The original article this references had an edit after publication of this essay - I deal with that edit at the end now.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:18–19 NRSVue)
The most insidious thing about social media is that it puts us in bubbles. The way the algorithms work is that, as we respond to things, our bubbles become increasingly smaller. Why does it work like this? To keep us in constant states of either fear or outrage, thus keeping our eyes on the doom scroll. For all the good of social media, if we are not careful, we become islands of anxiety, worrying about the latest outrage among or “in” group that makes us fearful or hateful of our “out” group. The underlying reason is to serve us ads that hold our attention to buy or consume such that the cycle continues. We can hedge against islands by purposely messing with the algorithm and following diverse voices in which our feed can get weird.
Fear is a powerful motivator. It can make us buy things we do not need. At one time, it drove “decisions” for Jesus. That mindset may have grown numbers, but not disciples - especially not in today’s world. But yet, many still use fear and the idea of some great evil we must vanquish. In fact, many stoke fear keeping their followers in a tizzy. It is unfortunate, as God is not a god of fear, but of love.
In my little corner of Christianity I really did not have reviving the “satanic panic” of the 1980s on my proverbial Bingo card. But we have arrived at that point in our absurd timeline. Fresh off ridding themselves of their previous boogeyman, the group of “super elders”* has decided that our next windmill at which to tilt is manufactured satanic outrage. I believe that to be worthy of mockery. In the words of Frank Peretti in the late eighties, “there ain’t demons under every rock, even though that makes good fiction.” Their fear laced essay contains a lot of scripture and pseudo theology, but it is mostly pop theology mixed with dualism. The essay gives the Satan much more power and control than does scripture. “And so, tens of millions of viewers unwittingly took part in the worship of Satan and his fallen angel companions. It was no innocent, fun, artistic moment of ‘unity and inclusion.’ It was spiritual warfare, plain and simple, in the flesh and on the world stage.” (Not what you think)
Paul talks in Ephesians of our struggle being with the “powers and principalities.” These are stand-ins for the idea of empire, fear, and power. Paul even talks about how the god of this world veils the Gospel in 2 Corinthians, but there is a twist in Paul’s words.
Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing clearly the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’s sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Light will shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Cor 4:1–6 NRSVue)
The twist is that the Gospel is light and God’s light shines through the veil because that veil can not contain it. The god of this world has no enduring power. This is mirrored in Revelation (another book used in the essay in which Satan is ultimately defeated). But the essay misses the point of Revelation because those sowing fear have moved into the idea of God rapturing faithful out of the world and burning it all down in contrast to the picture of new heaven and new earth in Revelation. The clue happens early in chapter five:
Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.’ Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne. When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sing a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to break its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; you have made them a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.’ Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them, singing, ‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’ And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the elders fell down and worshiped. (Rev 5:5–14)
Once again, the twist is that the slaughtered lamb (not a lion) who is Jesus has defeated the powers already. Jesus never stops being that slaughtered lamb in Revelation. The defeat happened in the bruised and bloodied body of Jesus on the cross. The slaughtered lamb does not use fear, but love. How does the picture of Jesus as a slaughtered lamb who defeats the powers turn into a god who burns it all down? By embracing a certain picture of God.
That embraced picture of God is of a God who is somehow both omnipotent and controlling, but also impotent in the face of the Satan. In addition, the view often portrayed by the super elders is one of a God who demands punishment for sin rather than sacrifice. Their view of the cross has become nailed to a view in which God demanded that the Son be punished in our stead rather than sacrificed. There is a difference. In one, God requires violence, in the other violence is what humanity must be healed of. “It is as if the body of Jesus of Nazareth had on the cross lost its integrity, opened, and drawn into itself all that by the breath of the Spirit might open to it, especially all those who labor and are heavy laden. (Keen p 201)” Instead of the body of Jesus being punished, Jesus is taking on that which harms for transformation. The body of Jesus on the cross destroys the power of sin and death, yet we continue to live as if that were not true.
As James Cone writes: “The cross is a paradoxical religious symbol because it inverts the world’s value system with the news that hope comes by way of defeat, that suffering and death do not have the last word, that the last shall be first and the first last.” (Cone loc. 309) Rather than a display of power punishing, the cross is a display of power being defeated by suffering. The cross allows for the healing from sin and the erasure of the power of sin. How, in light of the cross, does the Satan have power to force millions to worship? There is no such power because God has defeated that through a move of solidarity and ultimate love.
Dana Carvey’s Church Lady character from Saturday Night Live is a perfect picture of the fear being stoked. Carvey’s Church Lady was a commentary on those Christians who saw Satan as the answer to every perceived ill or disagreement. Our super elders would have us quaking in fear behind a shield of pseudo holiness in which we cannot witness to the world. “Well, isn’t that special?” There is a good kind of foolishness and that is the foolishness in which we engage by being an upside down Kindom people, not shaped by the god of this world, but by the broken body of Jesus on the cross.
I wish you would put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, do put up with me! I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-elders. Even if I am untrained in speech, I certainly am not with respect to knowledge; certainly in every way and in all things, we have made this evident to you. (2 Cor 11:1–6 NRSVue and apologies to the apostle Paul for my paraphrase)
The “Not what you think” article was edited to change the worship of Satan to the following, which still entails guilt and participation:
”And so, tens of millions of viewers unwittingly were party to a ritual worship of Satan and his fallen angel companions.”
Cone, James H. The Cross and the Lynching Tree. Reprint edition. ORBIS, 2011. Keen, Craig. After Crucifixion: The Promise of Theology. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2013. https://www.theholinesspartnership.com/post/not-what-you-think-it-is?fbclid=IwY2xjawEVud5leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQViZqOXEhiYabd3uMUMw1KpNVYt6VO1-_Vyq2v_V8LXTKyaDADQHstsCg_aem_Wk9CUONWHcnUWzsWqRrPiQ