Western Catholic Reporter: Burning 'Violent' Heavy Metal Posters Cleanses Lives

Father Jacques Johnson of Canada's Western Catholic Reporter recounted a time many years ago when he received a call from a mother who asked him to come, as her six-year-old boy could not sleep because he was afraid of something.

"I left the rectory and drove to the house and asked the mother what was going on with the boy," he wrote. "She said that she did not know, only that he was afraid of something and would not go to bed.

"Charlie was curled in the fetal position on a chair, crying softly. I took the little boy in my arms, talked to him and prayed for him, asking God to remove the fear from his heart. After a little while Charlie felt more comfortable and soon he was himself again.

"The mother then asked that I bless her trailer. I took holy water and went around the trailer, blessing every room.

"After I was finished the father asked me if I had felt anything strange while I went around the different rooms. 'As a matter of fact in the first room I felt something that caused a shiver down my back,' I said. 'I wondered what it was.'

"So we all went into the room which belonged to a teenaged son. The ceiling and walls were covered with violent and repugnant 'heavy metal' posters. Little Charlie came in with us and could not disguise his horror as he covered his eyes and started to whimper.

"I told the parents that these were bordering the satanic and that Charlie's reaction was a confirmation that harbouring these could not be healthy for the family living there. 'Just as holy pictures in our homes generate positive energies and blessings from God, so these violent unholy pictures produce the opposite,' I said.

"Christian parents need to discern what is good and life-giving for their family and what is destructive.

"That's all the father needed to hear as immediately he went to work, ripping down the posters and burning them in a barrel outside. While he was busy at that, the older son came home. He was very upset that his room was being invaded and his pictures were being reduced to ashes.

"The father would not hear his son protesting the destruction of the posters. Without a word he just kept ripping away and burning. Soon the house was cleared of them. The parents asked that I pray for them again. Then I went home." Read more.