WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Word to the Wise: Hallowisdom

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

A critical commentary on society's interest in spiritual darkness, especially around Halloween time.

Hey, everybody. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7. My name is Ariel McDowell. And I'm her brother Judah McDowell, and this is Word to the Wise. We're we critically and humorously scrutinize anything significant in pop culture today. Hello, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us today. How are you guys doing? They can't really answer you, Ariel. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's not really how that works, is it? No, it's not. Anyway, Thank you guys so much for being here. Today is a special episode because we are airing during October, which means it is Halloween edition.

Woo-hoo! So we're going to be talking about Halloween and other very spooky things. So you're going to want to stick around to hear what we have to say. Yeah, we got plenty of hot takes, so stick with us. Okay, so this isn't like an insanely controversial topic, but it can, like, you know, it can get on some people's nerves one way or the other. And so one thing people like to bring up a lot when they're talking about Halloween, especially between Christians, if they're having that conversation, is where did Halloween come from?

The thing is that's a little bit debatable because it's sort of a mesh of a lot of different cultures practices, some of which should be celebrated, some of which should be condemned. And instead of talking about any of its history, we are just going to talk about what it is today, in today's culture. Because that's something we, it's really the only part that actually matters, right? If in today's culture it's a good thing, then it's a good thing. And if in today's culture, it has some bad elements, it has some bad elements. And so we're just mostly going to be talking about it through that lens. We're not too worried about the various things that led to its creation.

And I want to add, like, it's not that it doesn't matter at all where Halloween came from or what its origins are, but I think what we're trying to focus on here is people's hearts, just like always. And so where are people's hearts at during Halloween? And I think there's people's hearts are in a very good place, and, you know, sometimes it's not. sometimes people's intentions, especially when it can come to a holiday like Halloween, can get kind of dark. Right, exactly. So the problem is not dressing up, the problem is not going door to door, the problem is not candy. We did all those things as kids and we have no issue with them at all.

Yeah, like it can totally be fun and it's not like somehow magically on October 31st, all of those activities, which can be totally innocent, become unholy. Like, that wouldn't make any sense. Right. I think the main issue, which we want to cover here today, is just this cultural interest in the spiritual. I think there's... Specifically a fascination with spiritual darkness. Exactly.

I don't think there's any question that Halloween is often very spiritual. If you look at the movies that come out, any of the things, some of the monsters, ghosts, goals, whatever, the decorations, people use the costumes. It's spiritual. And many... And it's meant to be. So when... People say, hey, there's something spiritual about this. And you're like, oh, don't make it so spiritual.

Like, it's just, like, it's practical. It's fun. It's a holiday. Like, well, yeah, but the whole aesthetic is meant to revolve around the spiritual. And I'm, like, acknowledging what's absolutely there. And you're, like, gaslighting me into like, no, it's got nothing to do with that. Yes, it does. Like, every single decoration, every single aesthetic is revolving around what I am currently

pointing out. Right. And lots of people will probably tell you they don't even believe in any of that. So it's not a big deal. which is like, okay, that's one thing. But if you don't believe in the spiritual, why is there such a big, like, fascination? Yeah, why are you so fascinated with it?

And why specifically the dark side of it? Why specifically all the, all the demonic things? Right, because it's just undeniable that Halloween revolves around what is meant to be, if I'm going to use the vague and most, the vagest and most bland word out there is bad. It revolves around the bad. Like, it's supposed to be. like an uglier rotting body is on your front porch. Like there's not meant to be beauty.

The point of that decoration is its ugly scariness. Yeah. Witchcraft, right? You dress up as a witch because she's doing witchcraft, which the only thing that defines that spiritual power is that it's wicked evil power. Like, it's supposed to be a celebration of the bad. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's an,

Excellent point. And I think, I think that's very key because you people will often, like, you know, if you're discussing this, be like, well, do you watch these movies that are like a little bit scary? Like, I don't know, do you watch a quiet place? And I'm like, it's, it's different because there's a big difference between, you know, a story that has evil and scary, superhero movies that have, you know, scary villains and an entire holiday that people center around having the scariest, evilest thing they possibly can. Right. Like, Star Wars has bad guys, and those bad guys are actually scary. Like, they torture people. That's pretty scary. The Bible has some terrifying stories. Crucifixion is a grueling death. Like, there is plenty of scary content. And there's a separate conversation that can be had about age and when you expose someone to what kind of scary content. But we're not talking about degree of scariness. That's what people always, that's the common misconception, right? People always think you're talking about the degree of scariness you are allowed to expose yourself to. But that's not what this is about, right? Like, war movies are terrifying, but they're good often, not always, but like saving Private Ryan, right? Hacksaw Ridge. It's about something good. That is the purpose. It is meant to edify. And Halloween is meant to, and again, I don't think this is debatable. Like I pointed out with the direction, sorry, decoration. Like, the point is that it is the opposite. Right. It's not like, there are bad guys and we're defeating them.

Like literally, that is not, no one who is celebrating and obsessed with Halloween and really loves it and loves doing the decorating will even tell you that. They're like, no, it's about the eerieness. It's about the ghosts. It's about the demons. It's about how creepy that crackly laugh of the rotting body on my front porch. Like, it doesn't make sense. It is a celebratory. of the bad. And I don't, I've never heard anyone even try to offer a justification for why that is, literally in my life. If your experience is,

different than that. If your experience is different than that. Like, you don't need to come crying like, well, my celebration of Halloween has nothing to do with that. Like, okay, cool. Like, if you're celebrating, all of you are dressing up as like your favorite Disney characters and you're just going trick or cheating and you just have fun little goofy ghost decorations on your lawn. No problem.

We're not talking to you. We're talking about the general spirit around this holiday, around the things people. do. If it doesn't apply to you, it doesn't apply to you. That's fine. That's great. But like, and that's, the next thing we want to talk about is this isn't just a Halloween thing. Our culture is just fascinated and in love with spiritual darkness. Yeah. And for those of you who are just tuning in to listen to us, this is Word to the Wise on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Judah McDowell and I'm here with my sister Ariel McDowell and we are talking about Halloween and just the general spiritual focus in culture.

So we're going to jump into an example here. What's a game that all young kids, or especially boys, love? Fortnite is a great game. It was very popular when I was in middle school. It still is very popular. I no longer play it, but I have a younger brother who does like the game a lot. And I know a lot of people, even my age, ranging to much younger, who play the game.

and, you know, I'm not going to sit here and hate on the game at all. I used to enjoy it a lot, and I think there's a lot of good aspects of it and things that are really fun for people. But every year, they do this thing called Fort Nightmares, which is basically an event that's, you know, Halloween-based. And they, you know, they have their own little scary things, zombies in the game. It's honestly not that bad. Like, I never had a major problem with it. But this year, they added this character who's from Marvel. They do a lot of team-ups with Marvel.

And the character from Marvel, his name is Mephisto. And, or I think that's how you pronounce it. Anyway, Mephisto in the actual Marvel comics is a character who, I mean, he's basically Satan. He's Satan. He's Satan. So if you look at the comics, like he's technically not Lucifer. They actually clarify that. That's just what humans compare him to because that's what humans know.

But he's, he essentially is. He's a Satan looking figure who. He's red with horns. Yeah, he's red with horns. He rules over his own realm, which is essentially hell. He has a lot of lower people who serve him, which they're demons. And he, you know, takes dead people's souls and takes them and tortures them in his realm. He's essentially Satan.

That's what Satan does. But we're not, like, Marvel is that. But Disney, um, Fortnite brings it in and puts it in their game. And, you know, there's this thing where as a, he's an NPC and you can walk up to him. No one knows what that means. Do you to go ahead, clarify. Well, basically, he's not a player in the game. He's just a kind of a guy who walks around and you can talk to and he has like voice lines.

So you can walk up to him and you can actually give some of your health in the game, health that you have, to either get a gun or to revive one of your teammates. So that's basically what it is. Give this much HP to gain a teammate back or a gun. And, you know, it seems harmless enough. There's things like that in a game, except that if you look into this Marvel character, he tries to get people to sell their souls to him. That is something that this character does.

And in this game, you are giving part of yourself to gain something. Right. So that may look innocent on the surface, but then when you do the digging we did, you're selling your soul in a game, which, you know, even though that's not literally what you're doing, it's like, why is that in there? And it just adds this obsession with, you know, it's just a simple kids game. It's innocent. Why is that in there?

There's no reason for it. Right. And it's not so much like, oh, no, look at the harm that this character who looks like this, if you walk up to him and you give him money in Fortnite, that will probably have spiritual consequences. I mean, I kind of doubt it because you're just not exposed enough to the actual comics or anything he does. And you spend like three seconds with him on screen. The reason we actually point out this anecdote is purely for the purpose of what we said earlier, pointing out our culture's fascination and just being in love with spiritual darkness.

And that's one example out of many. And we're going to get into some more that I think are far more, that are actually far more dangerous and actually reflect really, really creepy things in people's hearts. And I'm noticing that parents like don't seem to think that it matters. Like the only thing that matters to them is age. Like, oh, well, as long as they're 12, you know, well, we're not talking about degree of scariness. Like, I wouldn't let my child watch Hacksaw Ridge when they were seven, but I would let them when they were older because, like I said, it's a good thing. It's an edifying thing. Some of these things are just not edifying at all. Like, and so why do we celebrate them? And so that's, that's what we're really

talking about. And this character is just an example. Like, why did you put Satan in Fortnite? Okay. So let's talk horror movies. One of the fastest growing genres of movies. I mean, I don't actually have the statistics on that. Is it actually growing or is it just always popular? I mean, I'm not sure. But everyone I know basically just loves horror movies. Like back in high school, it's one of the most popular things. People love horror movies. I personally don't like horror movies simply for the fact that I get scared. Like that's genuinely it. Like I just like, I get scared watching like thriller movies. Like Monsters Inc. You know, no, I'm just kidding. Not Monster Inc. But I scared pretty easily so I don't like

horror movies. But also that's like kind of reasonable to like not seek your own fright. Yeah. But based on what we've already been talking about, why do people like horror movies so much? I think it's just they I don't know.

It taps into something in their soul that like they have power over it like it's not real. But they get to play with the ideas of ultimate darkness without actually experiencing any of its consequences.

Like, they get to be fascinated by the, like, creepiest things. But they don't have to go to the actual creepy places and experience the worst of it. Yeah, yeah. That's probably, honestly, that sounds like it's part of it. And the adrenaline is part of it, but that part's not wrong. Like a thriller, you know, just suspense. None of that's the, none of that's problematic. I don't think.

Right. So some of you might be wondering, like, what do horror movies really have to do with what we've been talking about? Because there are plenty of horror movies that aren't, you know, demonic. But I think we were trying to say that most of them are. Like, if you think of the ones you can, like, think about off the top of your head, right? What are you, like, the nun? Right. Like, it came out a few years ago.

That's a super proper one. It's literally about a demon clown. Smile. Smiles. Demon possession. And I think that. is, you know, just another testament to what we've been saying this entire episode, which is that people love to talk about and look at these spiritual things.

But like, they're horrible. Like, it's always bad. It's like, why would you spend an hour and a half, if not two hours, with, like, a possessed doll child? Because if that was real, you'd run, right? So why are you going to spend time with it? and I guess the answer is a little different from someone who's just like, well, it's just fake. So it sort of gives me this sense of there being something real spiritually.

And I actually think that that's really reflective of what they're looking for in life. I think they're looking for what's real and they sense something very real in that level of spiritual darkness. Though, of course, you know, they're looking for the darkness, which shows the part of their souls that's probably pretty sick. But I just want to, I think it's, and this, you know, this is the controversial part. the hot take. I think it's hypocritical of Christians who know it's real. I think it's, if you believe that demons are the reasons, you know, the source of evil, if Satan is the source of evil, then like you, Christians are rightly very sensitive to, for instance, Hitler in the things he said and did. They're rightly very sensitive to the, to the worst

people in human history who have done the most atrocious things. And, Satan and his demons and possession and all of these things of spiritual darkness are so much darker, so much worse. Like they are the source of the worst atrocities. They are the grossest in the darkest. And for you to be like, you know, it's just so hypocritical to be like, man, super sensitive to who Hitler was, but not to Satan. Like you're completely correct in being super angry at Hitler and his actions.

but Satan is like times a million. Like it's Satan and his demons and their wicked works of darkness misleading the human heart. You cannot get worse. And your daughter is dressing up like a witch for Halloween. I just don't, I don't, I think it's wrong. Ephesion 612, many of you all heard the verse. It says, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And so it's not just hypocritical, but also just stupid. Because we know that our battle in this world is against actual spiritual things, but you're like, oh, well, these aren't the real spiritual things. They're the fake ones. You don't think that there's something actually real inside of entertainment. You don't think media has anything to do with what's real.

Right. I don't think, you know, it's easy to be like super condemned by what we're saying here. I don't, I think a lot of it might be up to your conviction. I don't think every single scary movie is bad. Because like we said, I like the movie A Quiet Place. Like, where is the line gone? There's a gray area, and there's definitely some room for Christian freedom. But demons are not where that room is.

Yeah, exactly. Satan is not where that room is. Witchcraft is not where that room is. There's no, there's nothing up for debate there. Scripture makes that pretty clear. So one thing that's interesting about this is, I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but when I was like 10 or 11, 5th grade,

I don't remember my peers watching very many horror movies. I think our favorite things were like Marvel, whatever. But most recently at this last summer, I was actually a counselor at a camp, and I was in charge of some fourth and fifth graders. And a lot of them had experience with spiritual stuff, especially horror movies and games. And I was, frankly, I was appalled.

I don't understand that. It's kind of horrifying. And that just sets you up. so badly. Like, if you drench yourself in like the worst of evil, in the feelings, like, those extremely dark feelings, the ideas of murderous rage or just silent, eerie contentment, like, you know what I'm talking about. Like, there are actual spiritual. It's so palpable. And if you drench yourself in that growing up, think about how much your walls are down. You're going to be so much less sensitive to evil.

than you should be when you're 12, 13, 14, 15, less things will shock you. And I don't think that's, I'm not arguing for naivity here. Like, I wouldn't want you to not, like, just be shocked because you're scared and you don't know anything. But you can be completely knowledgeable, completely secure in yourself, and still have an acute and healthy sensitivity to what's, like, disgusting or evil. and the more you drench yourself in things that are full of cruelty and darkness, that acute sensitivity gets worn down and worn down and worn down until you have like no walls left. And if you're sending in your kids into adulthood that way, that's, that's a bad setup. Like you're in for some trouble. And that absolutely is affecting their hearts.

And if you think it's not, I don't know what to tell you. Absolutely. And that's always how it is. I mean, when we, in media, like movies, songs, like, we love superhero movies. Why? Because we love the inspiration we get from these heroic characters and how it makes us feel. Media, songs, movies, they make us feel a certain way. And we love the way that they can inspire us and make us feel all these heroic, virtuous things.

And they reflect something real. They reflect an aspect of reality. And the more does the opposite. Instead of helping you to feel this virtue, you're feeling. evil. Yeah. And that's the presence. That's what the feel is.

Even if there's nothing real about the spiritual, that's the entire point of the movie is you're feeling evil. Yeah. Exposing yourself to it. Yeah. You're not sitting there exposing yourself to the demonic possession so you could be like, oh my goodness, Satan is so evil. Like that's not your reaction and it's not meant to be and it's not set up so that it is.

Like you can't make that argument. I know I'm not dumb. Like I know that's not why people watch horror movies. to be more indignant at evil. People have literally told me that they like to watch horror movies so that they can feel something. I've been told that. It's like to feel something.

Right. And it's like that's what you're choosing to feel. Like, do you want to be made sicker? That's what it sounds like. True. So to wrap things up here, basically the problem is not Halloween. The problem we're talking about

just manifests itself often when Halloween comes around, which is an obsession with, spiritual darkness. And a love of it and a liking of it. As a society, it's kind of like we're drinking cyanide and wondering why we're dying and attributing the problem to anything but what most obviously is at least some good part of the problem, such as, you know, enjoying the company of demons in your household around your children.

And it's like you want a home full of joy, love, and peace. At the bare minimum, you can start by like celebrating what is good and condemning what is evil. And this might seem very simple, but the decorations on most people's porches will show that they aren't even trying the seemingly obvious strategy. Yeah, that's very important. Anyway, guys, when the 31st comes around, just go have some fun. Dress up, get some candy, have a fun time with your kids or your family or whoever you're with on Halloween. Just be aware, both at Halloween time and throughout the year, that sometimes, you know, there's celebration of evil and darkness, and you have to be on the lookout for it. Watch out for that.

Absolutely, guys. Go out there and enjoy your Halloween. Well, thank you so much for tuning in. We really appreciate you joining us this week. My name is Ariel McDowell. I've been here with my brother Judah McDowell, and you were listening to Word to the Wise on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. Have a great week.