Fake Demons and Real Demons

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here!” ~ The Tempest

 

“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” ~ Antonio Gramsci

 

(Commonly paraphrased as “The old is dying and the new struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.”)

 

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.  Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” ~ I Timothy 4:1-2

 

“Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the person which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which come out of the person are what defile the person…Are you so lacking in understanding as well? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the person from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated? That which comes out of the person, that is what defiles the person. For from within, out of the hearts of people, come the evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, acts of adultery, deeds of greed, wickedness, deceit, indecent behavior, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the person.” ~ Jesus Christ (the Gospel of Mark)

 

“I swear, it's as if they believe in the power of demons more than they do their own god they claim to worship. Meanwhile, the real demons of xenophobia, nationalism, resentment, fear, and hate they welcome without realizing it -- what a weak ‘faith’.” ~ my friend J. M. 

 

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Because I love Albrecht Durer... 

 

Did you know that originally, the word “demon” (often spelled daemon) didn’t refer to a fallen angel or malignant supernatural spirit?

 

Rather, it meant “a divine power, lesser deity, guiding spirit, or genius.” Which is why Plato referred to Socrates as having a special “daemon” - a guiding light, an inner genius. 

 

It wasn’t until post-exilic Judaism fused the Zoroastrian cosmology of lesser divine beings with monotheism that the idea of “demons” as malignant supernatural beings took hold. 

 

It is important to understand the root of this belief in the superstition that misfortune was caused by malignant spirits (and inspired by the missteps of whomever people wished to scapegoat - and hence the burning of women as witches…) rather than being an unfortunate part of existence. 

 

(As Stephen Pinker put it: “A great principle of moral advancement, on par with ‘Love thy neighbor’ and ‘All men are created equal,’ is the one on the bumper sticker: ‘Shit happens.’”)

 

I believe that understanding that a belief in literal demons in the sense of invisible malignant supernatural beings is just a superstition. These are the fake demons. And in my life experience, this belief is seriously harmful. It makes one fearful and superstitious, blames natural phenomena on supernatural causes, and scapegoats innocent humans for bad luck. It also distracts from the real demons that plague our society. 

 

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My family history of superstition

 

It will come as no surprise to anyone that most Evangelicals believe in literal demons and angels. Historically, this was a widespread belief. In fact, one can see elaborate hierarchies in Judaism (which I will not pretend to be particularly familiar with.) 

 

In the Christian tradition, the most influential - and detailed - angelology comes from 7th Century theologian and writer Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, who ranked angels (and thus demons who are “fallen” angels) in this order, top to bottom: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. Note that “thrones” and “virtues” are titles, and have nothing to do with the normal use of these words. 

 

Honestly, I had no idea about this elaborate classification system until I read The Revolt of the Angels, by atheist Anatole France. It’s a great book, but I definitely had to look up all of the angel stuff. 

 

This system of classification was criticized by Martin Luther, who largely rejected Pseudo-Dionysius. Thus, we Protestants didn’t get quite the same thing. Although one could argue that Frank Peritti’s fantasy novels would have been better with interesting names to go with the ranks of demons and angels. 

 

(Maybe someday I will have time to write about Peretti - his books were part of my teen years, and I have things to say about that.) 

 

More generally, Evangelicals believe in literal angels and demons, but without necessarily the expectation of ever meeting one. Pentecostals, well, in that tradition (which I spent time in in my teens) does “spiritual warfare” as they call, it, with a lot of “binding and rebuking” of demonic powers. 

 

Looking back, it was more than a little weird. Although there was this time at Christian Summer Camp that a friend rolled his eyes at the ever-present sophomoric fart jokes, and quipped, “I really want to rebuke the Spirit of Indigestion.” 

 

Pentecostals take a lot more seriously the idea that humans can be “possessed” by a demon, or the lesser version, “demonization.” I’ll talk a bit more about that below.

 

It was even before we had our foray into Pentecostalism (that’s a whole story too…) that my mom got really into demons and stuff. 

 

Probably the first thing I remember is her reading Turmoil in the Toybox. I do not recommend that book at all, but I am linking to it because of the influence it had on my birth family. The basic premise is that most “modern” toys are intentionally designed to give your kid demons. It is all a vast conspiracy against Christianity, etc. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

Now, to be clear, the idea is that crazy, although it is misguided. The modern, late-stage-capitalism version of toys are deeply problematic. Too many of them are plastic, causing environmental harm as well as breaking easily, requiring replacements. It is planned disposability. 

 

And, of course, the endless cross-marketing. When I was a kid, it was the Saturday Morning Cartoons which were created mostly to sell toys based on the shows. And shows which were created to be based on toys. And books, and records, and anything else you could aggressively advertise. 

 

But demons?

 

So, this meant that for many of that subculture, you had to burn your Cabbage Patch dolls, avoid anything with fantasy symbolism (because the occult, yo!), and only watch cartoons (if at all) from the golden age. 

 

I should be clear here that in many ways, this didn’t affect me that much. I was always all about the LEGOs, which were, apparently, fine. I never got the appeal of He-Man, which seemed pretty darn cheesy to young me. In fact, I can’t really think of any of the “forbidden” toys that appealed to me. I was a weird, nerdy kid, who wanted to build stuff. So all of my favorite toys (other than the usual stuffed animals and blankets) were creative things: spirograph, capsella, LEGOs, books, art supplies. That was who I was. And still am. 

 

Where this affected me was when I played with friends. If they weren’t into the Moral Panic Culture™, they had these toys, and I had the awkward job of explaining why I couldn’t play with them. Sigh. 

 

Things accelerated for my parents when we got first into Pentecostalism and then Bill Gothard’s cult. For both, there was an increased paranoia about demons, although they took different approaches. 

 

For Pentecostals, modern culture was generally okay. They did music with drums and electric guitars, watched regular movies, played with regular toys. 

 

But they did have a baseline paranoia about getting demons, and an obsession with blaming problems on supernatural causes. 

 

This is nothing new, of course. Even in the Bible, we see the ancient lack of understanding about illnesses such as Schizophrenia and Epilepsy. Thus, Christ’s healing of illness was described as “casting out demons.” These days, for a person like my mother, who suffers from epilepsy, the cause is bad brain wiring, not a demon, and appropriate treatment is medication, not an exorcism. We learn more, we discover better explanations and treatments. 

 

This bled into a lot of superstition that naturally-caused problems and difficulties were the result of demon activity. Obviously, this was unhelpful. A child with ADHD doesn’t have a demon - they have different brain wiring, so an exorcism isn’t going to fix it. Mental illness isn’t supernatural either, so “treating” it like that is singularly unhelpful, and distracts from legitimately useful treatments. 

 

And, lest we forget, the blaming of sexual orientation and gender identity on demons. Just cast out the “demon of homosexuality” and your kid will turn heterosexual. It’s like magic! (Spoiler: it doesn’t work.) 

 

I’m sure you can figure out where this is going. As I went through puberty and started pushing back (“rebellion!”) against my parents, finding my own way of life, this got blamed on malignant supernatural influence. Instead of what it was: normal human childhood development.

 

Another influence here was a book called Pigs in the Parlor, which I also do not recommend reading. My mom was hugely into this book for a while, at a time in my life when she seemed to find everything about me annoying and problematic. 

 

The basic idea is that, while Christians cannot be “possessed” by demons - we already belong to Christ - we can be “demonized” - tormented, influenced, bothered by demons. I read part of it, and, ugh. It was just terrible, like all such books are. Utter dreck, unsupported by evidence, not remotely based in scripture or Christian tradition, just superstition.

 

Actually, what it reminded me the most of was….literally every fad diet book. It is the same superstition, just with intangible “demons” rather than slightly more tangible stuff like “gluten.” Hey, same with Turmoil in the Toybox too! 

 

Again, you can easily imagine how this affected my mom’s approach to a normal teenager who she found problematic. 

 

And that brings us to Gothard. 

 

For Gothard, the risk of demons was mostly focused on culture. Specifically, the culture of people who weren’t white. 

 

So, he recycled the old moral panic about music created by black people. Rock and Roll, Jazz, Pop - all that - gave you demons. Cultural artifacts, particularly if they looked like or could be thought of as “idols” gave you demons too. 

 

Certain books were suspect as well, particularly if they contained “magic.” Which is how we ended up burning our Lord of the Rings books. (Narnia was spared, fortunately.) Magic gave you demons. 

 

But that misses the REALLY BIG ONE.

 

“Rebellion” was literally opening up your mind to Satan himself. 

 

As proof-text for this, the story of King Saul and his disobedience to the prophet Samuel was used. “For rebellion is as of the sin of witchcraft…”

 

Yep. Disagreeing with your parents meant you were opening yourself up to demons. 

 

This idea has, more than any other, I believe, been at the core of my trauma and estrangement from my parents. I disagreed. (And, honestly, I was right about things most of the time.) Therefore, I was opening my mind, heart, and soul to Satan, and letting demons enter my inner self. 

 

If this sounds like an abusive thing to say to a child, you would be right. 

 

I’m not going to recount all of the stupid, unnecessary fights I had with my mom (and occasionally with my dad) over this. We fought over food, music, books, theology, and eventually even my right to an education. (Which I was denied, by the way. I never got to go to a normal college. Bill Gothard’s law school was my only ticket out, so I took it, even though it wasn’t what I wanted. But I had to tell my parents it was what I wanted, or I was “rebellious.”)

 

Even now, my mom threatens me with hell because I am not “walking in truth.” Disagreement with her is “rebellion,” aka opening myself to Satan. 

 

What I learned from all this is that I was not loved as a person, but persistently invalidated and treated as a problem to be managed. I was told, repeatedly, that who I was made me unsafe to be seen. I was demonized, literally, because I was who I was. My parents were seemingly blindsided by the fact that all their prayers and discipline and formula-following never “fixed” me. And that is how we ended up estranged. 

 

I’ll add in one further detail that came years later. I can pinpoint when my mom lost the respect of my now-adult children. The older ones would have been tweens at that point. 

 

My mom, rather than actually listening to and building a relationship with them, was more focused on making them her personal mission field. 

 

But it was when she insisted that reading Harry Potter would give you demons that I saw the eyes glaze over, and I never saw my older kids take my mom seriously again. She had chosen to spew her ignorance and bigotry rather than treat her grandchildren with respect and love, and they took note. 

 

The overall result of this kind of obsession with demons is that you start seeing them everywhere. 

 

Every book, song, toy, movie, TV show, or cultural artifact is a potential source of demons. Every cultural change is the result of demons. Anything that makes you uncomfortable is a demon. 

 

They are like the common cold: a little sniffle and you can catch one. 

 

This is a horrible way to live. In fact, superstition is always like this. It feeds off of fear rather than love and a sound mind. When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer. 

 

Far better is to invest in learning how to understand the world we live in. Find treatments for epilepsy and mental illness. Evaluate toys and culture on merit and utility, not paranoia. See other cultures as normal, valid, and beautiful expressions of humanity and the image of God. Listen to other people and what speaks to them - you might learn something. Build relationships around mutual respect, not condescending missionary zeal. 

 

***

 

So, how about those real demons?

 

I am indebted to my friend J. M. for the quote above, which I will repeat here:

 

“I swear, it's as if they believe in the power of demons more than they do their own god they claim to worship. Meanwhile, the real demons of xenophobia, nationalism, resentment, fear, and hate they welcome without realizing it -- what a weak ‘faith’.” ~ my friend J. M. 

 

This came up in a comment on a Facebook post I made regarding Barry Manilow and the superstition about music. 

 

 

This is the tragedy of it, as J. M. points out. 

 

My parents - and indeed so many Evangelicals - have wasted their time chasing imaginary demons, and, distracted, have fallen prey to the real ones. 

 

The daemons - the guiding light, inner motivation - of evil. The true evil in our world. 

 

Xenophobia, nationalism, resentment, fear, and hate.

 

It isn’t literal invisible supernatural beings who are calling for the ethnic cleansing of America. That would be real humans like Stephen Miller and Donald Trump and their goons and ghouls. 

 

An invisible supernatural being didn’t kill Renee Good, Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, Geraldo Lunas Campos, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Parady La, Luis Beltrán Yáñez–Cruz, Heber Sánchez Domínguez, and Alex Pretti. They were killed by ICE as part of an ethnic cleansing operation. 

 

It isn’t invisible supernatural beings that make children die of measles. They die because very real human beings believe lies and deprive children of life-saving vaccinations. 

 

It isn’t invisible supernatural beings who kick tens of millions of humans off of health insurance. That was done by Republican politicians, who I am pretty sure are actual human beings, not supernatural demons. Although honestly, it is often difficult to tell, because their souls were sold to evil long ago. 

 

As the Bard said, “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” 

 

Our world has no need to invent invisible supernatural beings to explain our evil. We humans are damn good at doing it ourselves. “The Devil made me do it” has always been bullshit. 

 

The real demons are those internal motivations that we embrace and make part of us - those internal “daemons” that motivate us toward xenophobia, nationalism, resentment, fear, and hate. 

 

Christ himself noted this. The religious hypocrites of his day (and of ours) focus on preventing external “contamination.” Don’t eat the wrong foods, don’t hang out with “those people,” be sure to avoid all “labor” on the Sabbath, and of course look down on those who fail to meet expectations. 

 

Christ’s response was that contamination comes from the inside: it is those internal motivations - the real demons - that contaminate us, because of what comes out of us. 

 

We need to be looking at our fruit. Are you full of goodness, or a whitewashed tomb? Does it match the Fruit of the Spirit? Or does it look a lot more like the Fruit of the Klan? (And yes, MAGA is the 21st Century iteration of the Klan.) 

 

The writer of I Timothy talked about the “doctrine of demons.” It is helpful to understand this in context. 

 

Where does this “doctrine of demons” come from? Well, it comes from “hypocritical liars.” Hey, do we know any of those? It sure describes the Orange Fascist and his followers. And also a hell of a lot of people occupying pulpits. 

 

These false teachers (hey, check out my list of dead ones!) have “seared their consciences with a hot iron.” This is literally the core of MAGA and Christian Nationalism. Just look up “The Sin of Empathy.” These people have literally seared their consciences - the part that might make them hesitate before inflicting violence, hatred, and death on people different from them. That is the point. 

 

But there is also the rest of the passage. A hallmark of the false teachers is that they teach that contamination comes from outside. “Don’t eat that.” “Don’t marry like that.” Concentrating on externals is the way false teachers operate. It distracts from the real evil within, the evil that overflows out of the abundance of our hearts.  

 

Finally, the writer warns against “godless myths and old wives’ tales.” In other words, superstition. Don’t be superstitious. Don’t chase imaginary malevolent supernatural beings. Instead, focus on what is inside of you. If what is inside reflects the love of God, the virtues that lead to good fruit and love of neighbor, the outside will take care of itself. 

 

Don’t worry about the imaginary fake demons. We have enough of the real ones in our world already.