It’s kind of an unspoken rule among believers and patriots: If you aren’t getting denounced by the usual suspects, you’re likely not doing things right. Nothing lifts my spirits more than when Right Wing Watch excerpts one of my choicest moments on The Eric Metaxas Show. When I see a group targeted by the Southern Poverty Law Center, its odds of getting a check from me shoot through the roof. I wear my permanent Twitter ban like a Bronze Star for combat.

But it’s rare that a single hit piece by a leftist “media watchdog” gets virtually everything right about our culture and theology, sheerly by accident. Or rather, via the negative infallibility granted to people who are steadfastly wrong about everything (see William Kristol).

Media Matters Reports on Spiritual Warfare

The latest piece from Media Matters is a virtual user’s guide to spiritually trustworthy commentary in the United States today. It begins:

Right-wing media figures are ramping up apocalyptic political rhetoric that literally demonizes LGBTQ people, perceived political enemies, and progressive causes, with some absurdly suggesting that demons are using portals to enter Earth and wage “spiritual war” against humanity.

Rhetoric about “demonic” influence and an existential, “spiritual” war has become a hallmark of right-wing punditry and Republican politics ​​ahead of the 2024 elections, as Christian nationalism grows in popularity among Republican voters. Language that demonizes and dehumanizes political opponents has been a staple of right-wing commentary for years, but these recent accusations are not simple rhetorical flourishes; a number of media figures have begun to warn their audiences about occult rituals from the left and supposed portals to hell from which demons would enter the Earth.

Yep, that’s exactly what’s happening, as I’ve explained here in patient, sober detail on several occasions. (See especially this piece, “My Pronoun Is ‘Legion.’”) When schools are teaching kids to use the pronoun “they” (evoking the Gadarene demons), transgender terrorists are shooting up Christian churches, and the Temple of Satan is filing legal briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court claiming that abortion is its religious ritual, to deny what’s actually happening would take a Christian with a brain of stone.

So I’m honored and moved to be mentioned in this report, along with my old friend Eric Metaxas:

Salem Radio host Eric Metaxas and his guest John Zmirak proclaimed that Satan himself was behind the LGBTQ rights movement, with Zmirak decrying “blasphemous drag queen rituals, in your church, mocking Christ” and comparing the Pride flag to an inverted pentagram, claiming Satan “wants you to use the pronoun they.” Metaxas then warned his audience that if they did not boycott companies that celebrate Pride Month, they would be comparable to Germans who failed to stop the Holocaust, saying, “The death camps were the result of good people saying, ‘I don’t want to deal with this. Just let me live my life.’”

I’d like to thank the Academy, my agent, the producers … okay, just kidding. I’m glad they spelled my name correctly. And I’m more than a little starstruck to be listed in a report that also cites Steve (“Nefarious”) Deace, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Michael Knowles, Charlie Kirk, Lance Wallnau, Sean Feucht and Jonathan Cahn. You’ll notice how many of these names have appeared here at The Stream.

We must be using the right exorcism prayers, since the principalities and powers are squealing.

Let Sound of Freedom Ring

The Blaze reports some deeply encouraging news:

A movie about the egregious crimes of child trafficking, Sound of Freedom, had a shocking performance on July 4, 2023, even beating out several blockbuster studio films such as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

The movie by Angel Studios, a movie studio that allows for equity crowdfunding of its films, took the top spot at the box office for July 4 in a monumental victory for non-mainstream movie studios.

…

“Sound of Freedom” took in $14.2 million, whereas the Disney film made approximately $11.7 million. While “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” still made over $80 million in its first five days in theatres, its reported $300 million budget did not leave much room for such an opening.

In case you haven’t heard, Dial of Destiny is a glum, Woke feminist morality tale. As Titus Techera at the wonderful site Law and Liberty writes:

It’s a sad thing to see Indiana Jones’s rugged manliness reduced to misery, regret, and the position of a punching bag for yet another silly female character deus ex machina. But this is what’s necessary to make liberals happy, ruining whatever is left of the cinema that brought Americans together. The movie’s price tag is about $300 million, so it’s going to be a financial catastrophe, too, not just a moral one, but that too is considered acceptable so long as latter-day moralism triumphs.

Let’s remember that just a few months ago, another David v. Goliath match-up happened in the theaters: The little film Nefarious, with no “bankable” stars and a tiny marketing budget, went up against The Pope’s Exorcist — a massively marketed mainstream Church-bashing movie starring Russell Crowe. The only advantage Nefarious had? That it was actually good art and truthful storytelling, with genuine spiritual insight. It went on to massively outperform, in terms of investment, the leviathan Russell Crowe DaVinci Code-style sneer at Christian spiritual warfare.

Nefarious is now one of the top-selling streaming films in the country. The Pope’s Exorcist has already been justly forgotten.

The Stream interviewed and highlighted the makers of both Nefarious and Sound of Freedom. So maybe you heard it here first.

The voice of the people is making itself heard, as Bud Lite and Target have ruefully had to realize. Will our elites ever listen? Nah, they’re just going to double down. The brainwashing will continue until morale improves.

Along The Stream

Joseph D’Hippolito chronicles the latest moves by Pope Francis in what I’ve written before amounts to a persecution of faithful Catholics by our pope.

In case you missed it, be sure to watch this powerful video by evangelist and author Mark Rutland on the role divine Providence played in America’s founding, and our absolute dependence on God’s grace to keep the country thriving and free.

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He is co-author with Jason Jones of “God, Guns, & the Government.”