It is easy to read something like this and wonder, “What kind of person drinks blood?” But it is not all doom and gloom. Becky, Amber and Kristine shared something else that points us toward the answer to our own vulnerabilities: they turned to Christ.
The black candles were already burning. Their flickering flames threw restless shadows across the darkened room, illuminating an altar of Baphomet at its centre. Around it stood Michael, Becky Hutchinson and several others, draped in black cloaks, waiting for the ceremony to begin. Becky was nervous. For seven months, she had lived among these people. She had read their books, listened to their teachings, watched their rituals and slowly become accustomed to a world that once would have frightened her. But tonight demanded something more. Michael, the leader of the group, cut his arm and allowed his blood to drip into a chalice. Then the cup began its journey around the room. One person drank. Then another. Eventually, it reached Becky’s turn. In her account in Dancing with the Devil, she recalls offering her life to Satan before taking her turn drinking from the chalice. By the end of the ceremony, she considered herself fully initiated into the cult.
It is easy to read something like this and wonder, “What kind of person drinks blood?” “Why would someone in their right mind willingly offer their lives to Satan?” But those questions allow us to stand safely outside Becky's story and judge the woman holding the chalice. What we should really be wondering is “who was Becky before the cup ever reached her hands?”
Long before the black candles, Becky had known darkness of another kind. She describes a childhood marked by severe abuse and orphanhood. She carried fear and anger through several foster homes and blamed herself for the pain others had inflicted on her. As a teenager, alcohol became a way of covering the despair inside her. Anger and depression became part of her inner world. Becky’s life of pain and a desperate need to belong became an opening or door for the devil to infiltrate her life. That is why Michael's arrival in her life matters. He and his occult friends did not first walk up to her holding a chalice of blood. They gained her trust over time, complimented her and made her feel special. Through them, she had friends who cared. She belonged. Then gradually, they drew her into the occult books, tarot cards, and ceremonies. After her occult initiation, the new life she thought she had was now a new prison. Becky describes worsening alcohol abuse, terrifying nightmares, voices in her head, repeated hospitalisation and an overwhelming fear of what would happen if she spoke openly about the occult. Eventually, she attempted to take her own life by swallowing pills with alcohol and awoke in an emergency room attached to machines. Years later, she would describe her encounter with Christ as being rescued from the evil that nearly destroyed her.
Friends, Becky's story warns us how untreated pain and brokenness can open doors for the devil to enter our lives and lead us to actions we never imagined. However, Becky's story might still seem far removed from our own experiences. After all, childhood abuse and orphanhood are extraordinary cases. You might have had a stable childhood and think, “I don't have a door like that, so it can never be me.”
Neither did Amber Rane.
Amber grew up with Christian parents and spent her childhood in church. Some of her earliest memories were of lying underneath church pews listening to sermons. In her own words, she experienced no significant childhood trauma. Yet the road she travelled eventually led her into Satanism. Amber's door looked different. It developed around three ordinary human vulnerabilities: curiosity, a hunger for strength, and a desire to be seen.
Amber was naturally curious. She loved learning and analysing things, but that curiosity gradually turned toward spirits, ghosts and demons. She began reading secretly about people who claimed to communicate with invisible beings and wondered if she could do the same. Eventually, she says, the spirits she had wanted to hear became audible and began drawing her into something much darker. Then there was her hunger for strength. Amber had struggled with anger from childhood and was repeatedly told that she needed to control her temper. However, the voices she began hearing led her to shift from struggling with anger to fearing that she might appear weak. This led her to hunger for strength from demonic powers. Finally, Amber wanted to be noticed. In high school, she felt lonely and invisible. So, she longed to be special and noticeable. These three ordinary feelings: curiosity, hunger for strength, and desire to be seen became the doors through which the devil infiltrated her life. She pledged her life to satanism, thinking that all these desires would be fulfilled. Eventually, she fell into several episodes of depression, self-harm, nightmares, fear, angry outbursts, and ultimately attempted suicide. In her testimony, Amber shared that although she is now forgiven and in Christ, she feels she has lost so much and has hurt loved ones. She wishes she could undo the time lost.
Becky and Amber’s story teach us that the things capable of destroying us often don’t warn us of their true intentions. They often arrive looking like solutions to the needs in our lives. To the rejected person, the offer may look like belonging. To the powerless person, it may look like power. To the frightened person, control. To the curious person, secret knowledge. The needs themselves may not be evil, but when left unresolved, they can become doors of vulnerability that can lead us to accept dangerous things as the solution. This is why Scripture's warning to “give no place to the devil” in Ephesians 4:27 should not be treated lightly. We must address all doors that could give the devil a place in our lives.
At this moment, Christian readers might think to themselves, "I know Christ, I pray, I read the Bible, and attend church. This warning probably applies to those outside the faith." In such cases, Kristine McGuire’s story should act as a cautionary example.
From the outside, Kristine is what many would describe as a model of Christian development. At sixteen, she read the Bible from cover to cover and later attended a Christian liberal arts college. She had even experienced what she understood as God’s power when she and her friend cast out a demonic spirit that used to torment her, using their authority in Christ. In adulthood, she was a Christian wife and mother who volunteered in church, prayed for an hour each day, and faithfully read her Bible. She believed that if she did the right things, she would be blessed. But life became difficult, financial stress increased, and she and her husband began arguing, straining their marriage. Through this season, her frustrations turned into anger, and she felt that God had abandoned her. In her own words, her spiritual life became dry and empty, and she grew thirsty for something that could bring her relief from her struggles. Despite her Christian experience, Kristine’s disappointment and desire for relief and renewal became the door that opened her to turn to witchcraft. Kristine’s story shows us that the devil does not need to persuade us to reject everything we believe at once. He only needs us to begin making room for something alongside it.
Now, it is important to recognise that not all unresolved wounds lead to witchcraft, nor do all lonely people turn to Satanism. Likewise, not every curious teen starts communicating with spirits, nor do all disappointed Christians forsake their biblical foundation. However, this principle goes well beyond occult practices, illustrating that unresolved vulnerabilities can create doors for darkness to infiltrate our lives.
The door of anger can lead us to say or do things that hurt our loved ones. The door of lust can lead to adultery and ultimately ruin a marriage. The door of fear can hinder us from ever taking steps towards a better future. So, we must ask ourselves, “What doors am I leaving unattended in my life?” Where am I hurting but pretending to be fine? What disappointment have I allowed to become bitterness? Where do I desperately need people's approval? What am I curious about,even though I already sense that I should leave it alone? Where do I feel powerless? Those questions may be uncomfortable, but perhaps that is exactly why we need to ask them.
But it is not all doom and gloom. Becky, Amber and Kristine shared something else that points us toward the answer to our own vulnerabilities: they turned to Christ. They surrendered their weaknesses and burdens to Him and trusted in His power to restore them. As Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” So,if you are hurting, seek his peace. If you are curious, seek his wisdom, and if you feel powerless, seek his strength.
Written by Fellow Griffin Adjei-Brown
