Satanism in Popular Culture

[Spritus1]

Child of God85

The harsh and uncomfortable truth is that we are ALL sinners for all fall short of the glory of God. Every single one of us without exception. At face value the incident you describe is deplorable. However we do not have all the facts.

If the average person were to use the behaviour or words of another which has offended or disappointed us as a reason to leave the Church I am sure we could point to any number of instances. The fact remains that the Church is a hospital for sinners and not a museum of saints.Ultimately it is your choice to walk away based on one incident involving a single catholic who in no way speaks for or represents the Church. Yours seems like an emotional response, a snap judgement of another’s probable sin rather than a calm, reasoned and rational assessment of the situation.

The easy option is to walk away, to throw our hands up and say that’s it, I’m through with the Church. It is much more difficult to stay in the Church with all its faults to help to build the Kingdom of God. Instead of reacting like you did you could have spoken with the woman and expressed your concerns, or to the priest or any number of positive and creative responses. The point is; we are all human, all make mistakes and all sin.

We all need the grace and mercy of God. If you think that witchcraft will lead you anywhere other than to darkness, pain, hate for God and man, fear, confusion, ruin and ultimately to hell, then you are wrong. God explicitly and categorically forbids witchcraft and associated practices and the Church has reaffirmed this throughout the ages. The occult is NOT the answer. It is diabolical, demonic and evil. If you persist in it then that would be tragic for you. But you can be free just by repenting of it, going to confession and resolving NEVER to go down that road again.

 

[mikekle]

I can understand why some people might not like the practice of “handing out money.” Reason, you don’t know what they will do with it. Some will use it to eat. While others will use it for drugs or booze.

Many times, it’s better to use the money to buy homeless food (where they come and eat) or to donate it to groups who give them shelter, provide medical care, teach them a trade, etc.

Handing out money isn’t always the best way to help the poor.

I dont think we should try to tell them HOW to use the money, best to just give it to them, if the church starts telling them how to spend it, it will just drive them away.

 

[Gordon_Sims]

I dont think we should try to tell them HOW to use the money, best to just give it to them, if the church starts telling them how to spend it, it will just drive them away.

If there’s a good chance someone is going to use the money you give them for booze and drugs, are you really helping them with your charity? Not only that, but you invite all sorts of safety issues when you freely give money to the homeless. At one local parish they were doing this with the homeless son of a former parishioner. He was mentally ill and lived at home until his mother died. He started coming to Mass on an irregular basis, started panhandling on the front steps, got some results and started coming regularly. Some of the parishioners sort of “adopted” him and would give him money every Sunday regardless of his appearance or behavior (some weeks he was fine, others he was clearly on something and/or belligerent). On one particularly bad week, someone decided they weren’t going to contribute to whatever it was that exacerbating his condition and refused to give him the $5 or however much they normally gave him, so the young man stabbed him. I’m not saying every homeless person is likely to stab you, but there are better ways to help people than blindly giving them money.

Getting back on topic, I feel this year’s Grammys were a clear sign of Satan’s influence in popular “culture.” While we didn’t watch them, I saw enough from the photos and descriptions online. We’re not big Beyonce fans here, but I made it clear to my daughters that Katy Perry’s music won’t be welcome, either.

 

[Kithrus]

I do not like the idea that the devil has ‘more influence’ he has the same as ever just thanks to media you know about it.

 

[Petaro]

If you thought the Little Mermaid was Satanic, check out Bambi. None of them have a stitch on!!!
Then there was the dyslexic Satanist who worshiped Santa!

I believe in the devil and his works as I specifically rejected him at baptism, but you can go overboard in discerning his presence rather than concentrating on the evil itself in looking to mitigate it within our own influence.

 

[meteoric]

I dont think we should try to tell them HOW to use the money, best to just give it to them, if the church starts telling them how to spend it, it will just drive them away.

I’m not involved with it, but I think at our parish the priest hands out gift cards to fast food places, or bus passes, if people want to leave town. Don’t know that he gives out cash.

Our pastor has repeatedly spoken on God’s love for the poor and our responsibility to them. I’m sorry for what happened at that one parish where they drove the homeless person away. Don’t take that as an indictment of the whole church. Since Christ pointed out to us that we will have the poor with us always, we are not allowed to pretend that they are not there. And they are often among “the least of my brothers”; what we do for them and to them is directly done to Jesus.

Tom A.