It's Only Make Believe

“It’s only make believe. Nobody really believes it”

Those of us concerned about the growing influence of the occult on American society have heard this refrain regurgitated ad nauseum. But so overt is that influence becoming, especially among our children, that it will soon be difficult for anyone to deny.

The amount of occult fiction polluting our cultural landscape is truly staggering:

• Harry Potter series: Extraordinarily popular series of novels about a teen wizard who uses white magic to defeat evil. The series of seven books has sold over 400 million copies. The movies have generated approximately $7 billion dollars worldwide.
  
• Twilight Saga: A series of “vampire-based fantasy romance novels” (Wikipedia.com) catering to adolescent girls. It has sold approximately 50 million copies. Twilight, the first book in the series, was made into a film and earned $385 million domestically in gross revenues.
• True Blood: An HBO vampire series based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries. Among the concepts featured in the series is the American Vampire League, which seeks to earn equal rights for vampires.
• The Vampire Diaries: CW Television program that the IMDb (Internet Movie Database) defines as a series about a “high school girl torn between two vampire brothers.” The program is also based on a book series.
• The Wizards of Waverly Place: One of Disney’s most-popular children’s programs. In a recent set of episodes the eldest son dated a vampire. He was also bitten by a werewolf . . . In one Halloween episode spirits were conjured to create a scary haunted house.
• The Wolfman: The film debuts in theaters on Friday.

Even television programs that have nothing to do with the occult have employed the genre in their story lines, such as the Disney Channel's show “The Suite Life on Deck”. In this week’s episode Cody’s girlfriend, Bailey, becomes possessed by a spirit.

Occult fans will argue that the supernatural has been a cultural presence for centuries . . . and they are correct. However, the difference between our generation and past generations is in how the supernatural is portrayed.

In Shelley’s Frankenstein, Stoker’s Dracula, and Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the creatures are portrayed as perversions of Creation. Readers are to view them with horror. Even the creatures themselves are consumed with self-loathing:

• “I abhorred myself. . . . When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am not the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.” (Frankenstein, p 194-195)

• “It was no longer the fear of the gallows, it was the horror of being Hyde that racked me.”(The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, p 92)

Today’s representations are different. Vampires, for ex., are heroic, sensitive, and superhuman . . . and they can even serve as lovers. They are creatures to be admired. “Defining Deviancy Down” was the title of a 1993 essay former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote for the American Spectator. The essay’s subtitle read, “How We’ve Become Accustomed to Alarming Levels of Crime and Destructive Behavior.” We’ll we Americans have now embraced the ultimate deviancy—Evil—through our continued fascination with the occult. But it should not come as a surprise to anyone since the fastest growing “religion” in the United States, and the biggest proponent of the occult, is the New Age Movement.

A major element of New Age belief is that Satan (Lucifer) is the hero of Genesis, not the seducer as portrayed in Christianity. By convincing Man to eat the forbidden fruit Satan releases Man from the shackles of God. Man is freed to become the god he is meant to be.

Think I am exaggerating the link between the occult and Evil, between the occult and Luciferian worship? A group called “Living His Life Abundantly International, Inc” has listed some of the video games available in the market today for teens. 30 or 40 years ago, had video games existed, it would have been unthinkable that these would exist.

• Tecmo’s Deception: Invitation To Darkness (Playstation) – Players “make an unholy pact and sell their soul to Satan in exchange for power”
• Nocturne (Playstation 2) - A game in which the hero (a demon) destroys the three archangels St. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, then goes on to destroy God.
• Devil Summoner (Playstation 2) – Involves communicating with and recruiting demons. One demon tells the player, “That Catholic Church is such an eyesore” and in the end of the game, blows up the Church.
• Shadow Hearts (Playstation 2) - The hero uses his power to intercept and destroy God and “save the world.” Some games in this series are rated “T”.

And let us not forget Dante’s Inferno, which advertised on CBS during the Super Bowl. The game’s official site says that “the hero of the game (Dante) is a soldier who defies death and fights for love against impossible odds.” It adds that the goal of the game is to retrieve the soul of Dante’s love from Hell. Sounds pretty good, right? What the ad fails to mention is that the game contains a level where the hero kills “knife-wielding unbaptized babies”.

Oh, and for girls who are less interested in video games, there is the pink Ouija Board sold by Hasbro and Toys R’ US. Milton Bradley’s advertising for its Ouija Board says the following: ““Evil spirits! Wake the dead! Consult the board of omens!”

These are dark times. And they are growing darker because of society’s rejection of the Light.

I am reminded of Christ’s words in Luke 18:8: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
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