Stop Fleeing Evil and Pursue Good Instead

(Image via Pixabay)

There’s a meme going around Facebook again; you’ve probably seen it yourself. It looks to be a wrinkled newspaper clipping, or a page from a cheap Protestant tract, but it turns out it was doctored for comic effect. But it reminds me an awful lot of the Planet Charismatic on which I spent most of my childhood; there are authentic lists just as silly. We had similar lists drilled into us.  It says, “Beloved, do not take part in any of these components of Satan’s Spiritual Structure. They are doorways to demonic possession.” It cites Ephesians and Deutoronomy, and then we get the list (I am not making this list up):

Eastern religion, yoga, freemasonry, illuminati groups,  New Age Religion, church of Satan, scientology, Rosicrucianism, astrology, tarot cards, Ouija boards, remote viewing, palmistry, voodoo, earth worship, Wicca, cyberpunk culture, divination, meditation, vegetarianism, lycanthropy, postmodernism, backmasking, astral projection, necromancy, rebirthing, Kabbalah, LOTR, firewalking, levitation, alt “Comix,” vampirism, trilateralism, marihuana [sic] and pot parties, LSD/shrooms, video games, Harry Potter, Dungeons and Dragons, Halloween, Fomication [sic] Skull and Bones, rock music, heavy metal, Burning Man, Twilight films, raves and XTC, goth culture.

Let’s go over that list a moment, shall we?

Steel Magnificat does not endorse the use of illegal drugs at parties. I think you’d better learn how to spell your drugs in any case, but I’ve been told since I was a little girl, by secular and non-secular experts, that drugs are bad for you.

Steel Magnificat is staffed by two writers who both attend the Byzantine Catholic Church, so I’m just going to ignore the list-maker’s prejudice against “eastern religions.”

I certainly caution against divination and trying to contact or control random spirits. The spirits who play along with that sort of game are not likely to be spirits you’d want anything to do with.

I am touched that the author believes that XTC, Raves, and backmasking (the recording of backward messages on cassette tape) are mentioned in Deutoronomy, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

I’ve watched enough horror movies to know that, if you ever have the opportunity to practice necromancy, you should decline. And, though I always think I should be kind to people who are very different than I am,  I have to agree that you shouldn’t cultivate the acquaintance of known vampires. Lycanthropes I’m not so adamant about except during that special time of the month, but no vampires under any circumstances.

Which leads me to the Twilight books and films. I managed to read the first paragraph of a Twilight book, once, and once I saw one scene from one of the films. That was all I could take. I didn’t see enough to tell you if they’re demonic, but I suspect the devil would look fairer and feel fouler.

That last sentence was a Tolkein quote, for those of you who didn’t get it. And that brings me naturally to several other items on the list: LOTR, Dungeons and Dragons, Halloween, video games, cyberpunk, goth culture. So, basically anything at all that is fun, exciting or imaginative. And that’s what it usually comes down to, in lists like these. If you’re having fun, you’re probably a demoniac.