Commentary by James L. Lambert

Last month during the MTV music video awards ceremony actor Jack Black had the audience join hands and pray to “dear dark lord Satan …” In his prayer, the actor prayed that the musicians and nominees would have “continued success in the music industry.” The awards program was broadcasted on the MTV network throughout the country through cable and satellite television. The MTV network is a subsidiary of the Viacom Corporation.

 

The Radio City Hall audience readily acquiesced to Black’s invitation to pray to the devil. In the (YouTube) video, Black encouraged the large audience to join in (the prayer) by saying, “let me see those horns.” Black, dressed in a ‘muscle suit’ continued by asking the awards ceremony audience to join hands during ‘the prayer.’ Black held hands with actress Leighton Meester while he prayed out loud.

 

Black’s prayer went primarily unnoticed among most conservative and Christian media circles. Some might say that’s because Black is also a comedian and he was joking, displaying his contempt for Christianity with the prayer invocation. This would be in keeping with Black’s previous behavior. In 2008 Black participated in a video, mocking supporters of Proposition 8. According to the Culture and Media Institute (CMI), the actor “appears as Jesus rebuking the Proposition 8 supporters while munching on a shrimp cocktail and saying that the Bible condemns eating shellfish too. Then he (Black) reels off some scripture references without context to suggest that the Bible is self-contradictory and unreliable.” In their December 4^th (2008) press release, CMI claims that “Black is an anti-Christian bigot.”

 

Others claim the prayer to Satan was just a publicity stunt to promote the new heavy metal video game, Brutal Legend.

 

No matter how you look at Black’s actions, it sets a dangerous precedent.  Author and (King’s College) Professor Paul McGuire (PaulMcGuire.com) believes “Jack Black’s open prayer to Satan is just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening in our nation and in the entertainment industry.” The author and commentator contend that “although it is hidden, Satanism is one of the fastest growing religions in America. We can expect to see Satanists demanding and getting the same rights as any other religion.”

 

Former Hollywood actor and ‘Chaplain of Waikiki’: Bob Turnbull (www.TurnbullMinistries.org) on Wednesday said Black’s prayer to the ‘dark side’ was “pathetic and … sick” which shows a “heartbreakingly sad” side of Hollywood’s culture. Turnbull knows a little something about Hollywood. In the ’60s and ’70s, he’s was in a number of well known movies (i.e. The Little People, Camelot, Tora Tora Tora) and television shows (like Hawaii Five-0, Petticoat Junction, My Three Sons, Bob Hope Chrysler Theater, Another Life).  

 

Phil Magnan Director of www.BFamilyAdvocates.com “wonders if Jack Black really knows what he is invoking or has any idea how destructive Satanism really is.”

 

Radio Talk show host, Jesse Lee Peterson ( www.bondinfo.org ), has a different take on Black’s prayer. He is instead at odds with MTV, the network. Peterson said it is “disturbing that MTV continues to promote the most degenerate and base programs on it’s network … (They) intentionally air programming designed to seduce and corrupt the minds and hearts of America’s youth (like “Sex with Mom and Dad” among others).

 

Ultimately, McGuire believes there could be some encouraging signs to come. In his comments to One New Now, this week, McGuire affirms his belief that the level of darkness will continue. However the Christian author strongly believes that simultaneously Americans will “see a revival among the youth similar to the Jesus Movement in the ‘70s.”

 

 

James L. Lambert, a frequent contributor to ChristianMirror.net and author of Porn in America, is a licensed nationwide real-estate mortgage loan sales agent and can be contacted through his website.