We Lock our Doors to Physical Dangers, But Leave our Minds Open to Spiritual Enemies

I spent several years living with my family in an industrial Northwest Indiana town not far from south Chicago. Once a thriving cluster of steel communities, this area has suffered economically and socially; needless to say, it’s not the safest neck of the woods. Many a morning we’d wake up to yet another front page story detailing the latest homicide, and hardly a day went by when we weren’t serenaded by the sound of police sirens in the distance.

While I don’t know anyone—regardless of where they live—who doesn’t lock their house and car, there was never a time in our lives during which we were more thankful for those blessed locks than when we lived in that area. Locks secure the doors that keep whatever we don’t want inside, out.

[sharequote align="center"]Locks secure the doors that keep whatever we don’t want inside, out.[/sharequote]

The iconic author and American pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder tells a similar story in "Little House on the Prairie" as she described their home-in-progress on the plains of Kansas. The cabin was complete, except for the door. Her mother hung a quilt over the opening, and in the meantime all that stood between the vast prairie and the Ingalls family was their watchdog and Pa Ingalls’ gun. Laura writes of a night where the howl of a wolf woke her from her sleep, and she quickly realized that as her father and their dog stood guard in the open doorway, a pack of wolves had entirely surrounded the little cabin. They dared not come near so long as Pa stood guard, but it was glaringly obvious they had come for a meal. Needless to say, the very next day, Pa finished “two stout doors;”one for the house and one for the stable.

Would you ever leave the door to your home hanging wide open when you leave in the morning? Would you leave it open as you go to bed for the night? Highly unlikely. In fact most of us probably double check that the lock’s in place before we leave and before we go to sleep. We want to ensure the safety and well-being of everything and everyone inside.

What about the door to our souls?

We’re all deeply familiar with the way that the entertainment industry incessantly pushes the envelope on morality. Of late, however, it’s been taken to an entirely new level; or rather, to entirely new depths. Most recently, Katy Perry’s performance at the Grammys was a very public celebration of a trend that’s been percolating quietly, but stealthily infiltrating for some time now.

Katy Perry performs "Dark Horse" at the 56th annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP) 

Perry, known for her typically outrageous displays, performed her new single "Dark Horse" on a decidedly dark set, making no bones about the ritual she was emulating on stage. She was clearly dressed as a witch, surrounded by horned creatures, an altar, minions of some sort, and a visual image of a red-eyed black horse that looked like it came straight from hell.

While outlets like "E! Online" tweeted what appeared to be some level of shock at the display, for the most part her performance came and went—and a few days later it is well within the annals of awards show history. She’s just one of many . . . and our society’s getting numb.

Perry joins a long list of current artists sprinkling their work with shout-outs to satanic cults and activity; from Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s obsession with hat tips to the Illuminati, to Nicki Minaj’s on-stage reenactment of an exorcism, to Kanye West’s rapping about “selling his soul to the devil,” Ms. Perry certainly isn’t a trailblazer.

And it’s not just music. Our television sets, movie theaters, and literature are full of references to the occult, Satanism, and demonic activities. Indeed, it’s difficult to avoid.

The dark side of the supernatural has been in the news a lot lately, but not as entertainment.

Latoya Ammons speaks out about the purported demonic possessions she experienced (Image source: Indianapolis Star) 

Let’s return to Northwest Indiana for a moment; Gary, Ind. to be precise. In a story that has many in absolute bewilderment, two children exhibited behavior that seems undeniably indicative of demonic possession, and it seems to be corroborated by more than one credible witness. From the eerie noises emanating from the basement, to the young girl’s levitating above a bed in her sleep and the young boy’s growling and walking backwards up a wall to the ceiling, it is an unnerving account.

At the risk of trivializing what is absolutely a sad, scary event, nevertheless here’s the honest-to-goodness truth:

This shouldn’t shock anyone.

Is it disturbing? Without a doubt. Is it worrisome? Absolutely. But it shouldn’t surprise us in the least.

We shut and lock the doors to our homes to keep the dangers out. Yet once inside, we turn on our televisions and our music and leave the door wide open to our souls.

Is it really any wonder, then, that these sorts of things occur?

It’s time that as a society, we begin to draw the line. There is good, and there is evil. Let’s glorify the right one.

Feature Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

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