Amazon Prime has recently released an animated series titled “Hazbin Hotel”, a retelling and reframing of the story of the fall of Satan and his demons. The show is problematic for many reasons and should be avoided. Below is the description of the show from Amazon:
This adult animated musical series follows Charlie, the princess of Hell, as she pursues her seemingly impossible goal of rehabilitating demons to peacefully reduce overpopulation in her kingdom. After a yearly extermination that was imposed by Heaven, she opens a hotel in the hopes that patrons will be “checking out” after proving their souls are redeemable.
As parents, it is our role to be aware of the content that is being presented to our children and help them to avoid what is harmful, engage what is challenging, and embrace what is helpful. At GCS, it is our responsibility to partner with parents and equip them with the necessary information to engage what is being presented to our children with confidence, clarity, and courage.
There are multiple concerns we should share about this show:
1. While marketed toward an adult audience, it is visually engaging for kids… therefore, be careful.
The show is intended for mature audience, but its cartoon style will no doubt be attractive to viewers of a wide range of audiences, even young children. The show’s creator, Vivienne “VivziePop” Medrano, has a following in the tens of millions and her main audience is teens, therefore a large amount of the show’s viewers will likely be teens.
The show is replete with violence, profanity, sexual content, and substance abuse. The content is of such a nature that we should be careful not to allow it into the minds of our students. For those who have seen it, we should be intentional to talk with them about it, how to see it through a Christian worldview, and to respond appropriately by not celebrating what should not be celebrated.
2. While recounting the story as mere mythology, it is rooted in historic beliefs… therefore, be mindful.
The back story of the show recounts the fall of Satan (“Lucipher” in the show) and the creation of Adam and “Lillith” in the Garden of Eden. Lucipher and Lillith, both banished from their respective paradises fall in love and have a daughter, “Charlie.” These details in the plot are presented as mythology, but there is enough historical belief in them to be confusing and misleading.
The biblical narrative makes clear that Satan was once an angel who was cast out of his heavenly dwelling due to his rebellion (Is. 14:12). Additionally, Scripture clearly teaches that God made a man (Adam) and a woman (Eve) to inhabit the garden and fill the earth (Gen. 1:26-28). This first couple was also cast out of their dwelling due to their own rebellion. This is where the historical similarities end.
Much later in mystical Jewish belief, the story of Lillith was developed. She was said to be Adam’s supposed first wife who he found displeasing and subsequently cast out of the garden. God then made Eve for Adam and to them were born Cain, Able, and Seth. Lillith thus lived estranged from her husband and desired revenge. In “Hazbin Hotel” these two estranged figures, Lucifer and Lillith, find one another and a hope-filled romance ensues.
Why is this distinction between history and myth important? Some of the most deceptive ideas in history are those that have enough truth to sound true, but enough falsehood to lead you away from the actualtruth. For those who are familiar enough with the biblical story to identify the characters, the additional mythology will be misleading and confuse and distort the actual biblical narrative in which Satan is not hope-filled, but hate-filled. We must be mindful of the divergence from truth so that we can help our children to reject the claims that are false and embrace the historical, biblical truth.
3. While promoted as a journey to becoming better, it distorts the true nature of redemption… therefore, be discerning.
According to the story, as Hell becomes increasingly populated in the show, Heaven violently executes Hell’s inhabitants. Charlie and the demons of Hell desire to escape Hell and return to paradise in Heaven, and thus Charlie seeks to rehabilitate the demons of Hell toward this redemption. This continues the hope-filled narrative of the show, making redemption into that which can be attained through one’s efforts.
However, Scripture makes a few truths unmistakably clear: (1) Redemption is through the finished work of Christ (Col. 1:14); (2) No effort on the part of the lost can redeem them, only faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16-21); (3) Those fallen angels who rebelled against God are kept in chains awaiting judgment (Jude 1:6) and redemption is a grace offered by God to humans alone (1 Pet. 1:12).
“Hazbin Hotel” follows the worldview that we are good and can be redeemed through our own effort. The Christian worldview follows the biblical truth that God is good so he redeems by his own grace, not by any righteous thing that we have done (Tit. 3:5)
There are multiple principals for entertainment that we should remember:
As parents, our responsibility to our children is to shape them toward God’s good design for us as image bearers according to his word. Our children are being shaped… The questions we must address is: By what? To what end? With this in mind, here are three important principles regarding how we should be thinking about how our children are shaped:
1. What we are entertained by, we are shaped by.
While most entertainment feels harmless, the truth is that what entertains us, shapes us. When we laugh at something, we are shaped to take it less seriously. We must take care to cultivate a God-honoring view of entertainment in our homes. We should intentionally consider why something entertains us and ask if it should or not. Then, we should lead our children in the same process.
2. What we connect with, we identify with.
We inherently connect with narratives because we identify with the characters and events that are portrayed in those narratives. When we connect with and identify with characters and events, we are influenced to see them in the most positive light because we see ourselves in them. Therefore, we must be careful not to engage characters and events in narratives that we ultimately should not identify with.
Your children identify with the characters and events in the movies and shows they watch and the books they read. We must be diligent to help them to see themselves in God’s story of reality and evaluate all other stories in light of the truth of his story that is laid out in Scripture.
3. What we relate to, we relate through.
It is not just that we identify with the characters and events within a story, but that those elements of the story become the way that we relate to actual people in real life. When we share an appreciation for a particular story, that becomes the basis of our relating to one another. We share a mutual appreciation for the characters, plot, and details and those become core aspects of our relationship.
We must teach our kids not to speak the language of lesser stories, but the language of the true story of redemption in which we all are a part. We have to model for them the avoidance of false narratives and the embracing of truth so that we can relate according to the truth.
“Hazbin Hotel” is only one of a myriad of stories that seek to distort and diminish the truth of Christianity.
We must have the clarity, confidence, and courage as parents to be aware of them and shepherd our children toward the truth.
