Hell's Bells

Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Christianity Today

Christianity, Documentary, History, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 717 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you hear what I hear? Backmasking. From the Beatles to Led Zeppelin, rumors of hidden, subversive messages in popular music sent Christians into a frenzy. Backmasking wasn’t just a recording trick—it was seen as proof that rock musicians weren’t just after album sales but after the very souls of our children. Today, we’re unpacking the hysteria around backmasking, but first let’s explore the conservative resurgence and the world events that set the stage for a full-blown moral panic. We’ll begin at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where megachurches mobilized thousands of evangelists to the spiritual frontlines of the world games, then we’ll head south to the buried secrets within the Southern Baptist Convention. At the center of this resurgence were two men with unchecked power—Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson. Their legacy was once seen as the North Star of conservative values but would later be tainted by allegations of abuse and cover-ups that exposed the very evil they claimed to stand against. Join our Facebook group for deeper conversations and behind-the-scenes content. Can’t wait for the next episode? Join host Mike Cosper for a livestream every other Monday on the CT YouTube channel or the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea Facebook page. Resources: Matthew D. Taylor, scholar and author, The Violent Take it By Force Robert Downen, reporter, The Texas Tribune Sarah Pulliam Bailey, religion reporter Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a production of Christianity Today Hosted and written by Mike Cosper Produced by Rebekah Sebastian, with production assistance by Dawn Adams Sound Design and Mix Engineer: TJ Hester Sound Design, Animation, and Video: Steve Scheidler Graphic Design: Nim Ben Reuven Music by Dirt Poor Robins Erik Petrik and Mike Cosper are the executive producers of CT Media Podcasts, and Matt Stevens is our senior producer. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and review to help more people find the show. Thanks for listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.1	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.
0:14.5	Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at Apologeticsky.com.
0:22.6	What if you could see firsthand how God's moving across the globe right now?
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0:38.1	Discover a fuller view of God's kingdom at one kingdom.
0:41.5	Christianitytay.com.
0:48.1	This is CT Media.
0:56.7	A note to listeners.
0:58.8	This series contains sensitive content, including sexual abuse, child murder, and dark spiritual themes.
1:04.6	Today's episode includes archival audio of a reported exorcism and details of repeated sexual abuse.
1:10.6	It may not be suitable for all listeners.
1:16.3	So I want to start with one of my favorite, weird inflection points in the Satanic panic.
1:21.6	It's from 1984.
1:23.1	But to do that, I actually need to go back to the 70s for just a second.
1:27.1	1972, in fact, the moment when the Jesus People movement is really getting mainstream.
1:32.3	It was a huge year in global politics.
1:36.3	President Nixon, he had made his famous trip to China, which really kind of shifted the balance of power in the Cold War.
1:42.3	He also went to Moscow that year, where he,
1:44.9	and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, signed the Salt Treaty, a treaty that significantly
1:50.4	lowered the temperature of the nuclear arms race. East and West Germany began talks that would lead
1:55.8	to a treaty between them by the year's end, a kind of fragile peace that would be the key to the fall of the
	...

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