More fundamentalist Christian hysteria about the satanic, sexual and authority-disrespecting threats of rock ‘n’ roll.
John Ankerberg is an American Baptist minister, author of some 150 books, a friend of Mike Pence and the host of a weekly TV show that is syndicated internationally, so you’re probably feeling pretty bad about the fact that you had no idea who he is until now, right? But then, America is awash with religious nutters and its hard keeping up with them all.
Anyway, in 1990 Ankerberg presented a half-hour special about the dangers of rock music, which is pretty much what you might expect. Devil worship and general occultism, sexual permissiveness, disrespect for authority and other forms of anti-Christian behaviour from such monstrous acts as The Pretty Things, Psychic TV, The Doors, Zodiac Mindwarp and Whitesnake.
Much of the footage is lifted from the notorious Hell’s Bells documentary, making this a handy bite-sized version for those of you unwilling to wade through all six hours of that hysterical Christian ‘documentary’ – and believe me, the novelty wears off that lengthy experience pretty quickly. Ankerberg interviews Hell’s Bells creator Eric Holmberg, the sort of mulleted preacher who wants to seem down with the kids and sounds almost reasonable until you listen to what he’s actually saying.
This is admittedly not on the same hysterical level as some of the other Satanic Panic documentaries we’ve posted, but it’s still quite the experience – and as with all these things, you wonder just what sort of music these people do approve of.
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