It’s hard to be a normal seventh grader when your dad is Satan. Just ask Chrissy Feinberg, the titular character on the new animated television series “Little Demon,” which currently airs on Disney-owned platforms FXX; Hulu; and, starting in late September, on Disney+ itself in Australia and New Zealand.
Between discovering that she’s the Antichrist and starting a new school, Chrissy has her hands full. On top of it all, she’s caught in the middle of the world’s most epic custody battle: her tattoo-bearing, demon-slaying mom versus the archdeceiver himself, donning his best Mr. Rogers-inspired cardigan. “I know what you’re thinking, is he a dad or just a cool friend?” quips a caption on the show’s FXX homepage.
Rated TV-MA for its rampant nudity, profanity, graphic violence, and innuendo, the series is being lauded as “a surprisingly sweet coming-of-age story wrapped in gore,” “a hellscape of sick and twisted fun,” and “a nasty art form.”
“Little Demon,” however, has its detractors too. Rep. Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, posted a diatribe on Facebook after catching the trailer while watching a college football game: “I couldn’t get to the remote fast enough to shield my 11-year-old from the preview,” he wrote. Nonprofit Christian group One Million Moms is circling a petition—which at the time of this writing has 47,813 signers—to take the show off the air.
The Devil’s Narrative
Let’s look at several factors. First, America is experiencing a “booming trend of adult animated series,” no doubt made possible by such trailblazers as “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” and the entire lineup of Adult Swim. This is relatively novel for a nation that has, to some extent, allowed cartoons to raise their children and has furthermore vaulted the Walt Disney Company into becoming the pinnacle of childhood idolization. But what happens when “a family focused product” cemented into the hearts and dreams of the American family begins supplying not-safe-for-work lessons on murder, sex, and the devil?
Next, the occult has been flooding popular culture. We see this in stores, on social media, and most definitely in film and television. As One Million Moms noticed, there is a plethora of “Disney-associated productions … set in a spiritually demonic realm”—and “Little Demon” is no exception. When asked about her character during a Comic-Con panel, Aubrey Plaza, who voices Chrissy’s mother, Laura Feinberg, responded, “I love that we are normalizing paganism. Laura is a pagan. She’s a witch.”
Then, add in the emerging pattern of humanizing the villain. In the entertainment industry, revisionist character arcs have been turning evil into heroic for quite some time—“Wicked,” “Maleficent,” “Cruella.” Two out of three of those are origin stories of Disney villains. There have even been various iterations of the devil himself. In Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph,” a rather genteel Satan is in a support group that helps its members to cope with perpetual persecution as the “bad guys” of video games. In the recent live-action television series “Lucifer,” the eponymous fallen angel selflessly sacrifices himself for the love of his life and is even seen worthy to become God. (Yes, you read that right.)
And now, in “Little Demon” Satan starts to “[realize that] he might actually want to be a father to Chrissy rather than just using her as a pawn in his schemes to gain cosmic power,” commented IGN’s review. These portrayals are more than sympathy for the devil—they’re redemptive.
Do you think this is a coincidence, the surge of satanic forces through popular culture, the redefining of Satan’s identity, and the pack leader being the top influential brand for children? Do you think that because it’s fiction, it doesn’t have an influence on your beliefs?
Who Satan Really Is
There’s a real Satan, and the only thing he ever fathered was deception (John 8:44).
Can bad become good? Absolutely. Humanity has the greatest redemption story of all time: Jesus Christ paid for our sins by His sacrifice on the cross. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). But it is we—not Satan—who have been redeemed.
The devil doesn’t want redemption; he wants your destruction: “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Revelation 12:12). He is “the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night” (v. 10). “Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Satan’s not your friend; he’s not a misunderstood misanthrope with a heart of gold; he’s not your next-door neighbor fighting for the right to have a relationship with his daughter. The world of witchcraft is not a surrogate home in which you can belong and be guided and loved. The Antichrist is not some confused teenager juggling puberty alongside demonic possession and double homicide—no matter how funny the critics find that to be. Learn the truth in our free presentation “Who Is the Antichrist?” You can also read our Study Guide “Did God Create the Devil?”
Don’t fall for Satan’s lies. It is God who actually desires to be our Father: We have “received the Spirit of adoption” (Romans 8:15); we have the opportunity to become “children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (vv. 16, 17). In a free presentation, learn how we can, today, be “Living as Children of God.”