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"Evil for evil's sake" has to be just about the dumbest human motivation ever proposed. What's even dumber is when religious people insist that "obviously" this is what motivates anyone they disagree with. Like, say, people who make movies - you know, good movies as opposed to the wretched genre of "Christian film." According to Rodney Howard-Browne, a pastor who was involved with other evangelical leaders in a "laying on of hands" prayer ceremony for President Donald Trump, had this to say about - I guess - the entire Hollywood film industry.
Let's go down the list. In real occultism, "the devil" doesn't want to buy your soul so obviously you can't sell it. Some California New Agers do seances, so you probably could find a lot of people in the film industry who have at least attended one. But blood-drinking and human sacrifice? Sorry. Those are from horror movies, not real life. They also are pretty pointless for casting actual spells - you know, like the what most occultists really do.
And "big seances" on film sets are another thing that would never escape the coverage of the gossip rags. Don't believe me? Back when The Craft came out in 1996, there was a ton of media coverage about how star Fairuza Balk was Wiccan and how totally weird that was. And that's Wicca, not full-on "devil worship" - though I realize that to Howard-Browne they probably are basically the same thing.
It never ceases to amaze me how these conservative religious leaders essentially live in a cartoon world. I suppose it helps them feel like oppressed victims, which is a card they never get tired of playing. But the reality is that while most people in Hollywood don't share their beliefs, there are a lot more religious options in the world than "fundamentalist nutball" and "blood-drinking child murdering horror movie devil worshiper."
In fact, I'm pretty sure that the latter doesn't even exist for anyone but a handful of deviant criminals - and maybe not even for them. As for the former, if you ask me this statement shows that there are way too many of them out there.
“These people are full of the devil. These people can’t even be reasoned with,” Rodney Howard-Browne said in a sermon over the weekend. “They have already given their soul to the devil. Are you with me? These people go through seances, these people drink blood, these people sacrifice children.” In a clip posted online by Right Wing Watch, Howard-Browne added:
“They sacrifice children at the highest levels in Hollywood. They drink blood of young kids. This is a fact. That’s why the next thing to be exposed will be all the pedophilia that is going to come out of Hollywood and come out of Washington, D.C. The human sacrifice and the cannibalism has been going on for years.”
When someone told Howard-Browne that “they don’t do that,” he insisted that “it’s worse than what you think.” Howard-Browne then described the supposed satanic rituals that go on in Hollywood. “Many of the Hollywood actors that you go see on a screen, what you don’t know, they bring a witch, they do a big seance right there on the set and they worship devils and they allow devils to come into them before they take the part of what they’re going to act,” he said. “It’s a fact what I am telling you.”
Let's go down the list. In real occultism, "the devil" doesn't want to buy your soul so obviously you can't sell it. Some California New Agers do seances, so you probably could find a lot of people in the film industry who have at least attended one. But blood-drinking and human sacrifice? Sorry. Those are from horror movies, not real life. They also are pretty pointless for casting actual spells - you know, like the what most occultists really do.
And "big seances" on film sets are another thing that would never escape the coverage of the gossip rags. Don't believe me? Back when The Craft came out in 1996, there was a ton of media coverage about how star Fairuza Balk was Wiccan and how totally weird that was. And that's Wicca, not full-on "devil worship" - though I realize that to Howard-Browne they probably are basically the same thing.
It never ceases to amaze me how these conservative religious leaders essentially live in a cartoon world. I suppose it helps them feel like oppressed victims, which is a card they never get tired of playing. But the reality is that while most people in Hollywood don't share their beliefs, there are a lot more religious options in the world than "fundamentalist nutball" and "blood-drinking child murdering horror movie devil worshiper."
In fact, I'm pretty sure that the latter doesn't even exist for anyone but a handful of deviant criminals - and maybe not even for them. As for the former, if you ask me this statement shows that there are way too many of them out there.
2 comments:
It's interesting to say the least how these libels are so similar to the fantasies
of witch-finders and anti-Semites since time began.It's as if these people are still living in the middle ages, while the rest of the world has moved on. I hope some day they'll join us , and the world will live as one, as John Lennon said.
Yes, it is remarkable how many of the accusations thrown around by modern fundamentalists could just as easily be found in the Malleus Maleficarum - a book made up by Christian witch hunters who knew next to nothing about witchcraft and spellwork.
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