First, let’s keep the Main Thing the main thing.

God is good, and He loves His children and wants to have relationship with us.

I still marvel at that every time I think about it.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is the way for us to have that relationship. Through His sacrificial death, He tore that curtain  that separated God’s people from His presence, and now we can go in boldly and joyfully as sons and daughters of God.

This is amazing, nearly incredible good news. It’s the gospel. It’s what I love to talk about.

So why do I spend any time and energy at all on “satanism” and the “satanic panic”? Isn’t that giving the enemy too much attention when I should just be focusing on the Lord?

That’s certainly what I used to think.

But then I learned.

Precious souls are trapped in darkness and need deliverance, and we as the people of God need to understand what’s going on. All the parts of these shattered people need the genuine hope offered by the true Lord Jesus Christ. And as my friend Joy Forrest of Called to Peace Ministries can attest, until we understand what’s really going on, we can’t offer them the help they need.

It’s vital for us as believers to have a wise, mature, non-freaked-out, aware, understanding, balanced, and loving perspective on these things.

The Christianity Today podcast series “Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” seeks to debunk claims of satanic ritual abuse. (Please don’t be afraid when you hear that term, like I used to be. Our God is completely sufficient to it.)

When I first found out about the podcast series, I didn’t even want to listen to it. I had more important things to do, which of course included my regular appointments with satanic ritual abuse survivors who need a compassionate witness and long for their wounded parts of self to find healing through the Lord Jesus.

But Lisa Meister of the Only God Rescued Me podcast asked me to come on her podcast to discuss it, and I agreed.

Then I put other things aside and dove in to the research with a ready will.

The CT series begins with the assumption that the rise of accounts of satanic ritual abuse in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s was a “moral panic” with no basis in reality. They describe what they believe caused it, why it “died out,” and what we can learn from it.

In my two-part response with Lisa, here’s an outline of what I covered:

— The three reasons I believe the American public’s focus on satanism increased in the 1980s and 1990s. (All three are different from CT’s ideas.)

— A very important reason the focus on satanism in the American public awareness “died out” that for some reason the CT podcast series didn’t mention.

— An overview (from my perspective) of the five main points the CT podcast wants to make and how each of these is severely lacking not only in balance, but in scientific and historical grounding, as well as logic and common sense.

— A further examination of the troubling assumptions of the podcast.

— And finally, our basis for acknowledging the reality of satanic ritual abuse (again, that is only a term, and not one we need to be afraid of).

Lisa was delighted to do these two episodes, whereas I saw them a bit more as “a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it.” However, she is a delightful woman, so I enjoyed being with her.

You can listen to Part 1 of our response at Apple podcasts here, and you can view it on YouTube here.

Part 2 of our response is on Apple podcasts here and on YouTube here.

[Note: In the second episode I misspoke, saying that people don’t dissociate as adults unless they dissociated as young children. That was incorrect. What I meant to say is that people don’t have dissociated identities as adults unless they developed them as children.]

Our God is strong and good. There is no need for fear when walking with survivors of extreme abuse. How desperately the church of our God needs more believers who understand and can be a steady presence in the lives of those who have been harmed.

Christianity Today has done the church of our Lord no favors with their presentation.

 

 

 

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