In the past few weeks I've been reminded of Frank E. Peretti's This Present Darkness (1986), an evangelical horror novel that tells the tale of a demonic attack on a small town. Much of the plot revolves around the effort of a cult-like New Age group that attempts to purchase a small college in the town to take it over for a demonic horde. The heroes, a local newspaper reporter named Marshall Hogan and a pastor named Hank Busche, gradually piece together the plot.
One narrative element that has stuck with me over the last twenty years is what happened to both men as they began to cause problems for the conspirators: demon-possessed women falsely accused each of sexual assault. Within the story, this works out since both men meet in jail, team-up, and eventually defeat the forces of darkness.
I am troubled by the way in which Peretti deployed spurious charges of sexual misconduct as a go-to tool for demons to interfere with those fighting for truth and Christianity. Part of the reason that demons use such charges against Christian men is that their demonic power is limited by the fact that the men are Christian; as a work-around, the demons use false the accusations to get law enforcement to prevent the Christians from doing God's work. The entire narrative is based around the idea that Christian men are likely to face such charges if they are doing the right thing, and that such accusations are more-often false than true.
In this regard I think that Peretti may have been reflecting a view that was already common in evangelical circles; I do not know either way. But at this point, it surely has nudged evangelical culture toward general skepticism of such charges when they seem to be inconvenient. This Present Darkness has sold more than 2.5 million copies according to wikipedia (the copy from my library says over 2 million on the cover and was printed in 1999), and is one of the 100 books listed by PBS in their Great American Read campaign. It's credited with launching the market for Christian horror/thriller novel, similar in genre (without the eschatological dimension) to the Left Behind series that began a decade later (which is also on the Great American Read list).
It's worth taking a moment to consider the descriptions in Peretti's novel. Here, a woman named Carmen is falsely accusing the pastor Hank Busche of having an affair with her, trying to divide him from his wife, Mary:
"It's true!" she insisted. "Tell her, Hank. Please tell her."
"Spirit," said Hank firmly, "I command you in the name of Jesus to be silent and come out of her!"
There were fifteen of them, packed into Carmen's body like crawling, superimposed maggots, boiling, writhing, a tangle of hideous arms, legs, talons, and heads. They began to squirm. Carmen began to squirm. They moaned and cried out, and so did Carmen, her eyes turning glassy and staring blankly....
The fifteen spirits in Carmen were foaming and frothing, wailing and hissing. Hank held Carmen down gently, one hand on her right hand, one hand on her left shoulder. Mary stood beside him, clinging to him a little out of her own timidity. Carmen moaned and twisted, her eyes glaring at Hank.
"Let us go, praying man!" Carmen's voice warned, and the sulfurous odor coming from deep inside her was strong and nauseating. (275-276)
The description of Hank holding her down "gently" while his wife clings to his side is creepy; Carmen had not done anything to him or his wife other than speak to them, and yet he physically restrained her.
Next, Hank and Mary begin to exorcise Carmen and she becomes violent:
The bomb exploded. Hank was thrown backward. Mary leaped aside. Carmen was on top of Hank, clawing, biting, mauling. Her teeth clamped onto his right arm. He pushed and pounded with his left.
"Demon, let go!" he ordered.
The jaws opened. Hang gave all the shove he had and Carmen's body staggered backward, twitching and shrieking. Her hands found a chair. Instantly it shot upward and came down with a crash, but Hank scurried out of the way. He dove for Carmen and tackled her as she was grabbing another chair. Her leg came up like a catapult and flung him across the room where he thudded into the wall. Her fist was right behind him. He dodged it. It rammed a hole in the plaster. He was through the bared teeth. He jerked himself away. Sharp fingernails snagged and tore at his shirt. Some dug into his flesh.... (276-277)
These passages are disturbing and portray Carmen as otherworldly and evil. She is powerful and cruel, acting like a beast rather than a person.
Later, when the police arrive, they arrest for rape based on Carmen's testimony and a piece of his shirt that she had ripped off in her assault on him. The accusations against the other protagonist, Marshal Hogan, involve murder charges and sexual abuse of his daughter, who is his accuser.
The whole narrative makes the man the victim and the accuser the person with power, both physically and legally. The innocent Christian men suffer (briefly) because they did the right thing, but their sex and their faith make them vulnerable, and the demonic forces exploit that to their advantage.
I think that narratives like this make it easier for evangelicals to dismiss accusations of sexual assault against prominent men that they support. Such novels feed the imaginative framework of evangelicals by blurring the line between contemporary events and supernatural warfare, making it easy to blame the victim in too many cases. Peretti's work matters more also for those who identify as evangelical but do not regularly participate in their churches, a group that is large and that diverges from those who regularly attend church in their views on a wide variety of issues.
Such stories also make it easier for disgraced pastors to return to the pulpit with a series of sermons about the danger of false rape accusations, as Paige Patterson has done. They make it easier for evangelical leaders to dismiss allegations against pastors like Bill Hybels, an error that has led to the mass resignation of the entire board of elders at Willow Creek church because of their role in protecting him from his accusers. And it makes it easier to dismiss Christine Blasey Ford and defend Brett Kavanaugh.
Many evangelicals have avoided such excesses and have discussed current events responsibly, such as Ed Stetzer, acknowledging that one-in-three women are victims of sexual assault and that sexual assault is one of the least-reported crimes. The experience of Blasey Ford demonstrates the extreme character defamation and life disruption that can come from making an accusation, and it seems quite likely at this point that Kavanaugh will be confirmed anyway. The voices of women such as Nancy French are moving reminders that conservatives and liberals, atheists and evangelicals should be able to link arms around opposition to sexual assault.
One narrative element that has stuck with me over the last twenty years is what happened to both men as they began to cause problems for the conspirators: demon-possessed women falsely accused each of sexual assault. Within the story, this works out since both men meet in jail, team-up, and eventually defeat the forces of darkness.
I am troubled by the way in which Peretti deployed spurious charges of sexual misconduct as a go-to tool for demons to interfere with those fighting for truth and Christianity. Part of the reason that demons use such charges against Christian men is that their demonic power is limited by the fact that the men are Christian; as a work-around, the demons use false the accusations to get law enforcement to prevent the Christians from doing God's work. The entire narrative is based around the idea that Christian men are likely to face such charges if they are doing the right thing, and that such accusations are more-often false than true.
In this regard I think that Peretti may have been reflecting a view that was already common in evangelical circles; I do not know either way. But at this point, it surely has nudged evangelical culture toward general skepticism of such charges when they seem to be inconvenient. This Present Darkness has sold more than 2.5 million copies according to wikipedia (the copy from my library says over 2 million on the cover and was printed in 1999), and is one of the 100 books listed by PBS in their Great American Read campaign. It's credited with launching the market for Christian horror/thriller novel, similar in genre (without the eschatological dimension) to the Left Behind series that began a decade later (which is also on the Great American Read list).
It's worth taking a moment to consider the descriptions in Peretti's novel. Here, a woman named Carmen is falsely accusing the pastor Hank Busche of having an affair with her, trying to divide him from his wife, Mary:
"It's true!" she insisted. "Tell her, Hank. Please tell her."
"Spirit," said Hank firmly, "I command you in the name of Jesus to be silent and come out of her!"
There were fifteen of them, packed into Carmen's body like crawling, superimposed maggots, boiling, writhing, a tangle of hideous arms, legs, talons, and heads. They began to squirm. Carmen began to squirm. They moaned and cried out, and so did Carmen, her eyes turning glassy and staring blankly....
The fifteen spirits in Carmen were foaming and frothing, wailing and hissing. Hank held Carmen down gently, one hand on her right hand, one hand on her left shoulder. Mary stood beside him, clinging to him a little out of her own timidity. Carmen moaned and twisted, her eyes glaring at Hank.
"Let us go, praying man!" Carmen's voice warned, and the sulfurous odor coming from deep inside her was strong and nauseating. (275-276)
The description of Hank holding her down "gently" while his wife clings to his side is creepy; Carmen had not done anything to him or his wife other than speak to them, and yet he physically restrained her.
Next, Hank and Mary begin to exorcise Carmen and she becomes violent:
The bomb exploded. Hank was thrown backward. Mary leaped aside. Carmen was on top of Hank, clawing, biting, mauling. Her teeth clamped onto his right arm. He pushed and pounded with his left.
"Demon, let go!" he ordered.
The jaws opened. Hang gave all the shove he had and Carmen's body staggered backward, twitching and shrieking. Her hands found a chair. Instantly it shot upward and came down with a crash, but Hank scurried out of the way. He dove for Carmen and tackled her as she was grabbing another chair. Her leg came up like a catapult and flung him across the room where he thudded into the wall. Her fist was right behind him. He dodged it. It rammed a hole in the plaster. He was through the bared teeth. He jerked himself away. Sharp fingernails snagged and tore at his shirt. Some dug into his flesh.... (276-277)
These passages are disturbing and portray Carmen as otherworldly and evil. She is powerful and cruel, acting like a beast rather than a person.
Later, when the police arrive, they arrest for rape based on Carmen's testimony and a piece of his shirt that she had ripped off in her assault on him. The accusations against the other protagonist, Marshal Hogan, involve murder charges and sexual abuse of his daughter, who is his accuser.
The whole narrative makes the man the victim and the accuser the person with power, both physically and legally. The innocent Christian men suffer (briefly) because they did the right thing, but their sex and their faith make them vulnerable, and the demonic forces exploit that to their advantage.
I think that narratives like this make it easier for evangelicals to dismiss accusations of sexual assault against prominent men that they support. Such novels feed the imaginative framework of evangelicals by blurring the line between contemporary events and supernatural warfare, making it easy to blame the victim in too many cases. Peretti's work matters more also for those who identify as evangelical but do not regularly participate in their churches, a group that is large and that diverges from those who regularly attend church in their views on a wide variety of issues.
Such stories also make it easier for disgraced pastors to return to the pulpit with a series of sermons about the danger of false rape accusations, as Paige Patterson has done. They make it easier for evangelical leaders to dismiss allegations against pastors like Bill Hybels, an error that has led to the mass resignation of the entire board of elders at Willow Creek church because of their role in protecting him from his accusers. And it makes it easier to dismiss Christine Blasey Ford and defend Brett Kavanaugh.
Many evangelicals have avoided such excesses and have discussed current events responsibly, such as Ed Stetzer, acknowledging that one-in-three women are victims of sexual assault and that sexual assault is one of the least-reported crimes. The experience of Blasey Ford demonstrates the extreme character defamation and life disruption that can come from making an accusation, and it seems quite likely at this point that Kavanaugh will be confirmed anyway. The voices of women such as Nancy French are moving reminders that conservatives and liberals, atheists and evangelicals should be able to link arms around opposition to sexual assault.
This whole situation and peoples knee jerk defence of Kavanaugh is extremely disturbing to me.
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