Haunting of America: A Demonologist’s Take on American Spirits

By Christopher Anderson

Are there hidden, dark forces influencing the affairs of nations? Do preternatural entities inspire religious, societal, and political behavior? If so, can we identify which diabolical agents are pulling the strings? In Haunting of America, Reverend Christopher Anderson calls upon a decade of experience in paranormal investigation, demonology, and ministry to pull back the curtain of what is tangible, revealing a hidden dimension of spiritual conflict far too many Christians choose to ignore. Through biblical realities combined with personal experiences, Reverend Anderson brings the reader face to face with certain diabolical spirits haunting the West. Haunting of America reveals hope for a brighter tomorrow by activating mustard seed faith today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Jun 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781489729408

Christopher Anderson

Christopher Anderson is an internationally recognized photographer who is a member of Magnum Photos and Photographer in Residence at New York magazine.

Book preview

Laying the Foundation

There is not a demon hiding behind every bush. Not every evil act of mankind is motivated by the devil’s subtle whispers. Many times, a little white lie is inspired from a sense of self-preservation or a minor intent to deceive rather than from some external voice imposing its own will over an innocent person. A murderer’s violent rampage is often seeded by the individual’s tragic upbringing more than an impulse to commit a heinous crime. The same earthly pathology must also be explored when investigating the causes of most criminal acts committed by individuals throughout the world. Many acts considered to be morally wrong can be traced to some dysfunction in a person’s upbringing that taught them to devalue life, love, or property. We can conclude that evil is often a behavior learned through tragic life circumstance, individual willful choice to act upon observed sinful behavior, and even committed from a motivation for simple self-preservation. As a fruitful tree entices the weary traveler to feast, willful human sin entices diabolical spirits to feast on a person’s life. Nonetheless, the presence of such fruit does not mean that the weary traveler will always be plucking fruit from such a tree. National evil is no different, though it plays out on a grander scale with far more deadly spiritual principalities traveling the dusty highways of politics and swinging societal norms.

Imagine, if you will, the moral dilemma faced by citizens of the Third Reich during the height of Hitler’s power. Historians agree that the rise of Nazism in Germany was largely attributed to Germany’s national sense of shame and humiliation as a result of their loss during World War I. German citizens were looking for answers as to why they lost the Great War. Their government offered few solutions and the Allied powers were crippling German economic strength and industry, as well as the average citizen’s income through war reparations, and the people’s anger and disenfranchisement with the ruling government rose to a fever pitch. From this boiling caldron of hostile emotion rose the voice of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party placing Germany’s failings squarely on Jewish shoulders. We know how history played out as a result of every day Germans falling to Hitler’s solution to the Jewish question.

Something we must consider is that the German people, and Hitler himself, felt that they were acting morally, even as the smoke of the concentration camps and battlefields filled the air. Hitler attributed his survival during a mustard gas attack in World War I, and multiple assassination attempts later in life, to Divine Providence. Yet today we know the moral depravity and absolute evil inherent in Nazism, their Final Solution and the tens of millions who perished across the battlefields of Europe, Africa, and Russia because of their concept of Lebensraum, or living space. Without a doubt, Nazi Germany was a great evil, but the people living in Germany at the time largely felt their cause was righteous. Self-preservation, learned evil, social acceptance of evil, and, often, willful choice, led individual Germans toward Nazism in droves.

Anti-Semitism was an acceptable reality in Europe at the turn of the Twentieth Century, and Hitler capitalized on this common prejudice by making the Jews a scapegoat for Germany’s defeat in the Great War. Germans were unified through their hatred and followed Hitler. Yet during Nazism’s rise in Germany, other Germans saw the moral evil and chose to make a stand, often at the cost of their lives. People like Oskar Schindler, Sophie and Hans Scholl, and Dietrich Bonheoffer are names known to history as those who opposed the rise of Nazism. They chose moral righteousness over moral depravity and evil. Each individual German had to choose between morality and depravity, even when popular society exchanged depravity for morality, calling evil good and good evil. Though one could argue that diabolical forces heavily influenced Hitler, individual German citizens had to choose for themselves how they would respond. Would Nazi ideology define their reality, or would morality dictate a more righteous path?

What about extraordinary cases when there is something more at work beyond the generalized psychological, sociological, or psychiatric explanations that influence the tragic side and/or evil side of human experience? How does one reconcile the unexplainable as it pertains to our moral dilemma, the monumental struggle between good and evil? How can we tell if the devil did it, pulling puppet strings to influence humanity to commit depraved criminal acts, or if said acts are simply a matter of free will shaped by a lifetime of bad decisions, tragedy, and unintentional psychological conditioning? How does the interplay between nature and nurture function, enticing those of moral depravity toward acts of extraordinary evil? In humanity’s existence, is an unseen force tempting a person to sin? Do such forces influence rulers, tempting them to guide whole nations into depravity, godlessness, and unrighteousness for decades to come?

In the following pages, we will explore these questions and more. The issue of good and evil as it defines morality has been a tough subject to tackle throughout the ages. Wiseman, prophets, sages, magi, and religious leaders of all faiths have attempted to define good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, since the foundation of the world. The topic of what constitutes moral and immoral behavior establishes boundaries that govern acceptable human interaction. It is therefore imperative for a person to come to grips with their individual behavior and the consequences of such action. We must stop psychologically projecting our failures and mistakes on circumstances and other people, own our shortcomings, and strive to be better. In doing so we deny preternatural forces opportunities to influence our lives. But more than that, we take steps toward genuine repentance. Biblical confession and repentance helps protect us from dark forces both from within ourselves and also from without. Where sin has been forgiven and cleaned by the blood of the Lamb of God, no legal right remains for diabolical entities to claim in a person’s life.

Today, where truth is subjective and morality is fluid, understanding why we do what we do is more important than ever. But beyond the sphere of human behavior, one must ponder the impact of supernatural and preternatural influences and attractions over our free will choices. If one is religious in any sense, then such forces must be linked to our perception of morality. Do angels and demons influence individuals and nations? To answer that question, we must start by exploring the very question of righteousness from both a secular and religious point of view. Our journey will take us through history and reveal ancient demons influencing modern times. This adventure may challenge your previously held perceptions on the topic, but in the end, we will find the hope of a bright future within our grasp.

Morality and Immorality:

A Free Will Choice

If one believes in the existence of good, then by default one also must believe in evil as the antithesis of good. Defining good and evil presents its own challenges and is often the basis of moral law. Every culture, religion, and government has established systems of moral law to judge the actions of humanity. Wild tribes yet undiscovered deep in the Amazon jungle or other hidden people groups in various parts of the world have moral laws that govern their populace. Thus, moral law establishes a framework of acceptable human behavior within a given demographic. Morality gives way to immorality through an individual’s free will choice to violate established moral law.

By nature of free will, it is an individual’s choice to choose actions that will categorize them as morally righteous or corrupt. Moral righteousness does not equate to spiritual righteousness, which is only found in Messiah, but is defined by a person’s choice to do what is morally right or wrong based on established moral law. Those considered morally righteous choose to do those things that are morally good, whereas the morally corrupt choose moral evil.

When a morally corrupt individual chooses to commit an act of evil, then it is up to the ruling body of a religious system, government, or culture to act in a way that motivates the corrupt individual to choose a more righteous path. In most of the world, judges hear cases and impose punishments determined by juries. Sentences are carried out, ranging from community service up to the death penalty, based on the jury’s collective determination. A prison system can function as a type of reformative rehabilitation intended to bring about a change of heart leading to a criminal’s rejection of moral evil and embracing righteousness. Therefore, many prisons around the world offer counseling, addiction rehabilitation, education programs, and help inmates learn a trade. Unfortunately, the prison system can also become a revolving door for many prisoners who have no desire to change. Reform only lasts in the lives of those pursuing change.

In religious righteousness or morality, which I believe firmly has more impact than the natural; one’s eternity hangs in the balance. Righteousness and evil are what leads every human in existence to salvation or damnation. We find spiritual righteousness in this paradigm. No longer is moral righteousness or unrighteousness a measuring rod for one’s intrinsic moral value, but the condition of one’s spirit before the Living God is judged. Most of the world’s religions have a sacrificial system, penance practices, or repentance standard to make one righteous before their deity, yet only Christianity has a substitutionary sacrifice on the part of the Divine that mortals may be made into the image of the One who is perfectly righteous. Everything but the blood of the Divine God is useless in making one perfectly righteous for all time in a fallen world, and dwelling in fallen flesh. Penance encourages reformed behavior. Sacrifice instills the concept of loss, as the sacrificial item must be something held dear. Repentance is a step toward acknowledging personal failure. But only Jesus’s sacrificial death atones for sin completely.

King Solomon, the wisest man to live, wrote, "For there is not a just man on earth who does good, and does not sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20, NKJV). The writer of the Book of Psalms, whom many believe to be Solomon’s father King David, wrote, The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God’. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works; there is none who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt, there is none who does good, no not one" (Psalms 14:1-3, NKJV).

Therefore, by the standards outlined in these divinely inspired verses in both Hebraic and Christian tradition, not a single person on earth is perfectly righteous. We are all deserving of spiritual death as corrupt sinners, and are sentenced to a state of eternal punishment. Our human standards of moral righteousness have no benefit in the heavenly court as relates to our eternal salvation. Because our salvation rests in our condition of spiritual righteousness, and because we are all completely corrupt by choice to violate God’s law of morality, and the standard for the Divine’s sacrifice is imputed in our lives by individual faith, then we stand guilty before God as sinners and evildoers, bar none. All who have not believed on the Only Begotten Son of God remain in a state of judgment for their sinful behavior.

Adolf Hitler, for all his evil deeds, was no closer to reaching the standard of perfection required by God’s law to make one spiritually righteous as Mother Theresa was in all her righteous deeds. But because the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a God of love and mercy, in His divine wisdom, He created a way to make us the image of His righteousness so that our penalty of death spent eternally in Hell does not have to be our destiny. This way, which is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6), is the Only Begotten Son of God (John 3:16). Mother Theresa’s life was transformed by faith in the Son of God. Her righteous deeds were fruits of a life dedicated to following her Savior. By an act of will, she surrendered her life in service of Christ, and moral righteousness became the byproduct. Hitler’s life was filled with hate, corruption, and blood; byproducts of immorality despite his claim to be doing the Lord’s work.

Beginning when Adam and Eve sinned in Eden, animal sacrifice was necessary to atone for sin, which is the religious way of saying evil deeds. The writer of the Book of Hebrews writes, "And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission (Hebrews 9:22, NKJV). This verse is referencing the books of Law, or Torah, specifically Leviticus 5:11-13 and Leviticus 17:11, both of which clearly reveal that the shedding of blood is for our soul’s atonement. Leviticus 17:11 specifically states, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul" (NKJV).

Through the sacrificial system that characterized Temple worship within ancient Judaism, sin sacrifices were common, and it was the specific work of the Levitical priesthood to offer these animal sacrifices on behalf of the people before