Liz Trotta: Society's Lack of Belief in Devil Leads to Culture of Death

Liz Trotta: Society's Lack of Belief in Devil Leads to Culture of Death

Author and journalist Liz Trotta provided a commentary on Fox News about what she describes as the culture of death and how that fantasy of Halloween has leaked into reality. It has led to society becoming numb to death, especially when it comes to children. She explores the cause of this culture rot.

Our need to be shocked, though, has spiraled out of control, and death surrounds everyone, especially the children. Trotta noted how the skull and bones are on fashion items such as jewelry and even fine china. McDonald’s is offering a girl’s Happy Meal with the theme from Monster High for October. The characters are offsprings from evil creatures like Dracula and Medusa. One of the most popular TV shows is The Walking Dead, which is about a few survivors living after a zombie apocalypse. 

Trotta mentioned Joyce Draganosky’s decorations at her Brooklyn home. She has mutilated baby dolls on the lawn and a pumpkin doctor operating on another baby, and both are covered in blood. There are people who defend it as art and creative, even though there are many stories out there about dead babies. The layout is even popular with children.

“Every year the neighbors look forward to it. The kids say, ‘More gore! More blood!’ This is my neighborhood. I’m not going to hurt kids,” Draganosky, 52, told the Post.

Yet all of this is happening when the deaths of innocent children dominate the headlines. As Trotta said, the most jaw-dropping incident was a 17-year-old arrested for shoplifting at Victoria’s Secret, and the guards found a dead baby in her bag. The woman, Tiona Rodriguez, was described as “expressionless, an absence of manifest feeling that seemed to reflect a heart that is not so much cold as closed off.” However, Trotta did fail to mention that over 50 million children have been murdered in the womb since abortion was legalized in 1973, and there are about 3,322 abortions per day.

Is the absence of the devil in today’s society a reason for the culture of death? Trotta thinks so and brought up Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s interview in the New York Magazine where he talks about the devil. Scalia, a devout Catholic, still sees him in society.

Can we talk about your drafting process–

[Leans in, stage-whispers.] I even believe in the Devil.

You do?

Of course! Yeah, he’s a real person. Hey, c’mon, that’s standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that.

Every Catholic believes this? There’s a wide variety of Catholics out there …

If you are faithful to Catholic dogma, that is certainly a large part of it.

Have you seen evidence of the Devil lately?

You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn’t happen very much anymore.

No.

It’s because he’s smart.

So what’s he doing now?

What he’s doing now is getting people not to believe in him or in God. He’s much more successful that way.

Isn’t it terribly frightening to believe in the Devil?

You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil.

This interview was published on October 6, and a few weeks before, The Washington Examiner published a study that said 57% of Americans do believe in the devil.

The YouGov survey found that 57 percent believe the devil lurks; 72 percent for African Americans and 61 percent for women. Republicans said the devil exists more than Democrats, 65 percent to 55 percent.

What did happen to the devil? Does society need to bring back the devil in order for people to take death seriously? Trotta said religion is needed. This could be a good time to remind people Halloween is the first day of Triduum of All Hallows: All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day. They are three days to remember and honor the dead. As Trotta said, “without religious authority, chaos is the alternative, and chaos is what we have now.”

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.