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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 18h

Interested in learning a bit about the history of demons? In only a few hours, you've got a chance! youtube.com/live/O7JvdWd...

youtube.com

POV: What the Hell?! Demons, Witch Trials & the Politics of Evil | Dr. Michael Heyes

YouTube video by Faithful Politics Podcast

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Will (Faithful Politics) @faithfulpolitics.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

We’re getting into the Halloween spirit a little early. Michael E. Heyes - our unofficial “Demon Professor” @thedemonologist.bsky.social - is back on Faithful Politics LIVE October 8, 7pm EST. We’re going deeper into the history, theology, mystery and legends surrounding demons themselves.

static.klipy.com

Tenacious D: Dave Grohl as The Devil

ALT: Tenacious D: Dave Grohl as The Devil

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A million thanks! Even more flattering coming from the angel that usually accuses humanity of doing a bad job 🤣

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

That's fascinating! I knew about his love for Murray's work but I had no idea about this behind-the-scenes correspondence. Amazing sleuthing!

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yeah, that's dead on, unfortunately.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I would think Hegseth would probably suggest the cowboys would do better. 😅

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

@profgagne.bsky.social this is adjacent to your current project right? From what I know of Wilson, there's no Latter Rain influence there (though happy to be proven wrong). Any distant cross-pollination?

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I... actually don't know how Hegseth would reply to this one. While I don't know if Hegseth would be thinking with this movement, there was an idea of the Manifest Sons of God: people who could walk through walls, survive bullets and nuclear blasts, etc. who would come in the last days.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

If it's Hegseth, I have to assume "Christian Nationalist Jesus" is on the table.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“Our department is, you might say putting on the full armor of God, because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual,” he said. “God is good, evil is not, and America’s military must understand the difference.”

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Can we start to counter conspiracies by thinking differently about truth and value? First post in a short series: michaeleheyes.substack.com/p/countering...

michaeleheyes.substack.com

Countering Conspiracy: Truth or Value - Part 1

Are conspiracies a move towards a medieval form of thought?

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Reposted by Michael E. Heyes

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 30/09/2026

A Justice Department probe into a supposed “grand conspiracy” to politically persecute Donald Trump is collapsing, @dgraham.bsky.social writes. He explores the flaws in the DOJ’s plans:

bit.ly

The DOJ’s Collapsing Probe Into a Supposed Anti-Trump Conspiracy

It’s buckling under the weight of strategic errors, staff turnover, and, most of all, the facts.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

What happens when Islam and Marxism take over the Democratic Party?” He encourages his followers to “take your place at the gates of influence, because what we don't occupy, hell will.” I suspect this is rhetoric we’ll see increasing in force as the elections draw close.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Or consider how Lance Wallnau depicts it in the description of a recent podcast sent out to his followers: “Young Americans can't afford homes, Marxism is offering them someone to blame, and a ‘Red-Green Alliance’ is already winning public office.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A sober, clear-eyed evaluation is necessary as a precursor for developing society-wide solutions to stop this alliance from transforming into a violent political revolution.” This then gets followed up with a Charlie Kirk quote about how “Spiritual battle is coming to the West.”

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

For example, consider how the Center for Renewing America describes this “alliance” as “bound together by a common mission to destroy the American constitutional system, capitalism, and the Western Christian tradition....

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

and ignore the financial pressures on working Americans that make socialism and other forms of government appealing, all while leaving the door open to potential violence required to break such an alliance. And then, you get to “demon code” it at the same time without much effort.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

it allows pundits on the right the ability to engage two traditional boogeymen – Islam and Communism – in conspiratorial fashion, diminish the impact of the war with Iran by implying that its the origin point of this alliance,

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

but appears to have been commandeered by right wing propaganda to suggest that somehow “Islam” – as a totalizing entity – is combining with communism to create a new threat to America. Honestly, you almost have to give the individuals who created this a hand:

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

There appears to be an emerging rhetoric ahead of the mid-terms about the “Red-Green Alliance,” an idea that Islam is joining with Marxism. As near as I can figure, this idea had a legitimate origin in discussions about the Iranian Revolution and its later context...

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

A New Article in Writer's Digest on Demons and Politics: My favorite line: "These and a host of others catapulted an unlikely candidate into the presidency not once, but twice (three times, if you ask him)." www.writersdigest.com/5-things-wri...

writersdigest.com

5 Things Writers Should Know About the Language of Demons, Evil, and 'The Enemy' in Politics

Author and professor Michael E. Heyes shares five things writers should know about the language of demons, evil, and "the enemy" in politics.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Ohhh, anti-Spiritualist rhetoric at its best: when your mind becomes passive, demons get a backdoor into your brain! Freeman was one of those SB who got snapped up in the charismatic movement with people like Frank and Ida Mae Hammond, so that makes sense!

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John Mc @philotheogical.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Excellent new book by Mike Heyes. Mike traces the HX of American fascination with all things ‘devilish,’ and particularly how useful the devil has proven to be politically! Scholarly, accessible.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I've never come across that specific claim before! Did that come from an individual person or was it a denominational claim that you encountered?

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

That could be. I wonder too if it has something to do with reading Biblical material allegorically. If it doesn't make the people who engage in such readings more prone to extend the reading beyond the Bible. I see a lot of resonances between conspiratorial thinking and this type of reading.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Too true, but there is a really interesting way in which spiritual warfare proponents treat fiction (Screwtape Letters, This Present Darkness, Chronicle of Brothers) as if they were real. I've also noticed it in Wallnau's too: I feel like he quotes the movie Gladiator more than he does the Bible!

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Will (Faithful Politics) @faithfulpolitics.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

What happens when political disagreement becomes spiritual warfare? Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social joins us to trace America’s history of turning political opponents into demons - from the Civil War and Satanic Panic to the New Apostolic Reformation. Watch: youtu.be/sgo2FYtt_KU

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Recently had a podcast appearance with the wonderful folks over at Faithful Politics (@faithfulpolitics.bsky.social), talking about demons and politics in the US. A real treat! www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgo2...

youtube.com

How America Turns Political Opponents Into Demons | Michael E. Heyes

YouTube video by Faithful Politics Podcast

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

...by a clash in worldviews, in which hardcore capitalists are granted unprecedented power to change a system that they argue operates under completely different incentives, logic and norms." 🤔 You say po-tay-to and I say po-tah-to?

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

...associated with tens of thousands of federal layoffs, reams of lawsuits, an AI-enabled effort to kill off wasteful contracts and the gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development. But Hassen's memoir enters a different vision into the historical record: He portrays a period marked...

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

From the Washington Post's article, "He spent 11 months inside DOGE. Now he wants to set the record straight:" "At the heart of the book is a split screen: For many Americans, Musk's project was a callous showcase of bending government to a billionaire's will,....

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Absolutely, I think if we've learned anything from the past couple of decades (please, let us have learned something) it's that the status quo needs to be reconsidered and changed.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

That's fascinating. So, she was thinking of the whole "two bodies, one spirit" thing as a kind of imperative to match people up in the hopes that they were spiritually compatible? Was it willy-nilly or did it seem like there was some thought behind it?

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André Gagné @profgagne.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Two must-read books this fall! Don’t miss these timely, insightful, and refreshingly original contributions by @thedemonologist.bsky.social, J. Derrick Lemons and Amos Yong.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Absolutely! I think what's surprising to me is that it comes from a group that conservative Christian groups would readily label "occult" and thus in opposition to their message.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Interesting! Will have to put that one on the reading list. I was thinking it might be in the same vein as Book of Enoch interest, but with the added layer that the BoD doesn't exist.

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Michael E. Heyes @thedemonologist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Yesterday, in my Conspiracy Theories course, I had a student who volunteered the information that some family members of theirs who identify as conservative Christian also think of Blavatsky's "Book of Dyzan" as a lost Christian text. Has anyone else run into this? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of...

en.wikipedia.org

Book of Dzyan - Wikipedia

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