After the latest news broke that Disney is planning a series about a teen who falls in love with Satan, a prominent pastor believes Christians need to be alert and pay close attention.
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Mike Signorelli, pastor of V1 Church in New York City, lamented Disney’s recent controversial content decisions, noting renowned animator and company founder Walt Disney was a “traditional family man.”
“[Disney] built the whole empire … on the idea of, ‘How do I create a world for my daughters?’” he said. “Here we are just two generations later and, unfortunately, the agenda behind them is the destruction of the traditional family.”
Signorelli said he believes there’s a political agenda driving some of these content moves, but added he also sees a spiritual dynamic at play — a timeless battle between good and evil that has old roots and new manifestations.
“Behind the political agenda is this ancient demonic agenda and so it’s new days but old demons,” he said. “These demons manifest in different dynasties across human history, and so a lot of people think we’re up against something new, but, actually, we’re up against something old.”
Listen to Sigorelli break it all down on “Billy Hallowell’s Playing With Fire” podcast:
Signorelli encouraged Christians to be “wise” in remembering the battles surrounding Disney and other companies aren’t merely temporal or political, but are rooted much deeper in the spiritual realm.
When asked why he believes Disney continues to make decisions that rile Christians with content choices like the aforementioned “Pauline,” a show at which even some less adherent individuals might scoff, Signorelli speculated Disney is betting on a future more conducive to its social views.
“There’s a concept called an offendable brand and what that basically means is you make decisions that intentionally offend people that you do not want engaging with your company,” he said. “Oftentimes, you’ll see this in barbershops or salons where they dramatically increase their pricing and they’re offending their existing customer base because they believe there’s another kind of customer that will pay an exorbitant amount of money for this haircut.”
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Using this tactic, the company would seek to bring in a targeted audience by offending some of the existing fans. Signorelli pondered whether this is what Disney is doing, and offered a candid message to Christians.
“Here’s the scary part. I need every Christian in the nation to hear what I’m saying,” he said. “Disney is betting on the fact that the world is going to go into that direction and that they’ll lose finances on the short term but then they’ll gain on the long term.”
Signorelli believes the driving force behind it all is a look at the landscape and a belief the future will be more friendly to anti-Christian values. If Disney doubles down on these antics and culture shifts in that direction, the entertainment giant could be in for a big win later on.
He said this could explain why a company like Disney might “spend millions and millions of dollars on movies they know are going to fail in this season,” adding “they know that people are going to be looking for that content in the next.”
Signorelli said these dynamics — which he doesn’t anticipate improving anytime soon – should spark Christians to take action.
“That should ignite a fire and a passion for the things of God like never before,” he said. “And the good news that I’m bringing all of you is, whenever the kingdom of heaven looks like it’s backed into a corner and it looks like things are getting darker and it’s just going to get increasingly dark, that’s when we actually see massive moves of God and great awakenings and revivals.”
Part of this dynamic is for Christians to understand something key about entertainment, Signorelli said. It’s the “delivery device for deception,” with music and other elements often serving to “reprogram your values and your morality.”
The preacher encouraged Christians to come together to increasingly create cartoons, shows, and other forms of entertainment to counter these negative entertainment messages.
“We also need artists and Christian creators to rise up and to create alternative content to this garbage that we have,” he said. “Things that bring life and life more abundantly because it’s the message of Jesus Christ — that’s what we need.”
We’ll leave you with more episodes of “Billy Hallowell’s Playing With Fire”:
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