The Apostle Paul told the Ephesian believers to “put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Today, some Christian leaders exploit Paul’s words for partisan political purposes, equating the eternal battle between God and Satan with the earthly war between the GOP and Democratic politicians, sometimes called “demoncrats.”
Ours isn’t the first time when political opponents are labeled demonic, says Michael E. Heyes, author of Demons in the USA: From the Anti-Spiritualists to QAnon. During the Civil War, some pro-slavery believers claimed Abraham Lincoln had been elected with the help of the devil and said the president regularly held seances in the White House.
Michael Heyes
“Blaming things on the devil goes cyclically,” Heyes said in an interview. His research shows that demon talk flourishes “when we enter times of significant polarization, times when people look across the aisle and ask, ‘How could someone believe that?’
“The moment we start invoking demons is the moment we need something other than the human to describe how someone else could be so profoundly wrong,” he said.
Demons in the USA examines different periods of demonic fervor in U.S. history:
- In the late 1800s, Christians responded to a boom in spiritualism, including seances, by claiming spiritualists were consorting with demons, not the departed spirits of their dearly beloved.
- After the movie The Exorcist debuted on Christmas Day 1973, the next year witnessed an “exorcism frenzy” during which the film’s fictional demons inspired some Americans to undergo real-life exorcism rituals.
- During the “Satanic Panic” of 1970s and 1980s, pop culture explored demonic themes, including “documentary” films of exorcisms and lurid first-person books from authors claiming to be Satanic insiders, including Christian comedian Mike Warnke, whose popular “Satan Seller” memoir was exposed as a fraud by Christian journalists.
- Panic broke out for real in 1983 in the McMartin preschool case when hundreds of children claimed they had been sexually and even ritually abused at a private California preschool, but a three-year trial yielded no convictions.
Heyes says the earlier Satanic Panic never really passed away but continues to influence Christians today, as he shows in the book’s final chapter on “political demons of the 21st century.”
So far, present-day culture wars haven’t broken out into a full-fledged shooting Civil War, but the political demonization lives on.
In the old days, one had to play with a Ouija board or play Led Zeppelin albums backward to open the gateway to the demonic. Today, some claim the gateway can be opened by voting Democratic.
Last year, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was accused of being possessed by an uppity “Spirit of Jezebel” that seeks authority and control.
Heyes, a religion professor at Lycoming College in Pennsylvania, says he fell into the study of the demonic while studying saints’ lives and Medieval history. He jokingly says, “Any day I can talk about demons is a good day,” but he’s concerned about the current increase in political demonization.
He returned to the U.S. from a conference in Japan amid news of a gunman shooting Democratic politicians and their spouses in Minneapolis. The more Heyes learned about the gunman’s faith journey and connections to teachers associated with the New Apostolic Reformation, the more he saw the killings as an outgrowth of the movement’s demonic rhetoric.
“Some NAR leaders say the demon that inspired child sacrifices to Moloch in Leviticus is the same demon that inspires abortion today, as well as the politicians who make abortion possible in the U.S,” Heyes explained. “Clearly, we have a lot of people who are committed to some pretty extreme rhetoric, at the very least, and at the very worst, to acts that counter those people they perceive as demonized.”
This kind of black-vs.-white, demonic-vs-godly dualism teaches believers to rule out any compromise, understanding or empathy with those who don’t share their views. Any compromise with those under the influence of Satan can only endanger entanglement with Satan, or even demonic possession. Best to steer clear.
Heyes heard such rhetoric in person when he attended the Courage Tour, a touring troupe of pro-Trump “prophets” and GOP leaders that visited seven crucial swing states in the months before the 2024 election.
Lance Wallnau and other entertaining speakers worked the crowd as they promoted Christian nationalism, sowed doubts about COVID and aired conspiracist claims of a Satanic Beast, rising demonic influence, the arrival of a one-world government and impending apocalypse. Vice presidential candidate JD Vance also spoke at the Courage Tour.
Heyes was impressed by the speakers’ showmanship as well as their conviction of their own righteousness and connection with God.
“I was raised in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but this was very much a kind Pentecostal service,” he said. “The speakers were so convinced of their correctness and claimed they heard it all straight from God, in some cases.”
Some might assume the politics of demonization would grow tiring, but many find it energizing.
“You’re a cosmic soldier in the fight between God and the devil,” Heyes said. “You are an important actor in the world and you have special knowledge about how the world works. You are so righteous that the devil has come for you personally.”
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