfoobarmatt
Time: 28/3/2007, 8:04 pm
Hi Mr Other-than, I get the impression that you feel pretty strongly about these issues right ;-) . Well, don’t despair, I think most Australian’s bullshit meters are too good to let it happen here. But it bothers me all the same.
If anyone is interested in Jesus Camp, just search for it on youtube.com and you’ll get the trailer and a few clips from the movie with accompanying discussion in the comments. Looks like a pretty scary doco. But it can be made to look worse than it is. I went on church camps that had this kind of stuff and it affected me sure, but I also had fun with the other kids and we took the piss a lot too (so many Christian songs can benefit from the heart / fart lyrics substitution).
Comment from simonj
Time: 20/4/2007, 3:28 pm
“when the devil came in, he was not red…............, he was chrome instead”. wilco
& “theologians….., don’t know nothin’..... about my soul”
also wilco
Comment from other than nine
Time: 28/3/2007, 12:24 pm
Hi,
I was wondering if you have seen an excelent little documentory movie called “Jesus camp”? there is no narrative and it doesnt have any pro or anti religious bias. Infact it was widely accepted in many evangelical circles as a pleasant little story about christian children going to camp.
It made my blood run cold.
These children are being brainwashed as young as 5 years old that hell is a literal place that you will go to if you dont adhere to the set of values that they dictate at this camp. Thats not only socially dangerous, its a form of child abuse every bit as bad as cpnstantly threatning to beat or kill a child for any minor misdeed.
In between this lie and deaeth heaven and hell preaching they give equal billing to things like global warming, abortion, george bush and infidels. You dont need to be told what the “religious right” thinks about all these issues and its their own buisiness to pass those values on to their children but they are deliberately mixing them up with god the bible and absolute right. This meaning these children will have to fight their belief system and faith to make what should be their own personal political and logical decisions.
These young christian american children will grow up in a few years to become the richest, most greenhouse polluting generation that has ever lived. They are the first generation to ever have the word of god drilled into them this way. It will effect everything they do and if they are this powerful and not able to make logical rational decisions based on whats right for them and the world at the time when they are voting, joining the military or deciding between an SUV and a hybrid, then the whole world will suffer.
I urge you to go and do what ever you have to do to see this movie.
This is going on all over the the united states and if the evangelicals had their way all over the world.
I think there is a place for responsible religious organisations in australia. Some people need an outlet for their faith and I genuinely recognise that it helps some people to have that sort of community and uniting higher power. But these extreme fundamentalist (a word that they use about themsselvs that gets applied to muslims in guantanimo) christians attack established socially responsible churches and win over ner sheep by praching there extreme message, no good can come from that.
Its happening here, they arent as big and they arent as extreme but its only a mater of time, people need to expose these churches as the dangerous organisations they before they are too powerful here to crush voices of dissent.
There are deamons everywhere, most of them imagines, this countrys paranoia is getting worse all the time but allowing an organisation whos sole purpose it seems is to preach paranoia of the devil in is the most satanic action we could take.
regards,
other than person