Good afternoon, this is David McManus. I am the student pastor at Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I'm just going to give a little talk on a news and focus topic, an article that I came across on foxnews.com. The title of the article is, Pop Artists Turning to Satanic Imagery to Drum Up Controversy, Sales Experts Say. This article was published on April 19th. 2012, the author's name is Joe Piazza. And this is a topic that's close to my heart, being a student pastor, knowing what is out there and what is being promoted to our young people, what they're taking in when they're on TV, when they're watching the MTV's and the VH1's and the different networks that are out there when they're on the internet. and the different things that they come across when they listen to the radio. And so often we just take in what's out there. And as Christians we have a higher responsibility than to just absorb what the culture gives us. And the verse that I always use in many of my apologetics talks is Romans 12. It says and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God? So what I'm always stressing is that? We are transformed by the renewing of our mind. We have to think differently We actually have to use this brain that God gave us to prove what's good. What's acceptable? What what's the perfect will of God and that should be very different than what the world? Gives us so that being said This article develops a case for what these new music acts are doing in using some very satanic themes in order to get attention. And this is nothing new. For those of you that have grown up in previous decades, you know that this whole fascination with Satan, this employment of satanic images, whether it be pentagrams and more gothic type imagery, for lack of a better term, has been around for a long time. A little before my time in the seventies, many of you are probably familiar with bands like Black Sabbath, with bands like Led Zeppelin that used occult-like things, symbols, and that kind of thing. And they were If not outright Satan oriented stuff, there was definitely references there. And they definitely at least wanted you to think that way. That kind of morphed into the 80s where we see that again. In my unsaved days, growing up as a heavy metal kid in the late 80s and early 90s, I came across bands like Motley Crue and Slayer and Judas Priest and ACDC. Bands that outwardly referenced the devil, outwardly referenced Satan. And again, whether or not they were outwardly Satanist might be up for debate. But there were definitely themes that were going on there. Now my contention is that these bands their portrayal of these things was very out in the open. You know, you can look at these bands back in the seventies and the eighties and they were very up front with these images. And so as a discerning believer, it's very easy to view those kinds of bands and those kind of performances and say, okay, something's not quite right here. I can see the images that you're using. I can kind of hear what's being said there. This probably meets the pinnacle of all this, probably late 90s, early 2000s, with bands like Marilyn Manson, who outwardly went out of his way. A member of the satanic church, for lack of a better term. Church doesn't really apply there. where he was outwardly going after Christianity. And we as believers can look at that and none of us look at Marilyn Manson and say, wow, maybe he's just okay, this is something we can look at and we can still feel good about ourselves. That's something that we're pretty smart about. We can see these blatant attacks, this darkness that takes things in. But what I'm talking about in this article and what they're writing about in this article is this new portrayal of these satanic things. One of the artists that is brought up is Nicki Minaj. Many of our kids are listening to her music. She has an album called Pink Friday, Roman Reloaded. She did a Grammy performance this year. I didn't watch the Grammys, but I've seen pictures and seen clips. During her performance, she acted out an exorcism on stage. Obviously, this was a ploy to get some attention. And in interviews, she plays it up. She's even said that she believes that she has a demon that lives inside of her, whose name is Roman. That's where we get the Roman reloaded part. She said, I had this vision for Roman. I had this vision for him to be sort of exercised. People around him tell him he's not good enough because he's not normal, and he's not blending in with the average Joe. People around him are afraid because they've never seen anything like him. Not only is he amazing, sure of himself, and confident, but he's never going to be exercised. Even when they throw the holy water on him, he rises above. So you see the positive portrayal that she's putting on this, for lack of a better term, demon possession. this exorcism that she portrays. And notice how she paints the demon as the social outsider, as the one that's rejected by the mainstream. But he's amazing, he's talented, he's smart, but the world just doesn't understand him. I would argue that's a very appealing portrayal for a lot of our young people with our family situations the way they are. Her album, the Pink Friday Roman Reloaded album, debuted at number one last week with 250,000 album sales. So 250,000 albums in one week. These things are getting out to many ears, most of them young. They've got some quotes from a developmental psychologist in the article, Shoshana Dianam. She studies the effects of media on children. And she says, when a younger child sees satanic imagery, it typically only sees it as a cartoon devil that they might dress up for as Halloween. However, for a preteen or an adolescent, a time in development when a child is trying things out for size. and exploring their identity, these images can have a much deeper resonance. So are they not targeting the children that feel a little bit outside the mainstream, targeting the kids that feel already like outsiders, and making this a very appealing thing, this reject things like church, reject things like truth, and embrace these demonic things that give you identity. She says, at a time when risky behavior is often part of identity exploration, the idolization of satanic imagery can serve as an impetus for risky behavior. If a teenager relates a satanic image with something cool or someone they aspire to be, like these artists, even if they do not understand what it means, they may later come into contact with the real thing, demons, satanism, and transfer those desires of who they wish they could be to unhealthy, risky, and dangerous behavior. Obviously, no positive behavior is being is being suggested through these performances. It can't help but lead to a darker worldview, a more negative, cynical view of what is right and what is good and what is acceptable. The article goes on to cite several other artists that employ these satanic images and these satanic themes. Lady Gaga is mentioned, Kanye West, And a guy named Tyler the Creator, he is a rapper. He won MTV's Best New Artist this year. And all these guys have claimed, and girls, have claimed the Devil as their own to drive up their record sales. I listened to several cuts from Tyler the Creator this morning. And it's it's pretty frightening. So if you do come across Tyler the creator in any of your your children's iPods or mp3s Take a listen and you'll be you'll be shocked at what you what you hear he goes so far as to call himself The son of Satan he calls himself Satan's son in his very politically expediently titled song called Bastard. His group is called the Triple Six Crew, so obviously that gives us the 666 number. In one of his other songs that I listened to, one of his lyrics was that God is the cancer. He badmouths church throughout his lyrics. Lady Gaga, we're probably, even those of us that don't dabble in the mainstream have probably heard of her and some of her shock lyric tactics. If you search her name, and the article says if you do a simple Google search of her name, you'll see everything about her being a servant to Satan, which she does not deny, to her involvement with the Illuminati, which we'll talk about in just a second. And then other artists like Kanye West, Jay-Z, these guys are usually lumped in that same group with this group, the Illuminati. Now, the Illuminati goes way back, a secret society sort of thing. the most powerful men in the world that are in this secret society that really kind of run the world. They have expanded to include entertainers and actors and things like that in the modern viewpoint of it. Whether it's true or not is extremely debatable but these guys definitely cite it and they definitely use it for their own marketing purposes. But when we talk about Kanye West who has a song called Jesus Walks uh... who if you just kinda look at that you go wow he's he's rapping about jesus uh... but he also has songs about uh... uh... promiscuity and alcohol and drug use uh... and then claims his affiliation with this Illuminati uh... Jay Z who's probably one of the more influential rappers of the last ten fifteen years uh... his nickname is Jay Hova he basically calls himself God uh... and he and his wife Beyonce actually pump up this connection with the Illuminati as well. So all that being said, I think the main idea that I wanted to get across here is that in the 70s and 80s, It was very easy to tell, all right, that's not quite right. We could look at a band, say, like Kiss, a band like Black Sabbath, a band like Judas Priest, and we can see the names, we can see the things that are being portrayed there and go, okay, something's not quite right here. Maybe we need to move away from this. This is not something our kids need to be listening to. Well, nowadays it's a lot more subtle. And we are so ingrained in this hip-hop culture as far as music goes. that it's become prevalent in a way that people do not recognize. A lot of kids will tell you, you'll bring them up and you'll say, you know, well why would you listen to that? And they'll say, well I don't really listen to the lyrics, I just listen to the beats, I just like the beat in this. But that's really a faulty way to think about it because you are listening to the lyrics and those things are going into our minds. It's an easily rationalized genre to say, you know, well look, they're fine. They're just regular people. It's a style. It's a lifestyle. It's a culture. And it doesn't really matter what they're saying because that's not what I'm into. But I think that's a pretty foolish way to approach a music genre. It's influencing our kids. It's a cultural phenomenon. It is everywhere. Hip-hop has pretty much infiltrated everything. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not going to stand here and say that I'm anti-hip-hop. I'm not going to say that I've never listened to hip-hop music. But the fact of the matter is, if you want hip hop music, there are very many options in the Christian world of hip hop music. Not only is it just as good as the secular stuff, it is intelligent. Most of these guys are actually very theologically sound. So, if you're looking for Christian hip-hop, look at a Lecrae, look at a Tripoli, look at a Flame, look at these guys that are rapping about glorifying things, that are rapping about Christ, intelligent lyrics, good beats if that's what the kids are looking for, and on top of that, they're very theologically sound. So, the idea that, well, there's nothing else to listen to, which may have been true in the Christian world 10-15 years ago, is not true anymore. And so, my goal in bringing this out is, there are satanic forces everywhere, and Satan is smarter than we give him credit for. We may not fall for the blatant stuff. It's the undercover stuff that we have to worry about It's the stuff that sneaks in under our noses That we need to worry about CS Lewis talks about it in mere Christianity the best slope to hell is a gradual one Nobody drops into hell people slide into hell when they don't realize it and all of a sudden. It's too late That's what we've got to look out for with this movement, so I would say Check on what your kids are listening to. Make sure you realize the worldviews that are being put forth in the music that they're listening to because music is such a large part of our culture. Everybody's got an iPod. Everybody's got an iPhone with the headphones. They can listen to their music. We need to be on top of this. We can't just have our head in the sand and allow these men and women to influence our kids when we should be the ones that are taking charge of that and pointing them towards Christ. So that's my challenge to you today. Let's not let it slide. Let's not let that gradual slope even appear. Let's stand for truth as these artists obviously are totally against that. The article talks about how it used to be sex that brought you in the media attention. Well now they're taking a more demonic route and people are just swallowing it. Spoonful after spoonful. So let's pray for these people. Let's protect our kids. Let's renew our minds and be better Christians for it. Have a blessed day.