John Cline
I remember when I used to enjoy watching the Grammy Awards. The musical performances were always really good, if not fantastic. Back in those days, people would complain about the Grammy Awards being too stuffy and out-of-touch. The same can’t be said anymore.
Ben Shapiro (a theological conservative) watched the Grammy Awards this year. Here was his report on the show: ‘The Grammys’ annual trolling of traditionally moral people continued apace this year with a full-on Satanic performance from Sam Smith and Kim Petras. To even note that this happened is to draw fire: “Hey, why are you even noticing? Why do you even care?” This is the Face Tattoo Syndrome™ in action: do something highly provocative, then act shocked and appalled when people are provoked. But there’s something deeper happening here, too. The elite in our society are fully in line with the ideology of Satanic fealty expressed by Smith and Petras.
So what’s the story with Satan and the transgressive ideology? For most of religious history, Satan was the great villain, an emblem of rebellion against the Good and the True, a symbol of resistance to the Holy. When John Milton wrote “Paradise Lost,” (1667) his Satan famously stated, “better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.” Satan was the villain of the piece, abandoning the Good and the True for a personal sense of power. For transgressive poet Percy Shelley, however, Satan was the hero of “Paradise Lost”: “Milton’s Devil as a moral being is as far superior to his God as one who perseveres in some purpose which he has conceived to be excellent in spite of adversity and torture.”
Why did he believe this? Because he believed that the essence of “love” is “liberty,” that the goal of life is subjective “happiness,” and that “religion and morality, as they now stand, compose a practical code of misery and servitude.” This is the message of our modern-day Satanists as well. Religion and morality are evils. Worship of “authenticity,” particularly in the sexual realm, is the highest possible good. Worship Satan by worshipping yourself. Brought to you by Pfizer (the major sponsor of the Grammy Awards ceremony) and Dr. Jill Biden, gang!’
Connected to Shapiro’s comments, and also commenting on the Grammy Awards show, actress and producer Candace Cameron Bure said that she didn’t watch the 65th Grammy Awards Sunday night because they don’t feature any Christian artists. She wrote, “Can we see some of the Christian and gospel artists on the red carpet. Can we see Hillary Scott and Kirk Franklin and Toby Mac and Maverick City, Phil Wickham? I would really like that.”
The artists Bure mentioned were all at the Grammy Awards and nominated for awards but none of them were invited to perform or to be shown on the red carpet.
In addition, well-known worship leader Sean Feucht told ChurchLeaders.com that Christians are witnessing “the worst filth, demonic, pornographic, perverted songs. What frustrates me is that we do not see enough believers in the industry speaking out against it…We see people almost embracing the affection of the world.”
Because I didn’t watch the Grammy Awards, I can’t comment directly on it, but I will say that I gave up watching it a few years ago when it was evident that Christian artists were obviously being sidelined and morality replaced with troubling performances which revel in Satan and immorality. While theological satanism is not very common, the worship of the self – what we might call secular satanism – is the predominant religion of our culture. Most of the “art” produced these days glorifies that kind of satanism. This is not a good thing for individuals or for our society. In the Old Testament, the worship of other deities (idols) was prevalent and that is why the first two of the Ten Commandments find God forbidding the worship of anyone but Himself. Those idols were later in Old Testament times identified as being demons. By the time of the New Testament, a fuller understanding had emerged; that Satan was the enemy of God and fallen angels were his servants who created havoc on the earth. It is time to heed God’s wishes. Otherwise, we are in deep trouble in our society.
