The fires are out, and the smoke has cleared… or so it seems. On February 5th of this year, the 65th Annual Grammy Awards featured a sadomasochistic depiction of Satan performing a song called “Unholy.” It was a fire, smoke, and red-light extravaganza. But it has already become old news. It happened a month ago and in modern America, that might as well be ten years ago. Also, there have been similar performances in the past. They have become old hat, trite, and predictable. But this time, there was a difference, and that difference is chilling.
In many ways, it seemed passé. Elon Musk tweeted that the Grammy performance had “an end of days vibe.” But later he added, “If that’s Satan, we have nothing to worry about.” Breitbart’s Paul Bois made a similar point. “Leading up to Sunday’s performance, Sam Smith promised that it would likely anger Christians and cause protests at CBS for what he described as satanic imagery. As it turns out, the imagery was just a few items of clothing removed from a Looney Tunes episode.”
Musk and Bois are right. It did look ridiculous. But the performers, much of the audience, and CBS seemed to take it seriously. They were especially serious about offending Christians. We live in a society where offending one person can get Christmas banned from a local library. Yet CBS, the Grammys, and their sponsors chose to intentionally offend millions.
Satan-related music is not new, so what made this different? Was it music-industry heavyweights in the audience applauding deliriously when the song ended? No. Been there, seen that. Instead, it was something done before the show even started — something done by the staid old broadcasting network, CBS. Smith had said in advance that the performance would be Satan-themed and would offend Christians. CBS responded, “We are ready to worship!”
It was chilling because CBS knew that a huge number of its viewers would find the “worship” tweet even more offensive than Smith’s performance. And they didn’t care. The Media Research Center asked the obvious question. “Did CBS just admit it worships Satan?”
Fifty years ago, I wrote a book called Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth. Over and over, I warned anyone who would listen that the seeds of great evil were being planted in our society. The book sold well, but too few took the warnings seriously. Today, those seeds have grown into a massive forest, and they are bearing the fruit of sadness, brokenness, mental illness, and death.
CBS eventually took down their “worship” tweet, but it did so quietly and without apology. As far as I can find, none of the Grammys’ sponsors issued an apology for foisting this horror on our young. Pfizer emphasized that it sponsored the whole show, not just one song. But the whole show included the one song. Others not only advertised, but are considered “official” Grammy sponsors. They include corporate behemoths such as IBM, Google, Mastercard, Amazon, United Airlines, and Hilton.
Satanists tell us that their religion is about “benevolence and empathy.” But their name belies that. Whether or not they believe in an actual devil, they have chosen him for their symbol. And he is a figure straight from the pages of the Bible. He is the world’s chief promoter of war, murder, rape, theft, oppression, abuse, violence, destroyed lives, and broken nations.
You might ask why corporate America would willingly offend — and offend on a deep level — a quarter or more of their potential customers. That’s a good question. Christians spend money, too. But we should also be asking an even more important question. Why would corporate America openly embrace a figure who stands for war, murder, rape, abuse, etc.? And why would they encourage kids to embrace such evil?
The darkness is palpable now. But as we draw closer to the end of the age, we are also drawing closer to the beginning of a new age.
In the darkness of these times, we must shine the light of Christ. And on a personal level, we need to draw ever closer to Him, knowing that He is infinitely greater than all evil combined.
