I have a very similar experience. My parents read this book and I remember coming home from kindergarten one day all of my toys were gone. It was absolutely traumatizing and I feel in a lot of ways I am still dealing with it today. Now my kids have all the toys and so do I :)
This book definitely ruined my childhood. Currently watching Fantasia for the first time ever, I’m 40. Grew up with no Smurfs, Care Bears, Barbie My little pony, He-man or She-ra etc etc….No Halloween fun ever. Everything was always demonic. Blergh.
Been there, done that, got a similarly infuriating T shirt. Solidarity lol. I grew up being taught those toys were wrong too. The worst was that if our friends wanted to play with them, we were supposed to say no. It created self-ostracism and suspicion of what looked like fun.
"Turmoil in the Toybox" should be seen very much as "Trouble in River City" from The Music Man. That was his scam to make people afraid of every new thing. So, you should give money to Phil Philips and such.
Awesome video. My parents had that book. They tossed a few of my best toys that year. I had to watch cartoons at my friends house after that! What really sucks is that so many parents fell for this nonsense and couldn’t think for themselves.
What's funny/sad...us my mom read this book when it came out. It's the reason she wouldn't buy us any Motu figures cuz they were "evil". I managed to get Clawful and Buzzoff for m a friend (which since have been my favs.) But ya...I had all the popular 80s toys as a kid except He-man. 😢 Great video thanks!
I lost most of my Ninja Turtles collection to the horrible influence of this book. I'm still in mourning. At least I still have the one Raf plushie I won at a fair.
TMNT is one of the few cartoons that is NOT occult influenced. It isn't violent. And it must have been in the revised edition or 2nd edition of this book because I believe the first one was out before the TMNT craze
The only Saturday morning cartoons I was allowed to watch were Garfield and Friends and the Muppet Babies. Also they didn’t ban Looney Toons in our house because they were from my parent’s childhood and pretty much anything from their generation was considered wholesome… except for Bewitched, Jeanie, Addams Family, and the Munsters, those were still evil.
Ha! No kidding! Yes, we survived, I grew up and forgave my parents, and now I get to live Vicariously through my kids. In our house growing up unicorns were the ultimate evil, and yet now my youngest daughter’s bedroom is decorated in them! And I’m loving all the re-releasing of these 80’s and 90’s toys. My husband had his toys thrown away as a kid (for different reasons) and now I let him buy anything he wants when we have extra money. He has two huge plastic tubs full of He-Man figures, Castle Greyskull, Ninja Turtles, Scooby-Doo, and Transformers! He and our girls set all the toys out on our dining room table and have epic battles for hours! It’s fantastic!
My uncle was a fundamentalist minister back in the '80s. In 1986, around the time I was 5, he - no doubt influenced by Phil Phillips or acolytes of Phillips' propaganda - convinced my mother to throw away my sizeable and much-beloved toy collections of Return of the Jedi, Masters of the Universe, and Thundercats. (Fortunately, my Transformers and G.I. Joe toys were spared, even though they were also targeted by Phillips.) It remains just about the most traumatic experience of my childhood. I remember panicking and hiding any of my new toys from my uncle whenever he visited, lest they, too, be deemed "harmful" somehow. I could never even play with my remaining toys the same way again, always wondering in the back of mind if they were "evil" someway, and fearing that they could be taken away at any moment like my MOTU, etc. It left such an impact on me, that, to this day, I still feel somewhat uncomfortable being around my uncle or letting him see any of my possessions. (During the 1995 reissue of Star Wars toys, I went crazy trying to recapture the joy of my original collection and amassed a new SW collection which I still own.)
It sounds like we have a lot of common ground and shared experiences. All I can say is that I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that, and I know the shadow of it hangs around for years, if not decades. In some ways, I would love to talk to Mr. Phillips and share with him all the trauma and resentment that came from his book so that some of us could truly have some closure. What's interesting is that someone from his camp reached out to me after they saw this video to see if I wanted to interview him. I responded that I didn't want to have a public theological debate and I didn't want the video to feel like an episode of Maury Povich or Jerry Springer, but that the door was open. I wanted to talk about the people who had contacted me and informed me that this book caused them to walk away from the church. The Bible says that the world will know who Christians are by their love. Not their list of rules, or their fear, but by their love. Anyway, I never heard back from them, and I suspect that tells us a lot. At any rate, I'm now a forty year old guy, and my childhood, or rather the childhood I wanted, will forever be something I'm chasing. My love of the toys and cartoons of the 80s hasn't died down as I get older, it's actually gotten more passionate.
Religious trauma is a life long process of unpacking. My mother bought that book but never read it because of her dyslexia so she made me summarize it for her 😅
We had that same book that made it to the UK (lucky us!). I, too, was never allowed to watch Heman. I was also told horror stories of people playing Dungeons & Dragons and killing themselves. The care bears thing fully sticks in my mind as utterly ridiculous and yet put to us totally seriously. My parents, I think, eventually got over it and realised it was pretty dumb stuff, but not until my late-teens. My overriding memory was being told how evil all this cool stuff was and it was just miserable. I am grateful, as I got older, they relented on this stuff but for the majority of my childhood, that book held a particular sway that was so unhealthy and unhelpful. Thankfully, I could filter it as I got older and could see there was nothing in that really represented what was in the Bible. And, to be fair to them, when I challenged them on it, my parents did eventually agree that it wasn't helpful - which was very good to hear. But, yeh, that book...!!!
I had a similar experience as a kid but with ninja turtles. I myself am in my late 30’s, and I remember an anti ninja turtle book circulating that helped bring my parents to the decision to throw all my toys out. I remember it focusing on the original comic, which was intended for adults, but that the fact was it was super violent, and the turtles drank beer. All my toys were thrown out in 1992. For the past three years I’ve been rebuilding my old collection, and I’m proud to say I have more original toys MOC then I did as a kid, including several vehicles.
Phil Phillips is my dad. I meet people all the time who's childhoods were similar as yours. I assure you, I was the most "protected" out of all ya'll though.
Taylor, I would LOVE to talk to you. If you ever feel like having a friendly, open talk about those days and how you've dealt with it, please email us at CerealMidnight@gmail.com. If you do, I promise a respectful discussion. I think so many of us are still trying to make sense of that mentality at the time.
When I was a kid there was a fundie guy with six kids in my neighborhood who wouldn't let them play with me because I was an "evil" kid. All because my mom let me watch the cartoons mentioned in this book. This guy went even further and said dinosaurs and Monchichi were evil because they had to do with evolution. I didn't even know what evolution was when i was nine and he told me I was going to hell because I was playing with my Monchichi.
@@CerealAtMidnight I remember asking my mom "What's evolution!?" My mom didn't have a highschool diploma but somehow explained it to me so I would understand. However, not too long after that the neighbor went to prison for a year for drug dealing and domestic violence among other things. While he sat in prison, his kids would come over with their mom and play with my "cool toys". Turns out their mom was planning on leaving their dad due to him being such a hypocrite.
My parents never read the book, but I did, back when I was in the United Pentecostal Church. It was in our church library. My mom had bought into some of the "satanic panic" crap in the 80s and wouldn't let me watch the animated series of D&D. She would always get angry when she saw me watching it and demand that I change the channel, but never tell me why. And then I read "Turmoil in the Toybox" and understood why. For a time, I even bought into it, but never had my heart in what it said. I avoided D&D like the plague, though, but was still intrigued by it. I guess on some unconscious level, I realized that what Phil Phillips was saying was complete paranoid B.S. I was quick to realize that I couldn't think of one person who had gotten into witchcraft, satanism, or the occult from watching the Smurfs, He-Man, Care Bears, or My Little Pony, let alone playing D&D (and Loony Tunes ... was this guy NUTS???), and the fact that the story was about good triumphing over evil just sealed the deal. Eventually, I learned that even D&D and other tabletop RPGs were just storytelling games that were fun and even sometimes hilarious. Thank God that the movement that spawned this book and its sequel (Yes, there IS a sequel) died out, but its effects are still felt today, especially in many evangelical fundamentalist Christian circles. But yeah, I can totally see how this book ruined many children's childhoods. My heart goes out to you CAM , for missing the awesomeness that was 80s kids' shows.
I don’t hate my parent for it, they were doing their best. But I’m still pretty mad at a system that targeted kids television shows and toys and marked them as evil.
@@CerealAtMidnightI shared this video on my Facebook page. Check out The Thinking Atheist video The Satanic Panic. There's a clip that laughs at the Phil Phillips video. Thanks.
I was blissfully unaware of all this back then, my mom recorded whatever cartoons were on then just to have for us kids to watch later. From what I read, Rainbow Brite was perceived to be Satanic because the star on her cheek was a pentagram, or something? Thanks for diving into the book.
Dude that was a great video and thank you for opening up to us! Makes me breath a sigh of relief that I didn't have that in my childhood (there was plenty of other stuff but got to keep this a happy place!)... does kind of make me want to read the book and... Wait one minute, did you just advertise AND throw in a PSA? You dog you! Hahahahaha... Keep up the great work Heath!
Thanks, Richard! I think we all have our individual damages from childhood, but I can't believe someone waged a war against cartoons and toys. Isn't it crazy? Thanks again for watching the video and being a part of the conversation!
Sadly and sadly still true today, fear sells... Like the war against the evils of Dungeons and Dragons etc. parents can be an easy target! Though glad to hear the author is using his current time to do some good.
This is AMAZING! They literally just copied Care Bears and added a Bible verse so they could market these directly to over-protective churchy people! Thanks for sharing your pain, Charity!
Deception of a Generation is a "film" that me and my best friend from Highschool watched and constantly made fun of. We absolutely loved how AWFUL it was. We to this day still mock it and meme on it. And to now realize that Phil Phillips wrote at least 6 books about the same topic. I might have to call Mike and tell him we've got a new source of memes to make fun of. Ahahahaha.
I can remember a friend of my Mother's bringing this to her attention. She instead would watch the cartoons with me and I was still allowed to watch 90 percent of the shows I loved. There were some prohibited shows, but the only one I can remember was D and D. I think your parents bad good intentions, but that still doesn't make it right. Music they were a little more strict with for sure.
Being an 80s kid myself I feel for ya bud, fortunately as far as toys were concerned my parents didn't buy into the whole "Satanic Panic" nonsense (for the most part. )
Sir... I thought I was the only one in the world that this happened to! I had the exact same experience as you did growing up. I had every ninja turtle, every nintendo game, every gi joe thrown away and it wasnt until I finally was in my 30s till I went back and actually watched some of these shows that I missed out on as a kid. I actually started to try to do some research on the author to see if he was a 7th day Adventist or just something that could explain the metal destruction he caused me growing up. Thank you for sharing your story with us!
Believe me, there are a ton of us out there. This author sold over a million books, scared a lot of parents, and pushed thousands of kids away from God and the church as a result. We’ve heard from some of those 80s kids as a result of this video, and many of us are still a little upset about it and haven’t darkened the door of a church since. I’m sorry you had to go trough this, but I’m glad that you, like me, have been able to go back and discover and enjoy what we missed! I’ll love this stuff forever now as a result.
Like you, I lived through the Satanic Panic years. My parents were pretty chill overall. My wife's family bought into those sermons and "news" programs. If you ever want to revisit this topic in any way, let me know. I've also researched and presented about the Satanic Panic connected to RPGs and Comics, but remember people's families taking away Smurfs, Care Bears, and other programs and toys. I'm glad you covered this topic.
In 1990 my mom became a devout Jehovah’s Witness over night, when her “elder” JW cousin came to visit for the weekend. She trashed all my TMNT, MOTU, Thundercats, Ghostbusters, and smurf toys, and stuff. I’m still very pissed
Horrible book, Toy Story showed it was alright to enjoy our toys. The 80s toys rocked! Guess my Atari 2600 and Nintendo 8 bit games and systems are evil too...
Yeah, Atari and NES were EVIL. Let's start with Atari. Adventure? Combat? These lead to destruction. Space Invaders? Too violent. Yar's Revenge?That space ship is on a path to hades. Enduro spoken backwards is "orudne," which is an incantation found in the TIbetan Book of the dead. Demon Attack? Don't even get me started.
Cereal At Midnight Funny as I consider myself a Christian, but folks like Phil Phillips are just nutso! I believe in values, but I also believe in having fun!
Cereal At Midnight Fred Rogers was a minister, and I loved to watch Mr. Rogers Neighborhood as a youngin' Especially loved the Neighborhood of Make Believe, and the how they made different things segments on "Picture Picture".
I lost a lot of good toys as a kid thanks to that book. Toys that I wish I could have passed down to my kids. You’re not alone. I’m 40 and I still think about and am bothered by the effects of that book even today.
So I can somewhat very much relate. This book was in my home, but I probably looked @ it more than my mom... She wasn't much of a reader, luckily, so only the He-Man stuff bit the dirt. As did my Dad's home brewing supplies... (Edit: he released a _TITTT_ FYI! Sorry could not resist; yeah, a pt.2) A child's general expectation of Light winning over Dark... is a big ol' part of why killing off 🤖ptimus Prime was sooo messed up!
My parents were very similar but over time loosened up. Totally crazy Harry Potter was banned in my family but Lord of the Rings and Narnia were allowed!
Exactly the same in my house. I once asked why Lord of the Rings and Narnia were okay when they featured wizards and witches and magic, and never got a satisfactory answer. I think the real answer was that the church was waging a crusade against Harry and his friends.
Been there. Same crap happened to me as a kid. I guess that's why I have tons and tons of 80s and 90s cartoons and movies and games now. Oh well. If anything, it taught me the value of collecting things.
I had a friend growing up & his mom had that book. I was so intrigued with reading it. She actually let me borrow it & it ended up with me when they moved away. While I understand that this subject & the author engaged in a full scale attack on a lot of kids' childhood from the 80's, I did not feel like it ruined mine. What was crazy was even though G.I. Joe was touched on in that book, that same friend had tons of those action figures. Not sure what denomination they were, but I was aware that they were christian. I thought it was an intresting read.
It all comes down to how much the PARENTS who were reading the book feared the accuracy of the reporting. In our circles, there was quite a bit of church-involved policing of content. I even remember special meetings outside of the traditional Sunday schedule to discuss the evils of the world and how parents needed to avoid them. Seems like some parents had a good bull-crap sensor, but a lot of them did not. Glad you escaped relatively unscathed!
@@CerealAtMidnight I appreciate you reaching out to respond. When I was younger I bounced from different denominations & the awareness of this book in those particular circles was nonexistent. If anything, I truly believe that this watchdogging came from Pentacostal to Nondenominational churches.
My mom threw away most of my toys after reading this book. She thought everything was evil. Ghostbusters, ninja turtles, and everything else was considered satanic. It really sucked.
One of Phil Phillips books that came some time after this one called The Truth About The Power Rangers revealed the bias my parents had between my sister and I. My parents took away power rangers for a time. When they kep reading the book, they came upon a chapter about Sailor Moon. They were not going to take Sailor Moon away from my little sister, thus I got my Power Rangers back... And the realization that they did play favorites. 😐
I’ll be covering/dismantling his television broadcast concerning this that was called “Deception of a Generation”. It’ll be up on my channel in multiple parts, and I’ll be tackling it from a theological and factual standpoint. Hope you’ll check it out!
Cereal At Midnight I have not, but I DID follow his career. I’m doing it as a form of catharsis for people like myself, and other 80’s kids that had to put up with this. And as a cautionary tale to fellow believers that may want to jump the gun about more modern media like this guy did.
Yeah, this video was definitely my catharsis, and it actually did help me. Having his book and reading his statements now make it all seem so ridiculous. I still can't decide if he genuinely thought he was helping or if he just saw an opportunity to make a lot of money. Goodness knows he rode that train until it completely ran out of steam. Looking forward to your series!
The Cinema Snob did a two part episode of the video Phil did back in the 1980's !! He refutes and debunks every " point " that they make . It is on UA-cam if you are interested .
I am deeply sorry that you had to put up with this nonsense. I was rased a Christian but my mom wasn't like that growing up in the 80's. I got to see He-Man, GI Joe, and The Real Ghostbusters. Any Saturday morning cartoon, I was there in front of the TV. I got play with the He-Man toys. Heck I'd play with The Real Ghostbusters toys with my younger brother. We were born four years apart. We were both 80's kids. I think Phil Phillips did more harm than good in my opinion. All he said about the kid shows, the toys. Insane!
There we actually a couple of those books! My mom read them and we didn’t get to watch many cartoons. Smurfs were especially bad. Now that my kids are allowed to watch those shoes and have the toys she seems to forget how bad they were! Interesting, don’t you think!
great video . my mom and dad also looked at this book back in the 80,s im 42 so growing in the 80,s they really thought it was a joke . they knew that imagination was a major tool as a kid so i got to play with gijoe and he-man . go bot/ transformers the list go,s on and on heck with all the toys/action figures id even do crossover events . long before it was a thing . heh .but yeah they knew these two guys were only out to cash in on fear . i can say i lived in the time of the satanic panic and now being a 40 somthing year old the 80,s were an amazing time to be a kid .
I was lucky enough to have been born in 1969 , so I had my childhood in the 1970's !! I loved ( And Still Love !! ) the Pop Culture of the '70's !! I was not alive during the Comic Book ( And other things !! ) causes JD Senate Trials of the 1950's . And , by the 1980's , I mostly just collected Comic Books , and watched very few cartoons , so I was not affected by the censorship . I DO remember Kid's TV Shows like " You Can't Do That On Television , " being looked down upon . I still watched those shows , however !!
I came here wondering what happened to this book. I wasn't prevented from getting any of these toys, or watching the cartoons. I got it because I was disappointed in the information presented in the Sears catalog. I thought this book was more like in-depth product reviews. Fail.
This may be too personal, but I was curious if this damaged your relationship with your parents in any way. I was raised Christian (still am), but my parents were pretty lenient about what I watched, within reason. My grandparents, though made it known that they disapproved of Harry Potter and Pokemon. I'm just glad I was born in 92 and not 82, I feel for you guys!
I wouldn't say it damaged my relationship with my parents. I was an angry teen, but I think I've become less angry as I get older, and now I just do what I want to do. I know what I believe, why I believe it, and that isn't necessarily what my folks believe. And really, that's okay. I think they were doing their best, which is all anybody can do. I'm more upset at the fundamentalists who made serious cash by marketing fear in the '80s and early '90s. That one still really bothers me.
As a Christian, do you still believe in exercising Biblical discernment when it comes to entertainment? God hasn't given us a spirit of fear (or paranoia), but he does tell us to "be sober, be vigilant" and that "Satan transforms himself into an angel of light..."
Phil Phillips was an asshat. George Lucas based Darth Vader's look on Samurai armor. He was inspired by Akira Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress". As a matter of fact George Lucas offered Toshiro Mifune the roles of Obi Won Kenobi & Darth Vader which he unfortunately turned down. Do you realize how epic having Mifune in Star Wars would have been?
We had another book by the same author called Saturday Morning Mind Control. Pretty much more of the same you are talking about here. I was not banned from these shows or toys, but I was given ominous warnings that, you know, the devil might get me if I did. Dungeons and Dragons was a bigger deal, as I was not allowed to bring the books to any of my relatives houses or even talk about them. It was all pretty silly.
That dude made a fortune off of his books and his speaking engagements, traveling the country promoting fear and religious division. I’m still highly bothered by the thinking behind it.
Did this guy ever write a book about the evils of Disney? I remember my folks having some kind of anti Disney book from our church as a kid, and everyone in my church boycotted Disney bc of it and I had to hear about how evil they were all of the time.
I remember reading that the unicorns horn symbolises alot of stuff and one of those things was the cross in religious art because the horn has healing properties and can get rid of poisons in food and drinks that's why royal kings and queens wanted one to keep themselves safe from being poisoned.
I grew up addicted to these cartoons. I even wanted to be an animator for children's education shows. Becoming an animator was expensive and not practical so that plan changed. I never heard of this book til recently. I'm 43 now and I'm a Christian from my own decision and decades from deciding that.. I found out about the occultism, lucifianism, kabbalah, the 1% that runs the media, the banking system, 33 degree Mason's, Blahvatski and Crowley, symbols of demons and Egyptian god's and goddesses, some deep dark things. There's alotta truth to what Phil was talking about but a lot of it should be researched and looked into to see if it's true or not. It shouldn't be quickly dismissed until disproved. I get how many feel though I was a huge wonder woman fan, jem, she-ra. I get it but there's more than what we see on the surface. IMO they really should have glorified God more by stating that He's sovereign and can conquer over all evil. I don't think that it was right to create fear for the evil being portrayed.
The video of Phil Phillips and Gary Greenwald talking about this stuff is priceless. It’s some of the best unintentional comedy I’ve ever seen. It is both hilarious and infuriating, due to the fact that so many childhoods were ruined by that video and this book. It’s also highly offensive the way he associates “Eastern religions” with evil. I guess they had to get the subtle racism in with that one.
I went through the same experience certain cartoons I couldn't watch and toys I couldn't have my parents obviously read this book and we're always preached in church
Omg I am laughing and crying at the same time!! My childhood was totally shaped by this book! I never knew the contents until now.. I just knew we weren't allowed to have cabbage patch kids, smurfs, my little pony, anything to do with rainbows or unicorns... and pretty much every thing on that list! 😢😅 Dr James Dobson peddled this info and my mom was totally eating it up! 😑 I came here to search for the book and find info for my 11 yr old daughter who was literally baffled by these restrictions 😂 Watching your video... I'm so sorry you went through it too.. but you get it. You described me. (Except we didn't even have a TV... those were evil too 😂)
I wasn't allowed gi joes! Or gun toys... ninja turtles slid under the radar. Until I jump kicked the neighbor kid.. but the worst was my mom finding my spawn comics.
We didn't have this book in my house but we had the VHS special. Someone from church dubbed a bunch of copies off and passed them around to the parents. While my dad and I laughed at the presentation (I was about three years old) my mom took it to heart and tried to throw my toys away. My dad wouldn't let her get rid of my MOTU collection, but he comprised and anything D&D was forbidden in my house. It didn't effect me, but my brother had to get rid of a bunch of books. I swore that if I ever had kids I wouldn't let any book except the Bible dictate what toys I let my kids play with. To this day I can't find any passage in the Bible where God states "And yea, I say unto thee, cast out thine Smurfs from among ye, for they are an abomination before me. Their blue skin and little hats harbor evil continuously."
Hey man, I grow up Baptist but my mom never banned anything. I remember the whole Harry Potter is evil bs so my mom watch it to see for herself and tell me it bs and let me watch the movies. My faith in God is still a big part of my life and hope and pray that you and your family.
My faith is strong, and this video is in no way intended to be a statement against faith, but rather against fear. Hopefully it's a comedic look at how strange things were in the 80s!
@@horrorsci-fiandbeyond not in something but in the true God Almighty who created. Heaven and earth. Do not be deceived by satan for he is the father of lies. Jesus saves . Receive Him He changes our lives for the better. Theres espiritual warfare. Ephesians 6:12-20
I remember wanting this book as a kid, and probably good thing i didn't get it. But my mom was always going into the Christian book store. I wanted it as a kid because it had lots of my favorite toys in it. However, i was allowed to have most of what a lot of kids at church were not allowed to have. The stuff i wasn't allowed to have, i was able to eventually talk my mom into letting me have, such as collecting Garbage Pail Kids cards. To be honest, though, now as an adult who started taking my Christianity seriously, there really is a lot of occultism in He Man and the MOTU, as well as a lot of other cartoons.
Ah, but occultism has been a part of our myth for as long as we've been alive, from Beowulf to the Grimm's Fairy Tales to Snow White and Peter Pan. It needn't pose a threat to faith, but can instead help to strengthen our faith, as both C.S. Lewis and Tolkien knew so well. I now look back and see these cartoons as perfect analogies that help young people embrace morality and ethics over selfishness. I've heard from many, many people who told me this book drove them away from God, church, and faith. If God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind, then why should we fear stories that feature darkness, as long as righteousness always triumphs? This is the thing that turns so many away from organized religion, especially among the protestant sects: the church is called to love, but all too often is the first in line to condemn. I'm very glad that you got to experience some of this stuff during your childhood, though! Sounds like the fear and anger that so many us were bombarded with wasn't necessarily a part of your past, which is great.
I'm glad I grew up in the 70's. I was in high school and grown when garbage books like this came out. I was raised by the Greatest Generation so they wouldn't have bought what this guy was shoveling anyway. It's kind of like the lady who boycotted Married With Children. She made it even more popular with people.
I was raised in the 80’s grew up watching them cartoons and He-man did too open curiosity up to super powers and the occult. My parents were young Christians they didn’t know to protect me and my siblings minds from some of them cartoons. I personally like Chip n Dale rescue rangers, Muppet Babies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles., Garfield and friends, Alvin and the chipmunks,
This is awful. I grew up in the 80s and i am glad that i had a mom who did not feed into that BS. However at age 41 i find this book to be absolutely hilarious. I have to also acknowledge and feel bad for the kids in the 80s who missed out on the greatest era of cartoons and toys.
When I was in 4th Grade the teacher made me go to the principal´s office for "a serious talk about rock music" It was ridiculous. Heavy Metal was public enemy #1, and if you put on an Iron Maiden record, it would turn you homicidal occultist.
Fascinating. I had a friend at school back in the 80's that was not allowed to watch some of those cartoons. But didn't know about the others. All the moral panic around everything at that time. I thought it was stupided. Looking back on it as an adult you can see some meaning. Like you say with the marketing at the kids. the pester power we had wanting the new toys etc.. Might have to check out that book. Just out of curiosity. I never knew there was a "handbook" to these "evil" things. haha. I think that time it was all blow out of proportion with the cartoons, toys and music. Seems like everything i liked then and still do was a target. But I guess it was because it was popular. I don't think It was as bad here in the UK as it was where you are. but I do remember some stuff being said on TV. I think it was mostly to do with violence in TV shows like He-Man and Doctor Who. But thing is, it seemed to have the opposite effect to what they wanted. if they disapproved of it it made us want to watch it even more.
You’re right, making this stuff forbidden only made it more appealing! It’s so funny about the book though, you could make the same arguments against so many things that I know good and well the author had no problem with. Howdy Doody, Gumby, Classic Disney movies, etc
@@CerealAtMidnight Fun to watch on TV Lady LovelyLocks and the Pixietails My Little Pony Barbie American Girl Jem and the Holograms Care Bears Scooby-Doo Star Wars Classic Disney movies The Smurfs Rugrats Looney Tunes California Dreams Clarissa Punky Brewster Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Not being american, i learned over the years about the demonization of pop culture, but i never knew about that book. The sad part it, this is still happening today. I'm sure something like this would still find believers if it came out today. Because god help us if the parents should make up their own minds and actually talk to their kids
Exactly. I know Harry Potter is STILL controversial to a certain group of people. Like you said, all this could be avoided by parents watching, reading, and experiencing these things WITH their kids. Looking at the problems today's kids have (cyberbulling, Snapchat, the rising drug use among high school students, naughty images at the click of a button), it seems so hard to believe THIS is what some parents were afraid of.
Another one said that troll dolls were symbols of the occult, and we were told at my church that God might not protect people who had occult symbols in their home. So I was racked with guilt as a child and threw my troll dolls away because I didn’t want my family to die if our house caught on fire.
I pretty much had free reign on cartoons as a kid. Though I do remember hearing the Smurfs were communist, and how the Chipmunks were grating on my parents ears. I was able to discern good cartoons from bad cartoons.... And the bad ones were the ones that didn't have any action adventure to them... Boy do I remember drooling over those toys though from GI Joe, Transformers, Voltron, and Robotech... There are probably many more toys. In 1984 Voltron was $100, and I begged and begged, and never got it.
Dude I’m so sorry you had to put up with this crap. I come from a place where you can be cool with religion but also be cool with 80’s slasher movies too. Life is just one big grey area and not black and white. What kind of stuff were you able to watch and enjoy? Star Trek?
Sorry to hear about what you went through with this. I was allowed to watch all these shows as a kid, and have many fond memories of favorites. While I think it's wise to be careful what and how much your kids watch of anything, wholesale condemnation like this seems closed-minded and paranoid. I just got my five year old started watching G1 Transformers cartoons, and he LOVES them! I've had a few moments of "These are kinda violent--am I doing the right thing?" --but it's been so fun to watch him enjoying the same cartoon I enjoyed so much as a kid. Parents should follow their values and make rational decisions based on reasonable reviewing of media. Sad that this kind of fear-mongering was listened to by so many parents.
I grew up in West Germany, as it was then, and while this particular book never made it to our shores, as far as I know, and the Christian angle wouldn't have worked here anyway, we did have our own busybodies who had nothing better to do than "protect" kids from cartoons and toys. First of all, these folks absolutely hated glorifying violence and war, so Masters of the Universe, She-Ra, Transformers, M.A.S.K. and particularly G.I. Joe were all evil, because they glorified violence. Never mind that no one ever dies or gets seriously hurt in those cartoons, they glorify violence and are therefore evil. The second problem with these folks was that every heroic or superheroic character was automatically fascist in these people's view. He-Man: Fascist, since he's strong, muscular and blond. She-Ra: Fascist, since she's blonde and strong. Star Wars: Fascist, even though they're literally fighting fascists. Conan: Very facist. Even Captain America was fascist to those folks, which is just ridiculous. Meanwhile, there were still actual Ex-Nazis in positions of power in West Germany in the 1980s, though they were thankfully dying off. But instead of doing something about those guys, let's accuse He-Man of being fascist. The third problem was plastic. These toys were made of plastic, which somehow was very evil. Of course, Legos were made of plastic, too, and they were not evil, but very educational and good for you. Playmobil was made of plastic and some of the figures even had guns and swords, but that was educational and okay to have as well. And while Smurfs were made of plastic, they were generally considered neutral. The real issue here is of course that Lego is from Denmark, the Smurfs are from Belgium and the toys were made in Germany and Playmobil was from Germany as well. And plastic toys were only evil, when they came from the US. Which was really the main issue here: These folks were mostly crusading leftwingers who had lingering problems with the US stemming from the Vietnam war and they projected these issues onto American toys, cartoons and entertainment, all of which was deemed "American trash" and bad for you. Luckily, my parents did not care and I had a whole Smurf vilage, Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bear toys and even a lone She-Ra figure, though I had to buy my Masters of the Universe and Star Wars toys as an adult, because those were for boys and persuading my parents that yes, a girl can like both Barbie and He-Man was difficult. I also apparently wasn't direct enough and longing looks thrown at those toys did not automatically make them materialise at birthday or Christmas time. In fact, when my parents saw my Masters of the Universe collection, it turned out they had zero memories of the toys or the cartoon at all. A bigger problem was that West German TV simply did not broadcast all of those toy tie-in cartoons, because they were violent and evil, so even though you could buy the toys, you didn't have the story to go with them. Luckily, my Dad worked in the Netherlands, when I was at the right age for that sort of thing, and our flat there had cable TV and I could watch all the cartoons on Dutch and Belgian TV as well as on Sky Channel from the UK. Great times and very important to me.
Some people cannot resist sticking their noses into other people's business! Same with the video nasty shambles over here in the 80s, same with the comics thing in the 50s. These people are just chronic pains!
My uncle might have read that. He banned Mighty Mouse, and Looney Toons, for his kids. Meanwhile, I was watching Cannon movies, and Kung Fu Theater, when was 4. Dad only ever banned MTV.
While growing up in a christian home in the late 80's and though out the 90's, I had a similar but very confusing experience when it came to banning some of these cartoons in my house. I'm not sure if this book was involved because this was the first time I've ever heard of it, however my mom was close friends with church goers and they all read these type of books, so it wouldn't surprise me if this book was brought up. I remember far back when I wasn't allowed to watch The Little Bits, Care Bears, The Smurfs, and David the Gnome only because they had "magic" in it, which is strange only because I was allowed to watch Disney movies that involved "magic"; meanwhile I was allowed to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Inspector Gadget and Batman the Animated Series which has cartoon violence... so it was kinda confusing. But since He-Man was a huge issue in this book, I don't remember watching He-Man in my childhood only because I don't remember if it was another banned cartoon in my house or it was hardly on in my area. However thanks to Netflix, I was able see what it was like and I don't see anything wrong with it and I enjoyed it! Anyways, this book reminds me of Legalism which is another way to control out of religion. since I'm very into animation history, I'm very curious to see who else is in his "evil" cartoon list. lol!
I agree, legalism is terrible. The same double standard existed in my house. Magic was of the devil, and yet it was okay if it came from a writer or a source that we could definitely pinpoint as Christian, such as C.S. Lewis. No one was watching the shows or movies themselves and offering parental guidance and explanations, they were just feeding off each other and working themselves into a righteous frenzy. I don’t think the fervor came strictly from this book. I think it was already in the air in the 80s and early 90s.
@@CerealAtMidnight yes indeed, in my pre-teens, my family was going to a church that was turning into legalism once when they brought in another pastor, I remember in Sunday school that they taught us that listening to pop music and contemporary christian music was bad. however after about 6 months we left because their teachings were too much about legalism where it came to the point where we needed to leave. that's one of the reasons why I watch these cartoons for myself and make my own judgement on what is accessible. anyways, I did look this dude up and he made more books after this one and I guess he just disappeared afterwards. go figure. lol!
I have a very similar experience. My parents read this book and I remember coming home from kindergarten one day all of my toys were gone. It was absolutely traumatizing and I feel in a lot of ways I am still dealing with it today. Now my kids have all the toys and so do I :)
So funny, I grew up Catholic and for my First Holy Communion, my mum gave me a MOTU Battle Damage Armor Skeletor as a gift!
Cuz Catholics get to do everything
This book definitely ruined my childhood. Currently watching Fantasia for the first time ever, I’m 40. Grew up with no Smurfs, Care Bears, Barbie My little pony, He-man or She-ra etc etc….No Halloween fun ever. Everything was always demonic. Blergh.
Been there, done that, got a similarly infuriating T shirt. Solidarity lol. I grew up being taught those toys were wrong too. The worst was that if our friends wanted to play with them, we were supposed to say no. It created self-ostracism and suspicion of what looked like fun.
"Turmoil in the Toybox" should be seen very much as "Trouble in River City" from The Music Man. That was his scam to make people afraid of every new thing. So, you should give money to Phil Philips and such.
Awesome video. My parents had that book. They tossed a few of my best toys that year. I had to watch cartoons at my friends house after that! What really sucks is that so many parents fell for this nonsense and couldn’t think for themselves.
What's funny/sad...us my mom read this book when it came out. It's the reason she wouldn't buy us any Motu figures cuz they were "evil". I managed to get Clawful and Buzzoff for m a friend (which since have been my favs.) But ya...I had all the popular 80s toys as a kid except He-man. 😢
Great video thanks!
I lost most of my Ninja Turtles collection to the horrible influence of this book. I'm still in mourning. At least I still have the one Raf plushie I won at a fair.
I picked up a turtle van a few months ago. Never too late!
TMNT is one of the few cartoons that is NOT occult influenced. It isn't violent. And it must have been in the revised edition or 2nd edition of this book because I believe the first one was out before the TMNT craze
Author of that book spoke at our church. As soon as he started in on Star Wars my dad leaned over and said “he’s nuts”.
That's awesome, Chris!
Do you think Star Wars glorifies God?
The only Saturday morning cartoons I was allowed to watch were Garfield and Friends and the Muppet Babies. Also they didn’t ban Looney Toons in our house because they were from my parent’s childhood and pretty much anything from their generation was considered wholesome… except for Bewitched, Jeanie, Addams Family, and the Munsters, those were still evil.
It's funny because Looney Tunes arguably had way more violence and bad behavior than shows like Bewitched and The Munsters.
Cheers to us, we survived!
Ha! No kidding!
Yes, we survived, I grew up and forgave my parents, and now I get to live Vicariously through my kids. In our house growing up unicorns were the ultimate evil, and yet now my youngest daughter’s bedroom is decorated in them! And I’m loving all the re-releasing of these 80’s and 90’s toys. My husband had his toys thrown away as a kid (for different reasons) and now I let him buy anything he wants when we have extra money. He has two huge plastic tubs full of He-Man figures, Castle Greyskull, Ninja Turtles, Scooby-Doo, and Transformers! He and our girls set all the toys out on our dining room table and have epic battles for hours! It’s fantastic!
My uncle was a fundamentalist minister back in the '80s. In 1986, around the time I was 5, he - no doubt influenced by Phil Phillips or acolytes of Phillips' propaganda - convinced my mother to throw away my sizeable and much-beloved toy collections of Return of the Jedi, Masters of the Universe, and Thundercats. (Fortunately, my Transformers and G.I. Joe toys were spared, even though they were also targeted by Phillips.) It remains just about the most traumatic experience of my childhood. I remember panicking and hiding any of my new toys from my uncle whenever he visited, lest they, too, be deemed "harmful" somehow. I could never even play with my remaining toys the same way again, always wondering in the back of mind if they were "evil" someway, and fearing that they could be taken away at any moment like my MOTU, etc. It left such an impact on me, that, to this day, I still feel somewhat uncomfortable being around my uncle or letting him see any of my possessions. (During the 1995 reissue of Star Wars toys, I went crazy trying to recapture the joy of my original collection and amassed a new SW collection which I still own.)
It sounds like we have a lot of common ground and shared experiences. All I can say is that I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that, and I know the shadow of it hangs around for years, if not decades. In some ways, I would love to talk to Mr. Phillips and share with him all the trauma and resentment that came from his book so that some of us could truly have some closure. What's interesting is that someone from his camp reached out to me after they saw this video to see if I wanted to interview him. I responded that I didn't want to have a public theological debate and I didn't want the video to feel like an episode of Maury Povich or Jerry Springer, but that the door was open. I wanted to talk about the people who had contacted me and informed me that this book caused them to walk away from the church. The Bible says that the world will know who Christians are by their love. Not their list of rules, or their fear, but by their love. Anyway, I never heard back from them, and I suspect that tells us a lot. At any rate, I'm now a forty year old guy, and my childhood, or rather the childhood I wanted, will forever be something I'm chasing. My love of the toys and cartoons of the 80s hasn't died down as I get older, it's actually gotten more passionate.
@@CerealAtMidnight Would you be interested in an interview with his daughter?
Religious trauma is a life long process of unpacking. My mother bought that book but never read it because of her dyslexia so she made me summarize it for her 😅
We had that same book that made it to the UK (lucky us!). I, too, was never allowed to watch Heman. I was also told horror stories of people playing Dungeons & Dragons and killing themselves. The care bears thing fully sticks in my mind as utterly ridiculous and yet put to us totally seriously. My parents, I think, eventually got over it and realised it was pretty dumb stuff, but not until my late-teens. My overriding memory was being told how evil all this cool stuff was and it was just miserable. I am grateful, as I got older, they relented on this stuff but for the majority of my childhood, that book held a particular sway that was so unhealthy and unhelpful.
Thankfully, I could filter it as I got older and could see there was nothing in that really represented what was in the Bible. And, to be fair to them, when I challenged them on it, my parents did eventually agree that it wasn't helpful - which was very good to hear. But, yeh, that book...!!!
Phil Phillips is the Jack Thompson of the 1980's.
I had a similar experience as a kid but with ninja turtles. I myself am in my late 30’s, and I remember an anti ninja turtle book circulating that helped bring my parents to the decision to throw all my toys out. I remember it focusing on the original comic, which was intended for adults, but that the fact was it was super violent, and the turtles drank beer. All my toys were thrown out in 1992.
For the past three years I’ve been rebuilding my old collection, and I’m proud to say I have more original toys MOC then I did as a kid, including several vehicles.
Anti ninja turtle book? Did the shredder write it? Sheesh
Phil Phillips is my dad. I meet people all the time who's childhoods were similar as yours. I assure you, I was the most "protected" out of all ya'll though.
Taylor, I would LOVE to talk to you. If you ever feel like having a friendly, open talk about those days and how you've dealt with it, please email us at CerealMidnight@gmail.com. If you do, I promise a respectful discussion. I think so many of us are still trying to make sense of that mentality at the time.
@@CerealAtMidnight shooting you an email.
There was a bunch of this with Pokémon and Teletubbies in the ‘90s.
I didn't know that! How crazy.
Tracked down a copy a few years back... just to keep next to my "evil" collectables ;)
Same. Right next to Mazes and Monsters and all my Satanic Panic stuff right on my shelves with my eeeeeviiiiil D&D books
When I was a kid there was a fundie guy with six kids in my neighborhood who wouldn't let them play with me because I was an "evil" kid. All because my mom let me watch the cartoons mentioned in this book. This guy went even further and said dinosaurs and Monchichi were evil because they had to do with evolution. I didn't even know what evolution was when i was nine and he told me I was going to hell because I was playing with my Monchichi.
I’m really sorry you had to deal with that. It never should have happened.
@@CerealAtMidnight I remember asking my mom "What's evolution!?" My mom didn't have a highschool diploma but somehow explained it to me so I would understand. However, not too long after that the neighbor went to prison for a year for drug dealing and domestic violence among other things. While he sat in prison, his kids would come over with their mom and play with my "cool toys". Turns out their mom was planning on leaving their dad due to him being such a hypocrite.
My parents never read the book, but I did, back when I was in the United Pentecostal Church. It was in our church library. My mom had bought into some of the "satanic panic" crap in the 80s and wouldn't let me watch the animated series of D&D. She would always get angry when she saw me watching it and demand that I change the channel, but never tell me why. And then I read "Turmoil in the Toybox" and understood why. For a time, I even bought into it, but never had my heart in what it said. I avoided D&D like the plague, though, but was still intrigued by it. I guess on some unconscious level, I realized that what Phil Phillips was saying was complete paranoid B.S. I was quick to realize that I couldn't think of one person who had gotten into witchcraft, satanism, or the occult from watching the Smurfs, He-Man, Care Bears, or My Little Pony, let alone playing D&D (and Loony Tunes ... was this guy NUTS???), and the fact that the story was about good triumphing over evil just sealed the deal. Eventually, I learned that even D&D and other tabletop RPGs were just storytelling games that were fun and even sometimes hilarious. Thank God that the movement that spawned this book and its sequel (Yes, there IS a sequel) died out, but its effects are still felt today, especially in many evangelical fundamentalist Christian circles. But yeah, I can totally see how this book ruined many children's childhoods. My heart goes out to you CAM , for missing the awesomeness that was 80s kids' shows.
Saturday Morning cartoons are gone these days, it feels like the toy banners won and they are more powerful than they have ever been.
How many kids ended up hating their parents because of that guy? I wonder.
I don’t hate my parent for it, they were doing their best. But I’m still pretty mad at a system that targeted kids television shows and toys and marked them as evil.
@@CerealAtMidnightI shared this video on my Facebook page. Check out The Thinking Atheist video The Satanic Panic. There's a clip that laughs at the Phil Phillips video. Thanks.
Cheers for sharing! I think most people (maybe even Phil Phillips) would agree that this went too far.
So basically everything was EVIL 😂
I was blissfully unaware of all this back then, my mom recorded whatever cartoons were on then just to have for us kids to watch later. From what I read, Rainbow Brite was perceived to be Satanic because the star on her cheek was a pentagram, or something? Thanks for diving into the book.
Dude that was a great video and thank you for opening up to us! Makes me breath a sigh of relief that I didn't have that in my childhood (there was plenty of other stuff but got to keep this a happy place!)... does kind of make me want to read the book and... Wait one minute, did you just advertise AND throw in a PSA? You dog you! Hahahahaha... Keep up the great work Heath!
Thanks, Richard! I think we all have our individual damages from childhood, but I can't believe someone waged a war against cartoons and toys. Isn't it crazy? Thanks again for watching the video and being a part of the conversation!
Sadly and sadly still true today, fear sells... Like the war against the evils of Dungeons and Dragons etc. parents can be an easy target! Though glad to hear the author is using his current time to do some good.
Yep my childhood!!! Ugh...that book did more harm than good. We did get to play with Galatians Bears and Heroes of the Kingdom action figures!!😂🤣😂🤣
Galatians Bears?!
Yeah...Care Bear knockoffs with Galatians scriptures on their bellys!! goo.gl/images/dFxGB2
This is AMAZING! They literally just copied Care Bears and added a Bible verse so they could market these directly to over-protective churchy people! Thanks for sharing your pain, Charity!
Hey @@charitymontoya2287... would it not
be something if Mr. Phillips had any
thing to do w/these Christianized secular KOs?
Yeah, everything had to be bought at the Christian book store. I had to watch gospel bill
Deception of a Generation is a "film" that me and my best friend from Highschool watched and constantly made fun of. We absolutely loved how AWFUL it was. We to this day still mock it and meme on it.
And to now realize that Phil Phillips wrote at least 6 books about the same topic.
I might have to call Mike and tell him we've got a new source of memes to make fun of. Ahahahaha.
I'm surprised Phil Philips had nothing bad to say about Knight Rider or Dukes of Hazzard.
I hear you, man. I appreciate your sharing--my experience was similar.
I can remember a friend of my Mother's bringing this to her attention. She instead would watch the cartoons with me and I was still allowed to watch 90 percent of the shows I loved. There were some prohibited shows, but the only one I can remember was D and D. I think your parents bad good intentions, but that still doesn't make it right. Music they were a little more strict with for sure.
Being an 80s kid myself I feel for ya bud, fortunately as far as toys were concerned my parents didn't buy into the whole "Satanic Panic" nonsense (for the most part. )
I miss cartoons that are half hour television commercials. Some of those were great like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.
Sir... I thought I was the only one in the world that this happened to! I had the exact same experience as you did growing up. I had every ninja turtle, every nintendo game, every gi joe thrown away and it wasnt until I finally was in my 30s till I went back and actually watched some of these shows that I missed out on as a kid. I actually started to try to do some research on the author to see if he was a 7th day Adventist or just something that could explain the metal destruction he caused me growing up. Thank you for sharing your story with us!
Believe me, there are a ton of us out there. This author sold over a million books, scared a lot of parents, and pushed thousands of kids away from God and the church as a result. We’ve heard from some of those 80s kids as a result of this video, and many of us are still a little upset about it and haven’t darkened the door of a church since. I’m sorry you had to go trough this, but I’m glad that you, like me, have been able to go back and discover and enjoy what we missed! I’ll love this stuff forever now as a result.
Like you, I lived through the Satanic Panic years. My parents were pretty chill overall. My wife's family bought into those sermons and "news" programs. If you ever want to revisit this topic in any way, let me know. I've also researched and presented about the Satanic Panic connected to RPGs and Comics, but remember people's families taking away Smurfs, Care Bears, and other programs and toys.
I'm glad you covered this topic.
I struggle with the question if I’m doing this to my kids now regarding social media, UA-cam etc.
Glad but also sad to know I'm not alone on this. My mom made me read this book. Some people just can't stand fun.
In 1990 my mom became a devout Jehovah’s Witness over night, when her “elder” JW cousin came to visit for the weekend. She trashed all my TMNT, MOTU, Thundercats, Ghostbusters, and smurf toys, and stuff. I’m still very pissed
Sad
Its cool motu is back tho
Horrible book, Toy Story showed it was alright to enjoy our toys.
The 80s toys rocked!
Guess my Atari 2600 and Nintendo 8 bit games and systems are evil too...
Yeah, Atari and NES were EVIL.
Let's start with Atari. Adventure? Combat? These lead to destruction. Space Invaders? Too violent. Yar's Revenge?That space ship is on a path to hades. Enduro spoken backwards is "orudne," which is an incantation found in the TIbetan Book of the dead. Demon Attack? Don't even get me started.
Cereal At Midnight Funny as I consider myself a Christian, but folks like Phil Phillips are just nutso!
I believe in values, but I also believe in having fun!
Me too, and I agree 100%! Ironically, Mr. Phillips' book probably drove far more people away from faith than drew them to it.
Cereal At Midnight Fred Rogers was a minister, and I loved to watch Mr. Rogers Neighborhood as a youngin'
Especially loved the Neighborhood of Make Believe, and the how they made different things segments on "Picture Picture".
I lost a lot of good toys as a kid thanks to that book. Toys that I wish I could have passed down to my kids. You’re not alone. I’m 40 and I still think about and am bothered by the effects of that book even today.
So I can somewhat very much relate.
This book was in my home, but I
probably looked @ it more than my mom...
She wasn't much of a reader, luckily, so
only the He-Man stuff bit the dirt.
As did my Dad's home brewing supplies...
(Edit: he released a _TITTT_ FYI!
Sorry could not resist; yeah, a pt.2)
A child's general expectation of Light winning
over Dark... is a big ol' part of why killing off
🤖ptimus Prime was sooo messed up!
I can't believe you missed all of this out when you were a kid, blame it on paranoid parents and officials.
My parents were very similar but over time loosened up. Totally crazy Harry Potter was banned in my family but Lord of the Rings and Narnia were allowed!
Exactly the same in my house. I once asked why Lord of the Rings and Narnia were okay when they featured wizards and witches and magic, and never got a satisfactory answer. I think the real answer was that the church was waging a crusade against Harry and his friends.
@@CerealAtMidnight Tolkien and Lewis were also friends!
Tolkien and Lewis were both devout christians and Narnia has a lot of religious symbolism.
My uncle wrote these books, he's completely insane and stole my grandma to Panama LMAO
He also was cheating on his wife and scamming people the whole time he was preaching bout this
Been there. Same crap happened to me as a kid. I guess that's why I have tons and tons of 80s and 90s cartoons and movies and games now. Oh well. If anything, it taught me the value of collecting things.
Great video!
I had a friend growing up & his mom had that book. I was so intrigued with reading it. She actually let me borrow it & it ended up with me when they moved away. While I understand that this subject & the author engaged in a full scale attack on a lot of kids' childhood from the 80's, I did not feel like it ruined mine. What was crazy was even though G.I. Joe was touched on in that book, that same friend had tons of those action figures. Not sure what denomination they were, but I was aware that they were christian.
I thought it was an intresting read.
It all comes down to how much the PARENTS who were reading the book feared the accuracy of the reporting. In our circles, there was quite a bit of church-involved policing of content. I even remember special meetings outside of the traditional Sunday schedule to discuss the evils of the world and how parents needed to avoid them. Seems like some parents had a good bull-crap sensor, but a lot of them did not. Glad you escaped relatively unscathed!
@@CerealAtMidnight I appreciate you reaching out to respond. When I was younger I bounced from different denominations & the awareness of this book in those particular circles was nonexistent. If anything, I truly believe that this watchdogging came from Pentacostal to Nondenominational churches.
I would say you’re right. I grew up Pentecostal, and the rules were insane. They make Baptists look like party animals!
My mom threw away most of my toys after reading this book. She thought everything was evil. Ghostbusters, ninja turtles, and everything else was considered satanic. It really sucked.
One of Phil Phillips books that came some time after this one called The Truth About The Power Rangers revealed the bias my parents had between my sister and I.
My parents took away power rangers for a time.
When they kep reading the book, they came upon a chapter about Sailor Moon.
They were not going to take Sailor Moon away from my little sister, thus I got my Power Rangers back...
And the realization that they did play favorites. 😐
I’ll be covering/dismantling his television broadcast concerning this that was called “Deception of a Generation”. It’ll be up on my channel in multiple parts, and I’ll be tackling it from a theological and factual standpoint. Hope you’ll check it out!
Have you reached out to him or had any contact with him? I think he's seriously moved away from a lot of this theology.
Cereal At Midnight I have not, but I DID follow his career.
I’m doing it as a form of catharsis for people like myself, and other 80’s kids that had to put up with this. And as a cautionary tale to fellow believers that may want to jump the gun about more modern media like this guy did.
Yeah, this video was definitely my catharsis, and it actually did help me. Having his book and reading his statements now make it all seem so ridiculous. I still can't decide if he genuinely thought he was helping or if he just saw an opportunity to make a lot of money. Goodness knows he rode that train until it completely ran out of steam. Looking forward to your series!
The Cinema Snob did a two part episode of the video Phil did back in the 1980's !! He refutes and debunks every " point " that they make . It is on UA-cam if you are interested .
I couldn't find it.
You can find it on The Cinema Snob website. It's a two part episode of DVD R Hell.
I am deeply sorry that you had to put up with this nonsense. I was rased a Christian but my mom wasn't like that growing up in the 80's. I got to see He-Man, GI Joe, and The Real Ghostbusters. Any Saturday morning cartoon, I was there in front of the TV. I got play with the He-Man toys. Heck I'd play with The Real Ghostbusters toys with my younger brother. We were born four years apart. We were both 80's kids. I think Phil Phillips did more harm than good in my opinion. All he said about the kid shows, the toys. Insane!
There we actually a couple of those books! My mom read them and we didn’t get to watch many cartoons. Smurfs were especially bad. Now that my kids are allowed to watch those shoes and have the toys she seems to forget how bad they were! Interesting, don’t you think!
They fit in with Four Cases Against Television by Jerry Mander and Dr. Wertham's Seduction of the Innocence too.
Wow I never heard of this book or about my toys being Evil but I'm not surprised because someone always has something to say about everything
I was protected from Dragonball Z, and Ed Edd n Eddy. My parent thought one would make me unchristian and the other would rot my brain.
Oh how I remember the day when that book came to our church
great video . my mom and dad also looked at this book back in the 80,s im 42 so growing in the 80,s they really thought it was a joke . they knew that imagination was a major tool as a kid so i got to play with gijoe and he-man . go bot/ transformers the list go,s on and on heck with all the toys/action figures id even do crossover events . long before it was a thing . heh .but yeah they knew these two guys were only out to cash in on fear . i can say i lived in the time of the satanic panic and now being a 40 somthing year old the 80,s were an amazing time to be a kid .
It was definitely an amazing time to be a kid!
Lovin that SN, Tacos UnMuertos...
I was lucky enough to have been born in 1969 , so I had my childhood in the 1970's !! I loved ( And Still Love !! ) the Pop Culture of the '70's !! I was not alive during the Comic Book ( And other things !! ) causes JD Senate Trials of the 1950's . And , by the 1980's , I mostly just collected Comic Books , and watched very few cartoons , so I was not affected by the censorship . I DO remember Kid's TV Shows like " You Can't Do That On Television , " being looked down upon . I still watched those shows , however !!
You Can't Do That On Television was a crude show. All the toilet humor.
I came here wondering what happened to this book. I wasn't prevented from getting any of these toys, or watching the cartoons. I got it because I was disappointed in the information presented in the Sears catalog. I thought this book was more like in-depth product reviews. Fail.
This may be too personal, but I was curious if this damaged your relationship with your parents in any way. I was raised Christian (still am), but my parents were pretty lenient about what I watched, within reason. My grandparents, though made it known that they disapproved of Harry Potter and Pokemon. I'm just glad I was born in 92 and not 82, I feel for you guys!
I wouldn't say it damaged my relationship with my parents. I was an angry teen, but I think I've become less angry as I get older, and now I just do what I want to do. I know what I believe, why I believe it, and that isn't necessarily what my folks believe. And really, that's okay. I think they were doing their best, which is all anybody can do. I'm more upset at the fundamentalists who made serious cash by marketing fear in the '80s and early '90s. That one still really bothers me.
As a Christian, do you still believe in exercising Biblical discernment when it comes to entertainment? God hasn't given us a spirit of fear (or paranoia), but he does tell us to "be sober, be vigilant" and that "Satan transforms himself into an angel of light..."
Did I mention that in the book, Phil Phillips claims that Darth Vader resembles the Nordic god Odin? LOL
Phil Phillips was an asshat. George Lucas based Darth Vader's look on Samurai armor. He was inspired by Akira Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress". As a matter of fact George Lucas offered Toshiro Mifune the roles of Obi Won Kenobi & Darth Vader which he unfortunately turned down. Do you realize how epic having Mifune in Star Wars would have been?
Last time I checked Vader wasn’t a Viking no matter how cool that would be
@@WolverinePete Phil Phillips is a nutcase. He believed that pop culture has satanic and occultic themes. He's nothing but a pompous bible-thumper.
We had another book by the same author called Saturday Morning Mind Control. Pretty much more of the same you are talking about here. I was not banned from these shows or toys, but I was given ominous warnings that, you know, the devil might get me if I did. Dungeons and Dragons was a bigger deal, as I was not allowed to bring the books to any of my relatives houses or even talk about them. It was all pretty silly.
That dude made a fortune off of his books and his speaking engagements, traveling the country promoting fear and religious division. I’m still highly bothered by the thinking behind it.
Did this guy ever write a book about the evils of Disney? I remember my folks having some kind of anti Disney book from our church as a kid, and everyone in my church boycotted Disney bc of it and I had to hear about how evil they were all of the time.
I hope Phil Phillips doesn't target Bionicle.
Yes! My TMNT are safe!
I remember reading that the unicorns horn symbolises alot of stuff and one of those things was the cross in religious art because the horn has healing properties and can get rid of poisons in food and drinks that's why royal kings and queens wanted one to keep themselves safe from being poisoned.
...& the rainbow was God's promise,
after the flood, _Never Again!_
Phooll shoulda *re-appropriated* 🌈s back
This book was in my house too! I feel seen
We are definitely seen! Turns out, there's a bunch of us.
I grew up addicted to these cartoons. I even wanted to be an animator for children's education shows. Becoming an animator was expensive and not practical so that plan changed. I never heard of this book til recently. I'm 43 now and I'm a Christian from my own decision and decades from deciding that.. I found out about the occultism, lucifianism, kabbalah, the 1% that runs the media, the banking system, 33 degree Mason's, Blahvatski and Crowley, symbols of demons and Egyptian god's and goddesses, some deep dark things. There's alotta truth to what Phil was talking about but a lot of it should be researched and looked into to see if it's true or not. It shouldn't be quickly dismissed until disproved. I get how many feel though I was a huge wonder woman fan, jem, she-ra. I get it but there's more than what we see on the surface. IMO they really should have glorified God more by stating that He's sovereign and can conquer over all evil. I don't think that it was right to create fear for the evil being portrayed.
The video of Phil Phillips and Gary Greenwald talking about this stuff is priceless. It’s some of the best unintentional comedy I’ve ever seen. It is both hilarious and infuriating, due to the fact that so many childhoods were ruined by that video and this book. It’s also highly offensive the way he associates “Eastern religions” with evil. I guess they had to get the subtle racism in with that one.
I went through the same experience certain cartoons I couldn't watch and toys I couldn't have my parents obviously read this book and we're always preached in church
Omg I am laughing and crying at the same time!! My childhood was totally shaped by this book! I never knew the contents until now.. I just knew we weren't allowed to have cabbage patch kids, smurfs, my little pony, anything to do with rainbows or unicorns... and pretty much every thing on that list! 😢😅
Dr James Dobson peddled this info and my mom was totally eating it up! 😑 I came here to search for the book and find info for my 11 yr old daughter who was literally baffled by these restrictions 😂
Watching your video... I'm so sorry you went through it too.. but you get it. You described me. (Except we didn't even have a TV... those were evil too 😂)
Dungeons and dragons the animated series and the board game??
Yes.
it always comes back to reagan
This sounds eerily similar to today’s prevailing moral code.
I wasn't allowed gi joes! Or gun toys... ninja turtles slid under the radar. Until I jump kicked the neighbor kid.. but the worst was my mom finding my spawn comics.
We didn't have this book in my house but we had the VHS special. Someone from church dubbed a bunch of copies off and passed them around to the parents. While my dad and I laughed at the presentation (I was about three years old) my mom took it to heart and tried to throw my toys away.
My dad wouldn't let her get rid of my MOTU collection, but he comprised and anything D&D was forbidden in my house. It didn't effect me, but my brother had to get rid of a bunch of books.
I swore that if I ever had kids I wouldn't let any book except the Bible dictate what toys I let my kids play with. To this day I can't find any passage in the Bible where God states "And yea, I say unto thee, cast out thine Smurfs from among ye, for they are an abomination before me. Their blue skin and little hats harbor evil continuously."
Hey man, I grow up Baptist but my mom never banned anything. I remember the whole Harry Potter is evil bs so my mom watch it to see for herself and tell me it bs and let me watch the movies. My faith in God is still a big part of my life and hope and pray that you and your family.
My faith is strong, and this video is in no way intended to be a statement against faith, but rather against fear. Hopefully it's a comedic look at how strange things were in the 80s!
@@CerealAtMidnight it's always good to faith in something
Hey I’m working on a project about Universal horror movies. I’ll send you a link to the Facebook page.
facebook.com/groups/220528558594922/
@@horrorsci-fiandbeyond not in something but in the true God Almighty who created. Heaven and earth. Do not be deceived by satan for he is the father of lies. Jesus saves . Receive Him He changes our lives for the better. Theres espiritual warfare. Ephesians 6:12-20
This would make an awesome MUGEN screen pack.
I remember wanting this book as a kid, and probably good thing i didn't get it. But my mom was always going into the Christian book store. I wanted it as a kid because it had lots of my favorite toys in it. However, i was allowed to have most of what a lot of kids at church were not allowed to have. The stuff i wasn't allowed to have, i was able to eventually talk my mom into letting me have, such as collecting Garbage Pail Kids cards. To be honest, though, now as an adult who started taking my Christianity seriously, there really is a lot of occultism in He Man and the MOTU, as well as a lot of other cartoons.
Ah, but occultism has been a part of our myth for as long as we've been alive, from Beowulf to the Grimm's Fairy Tales to Snow White and Peter Pan. It needn't pose a threat to faith, but can instead help to strengthen our faith, as both C.S. Lewis and Tolkien knew so well.
I now look back and see these cartoons as perfect analogies that help young people embrace morality and ethics over selfishness. I've heard from many, many people who told me this book drove them away from God, church, and faith. If God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind, then why should we fear stories that feature darkness, as long as righteousness always triumphs? This is the thing that turns so many away from organized religion, especially among the protestant sects: the church is called to love, but all too often is the first in line to condemn.
I'm very glad that you got to experience some of this stuff during your childhood, though! Sounds like the fear and anger that so many us were bombarded with wasn't necessarily a part of your past, which is great.
I'm glad I grew up in the 70's. I was in high school and grown when garbage books like this came out. I was raised by the Greatest Generation so they wouldn't have bought what this guy was shoveling anyway. It's kind of like the lady who boycotted Married With Children. She made it even more popular with people.
Lol he shut down everything.I’m sorry dude. Too bad we weren’t friends and maybe we could have watched cool stuff on the down low.
I was raised in the 80’s grew up watching them cartoons and He-man did too open curiosity up to super powers and the occult. My parents were young Christians they didn’t know to protect me and my siblings minds from some of them cartoons. I personally like Chip n Dale rescue rangers, Muppet Babies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles., Garfield and friends, Alvin and the chipmunks,
Several of those cartoons that you did watch were on the "no no" list for radical evangelicals.
This is awful. I grew up in the 80s and i am glad that i had a mom who did not feed into that BS. However at age 41 i find this book to be absolutely hilarious. I have to also acknowledge and feel bad for the kids in the 80s who missed out on the greatest era of cartoons and toys.
My church had this book and I’m glad my parents didn’t read it.
I grew up in the 80's also. I watched He-Man, G.I.Joe, ThunderCats, She-Ra, Transformers, etc. I now have them on DVD also.
But did you watch the documentary derived from the book? That ruined my childhood.
When I was in 4th Grade the teacher made me go to the principal´s office for "a serious talk about rock music" It was ridiculous. Heavy Metal was public enemy #1, and if you put on an Iron Maiden record, it would turn you homicidal occultist.
So crazy, right? The irony is that the drummer for Iron Maiden, Nico McBrain, is a Christian.So is Alice Cooper.
@@CerealAtMidnight Don´t forget Blackie of WASP. He´s a believer now too.
I'm embarassed to admit that I had this book when I was a practicing Christian...🙄
I hope this book isn't one of the things that stopped you from being a practicing Christian, Melanie!
Fascinating. I had a friend at school back in the 80's that was not allowed to watch some of those cartoons. But didn't know about the others. All the moral panic around everything at that time. I thought it was stupided. Looking back on it as an adult you can see some meaning. Like you say with the marketing at the kids. the pester power we had wanting the new toys etc..
Might have to check out that book. Just out of curiosity. I never knew there was a "handbook" to these "evil" things. haha. I think that time it was all blow out of proportion with the cartoons, toys and music. Seems like everything i liked then and still do was a target. But I guess it was because it was popular. I don't think It was as bad here in the UK as it was where you are. but I do remember some stuff being said on TV. I think it was mostly to do with violence in TV shows like He-Man and Doctor Who. But thing is, it seemed to have the opposite effect to what they wanted. if they disapproved of it it made us want to watch it even more.
You’re right, making this stuff forbidden only made it more appealing! It’s so funny about the book though, you could make the same arguments against so many things that I know good and well the author had no problem with. Howdy Doody, Gumby, Classic Disney movies, etc
@@CerealAtMidnight
Fun to watch on TV
Lady LovelyLocks and the Pixietails
My Little Pony
Barbie
American Girl
Jem and the Holograms
Care Bears
Scooby-Doo
Star Wars
Classic Disney movies
The Smurfs
Rugrats
Looney Tunes
California Dreams
Clarissa
Punky Brewster
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Not being american, i learned over the years about the demonization of pop culture, but i never knew about that book. The sad part it, this is still happening today. I'm sure something like this would still find believers if it came out today. Because god help us if the parents should make up their own minds and actually talk to their kids
Exactly. I know Harry Potter is STILL controversial to a certain group of people. Like you said, all this could be avoided by parents watching, reading, and experiencing these things WITH their kids. Looking at the problems today's kids have (cyberbulling, Snapchat, the rising drug use among high school students, naughty images at the click of a button), it seems so hard to believe THIS is what some parents were afraid of.
Another one said that troll dolls were symbols of the occult, and we were told at my church that God might not protect people who had occult symbols in their home. So I was racked with guilt as a child and threw my troll dolls away because I didn’t want my family to die if our house caught on fire.
Any time something got popular and made money, religious groups would ride the coattails and . . . make money from it.
I pretty much had free reign on cartoons as a kid. Though I do remember hearing the Smurfs were communist, and how the Chipmunks were grating on my parents ears. I was able to discern good cartoons from bad cartoons.... And the bad ones were the ones that didn't have any action adventure to them... Boy do I remember drooling over those toys though from GI Joe, Transformers, Voltron, and Robotech... There are probably many more toys. In 1984 Voltron was $100, and I begged and begged, and never got it.
Dude I’m so sorry you had to put up with this crap. I come from a place where you can be cool with religion but also be cool with 80’s slasher movies too. Life is just one big grey area and not black and white. What kind of stuff were you able to watch and enjoy? Star Trek?
Sorry to hear about what you went through with this. I was allowed to watch all these shows as a kid, and have many fond memories of favorites. While I think it's wise to be careful what and how much your kids watch of anything, wholesale condemnation like this seems closed-minded and paranoid. I just got my five year old started watching G1 Transformers cartoons, and he LOVES them! I've had a few moments of "These are kinda violent--am I doing the right thing?" --but it's been so fun to watch him enjoying the same cartoon I enjoyed so much as a kid. Parents should follow their values and make rational decisions based on reasonable reviewing of media. Sad that this kind of fear-mongering was listened to by so many parents.
I grew up in West Germany, as it was then, and while this particular book never made it to our shores, as far as I know, and the Christian angle wouldn't have worked here anyway, we did have our own busybodies who had nothing better to do than "protect" kids from cartoons and toys.
First of all, these folks absolutely hated glorifying violence and war, so Masters of the Universe, She-Ra, Transformers, M.A.S.K. and particularly G.I. Joe were all evil, because they glorified violence. Never mind that no one ever dies or gets seriously hurt in those cartoons, they glorify violence and are therefore evil.
The second problem with these folks was that every heroic or superheroic character was automatically fascist in these people's view. He-Man: Fascist, since he's strong, muscular and blond. She-Ra: Fascist, since she's blonde and strong. Star Wars: Fascist, even though they're literally fighting fascists. Conan: Very facist. Even Captain America was fascist to those folks, which is just ridiculous. Meanwhile, there were still actual Ex-Nazis in positions of power in West Germany in the 1980s, though they were thankfully dying off. But instead of doing something about those guys, let's accuse He-Man of being fascist.
The third problem was plastic. These toys were made of plastic, which somehow was very evil. Of course, Legos were made of plastic, too, and they were not evil, but very educational and good for you. Playmobil was made of plastic and some of the figures even had guns and swords, but that was educational and okay to have as well. And while Smurfs were made of plastic, they were generally considered neutral. The real issue here is of course that Lego is from Denmark, the Smurfs are from Belgium and the toys were made in Germany and Playmobil was from Germany as well. And plastic toys were only evil, when they came from the US.
Which was really the main issue here: These folks were mostly crusading leftwingers who had lingering problems with the US stemming from the Vietnam war and they projected these issues onto American toys, cartoons and entertainment, all of which was deemed "American trash" and bad for you.
Luckily, my parents did not care and I had a whole Smurf vilage, Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bear toys and even a lone She-Ra figure, though I had to buy my Masters of the Universe and Star Wars toys as an adult, because those were for boys and persuading my parents that yes, a girl can like both Barbie and He-Man was difficult. I also apparently wasn't direct enough and longing looks thrown at those toys did not automatically make them materialise at birthday or Christmas time. In fact, when my parents saw my Masters of the Universe collection, it turned out they had zero memories of the toys or the cartoon at all.
A bigger problem was that West German TV simply did not broadcast all of those toy tie-in cartoons, because they were violent and evil, so even though you could buy the toys, you didn't have the story to go with them. Luckily, my Dad worked in the Netherlands, when I was at the right age for that sort of thing, and our flat there had cable TV and I could watch all the cartoons on Dutch and Belgian TV as well as on Sky Channel from the UK. Great times and very important to me.
Yes, the 80s were a very exciting decade for toys and cartoons.
Gahhhhh. My parents had this book. Just terrible. Thanks for the video.
Some people cannot resist sticking their noses into other people's business! Same with the video nasty shambles over here in the 80s, same with the comics thing in the 50s. These people are just chronic pains!
My uncle might have read that. He banned Mighty Mouse, and Looney Toons, for his kids. Meanwhile, I was watching Cannon movies, and Kung Fu Theater, when was 4. Dad only ever banned MTV.
The only evil thing 80's toys are currently doing is taking adult collectors money lol
While growing up in a christian home in the late 80's and though out the 90's, I had a similar but very confusing experience when it came to banning some of these cartoons in my house. I'm not sure if this book was involved because this was the first time I've ever heard of it, however my mom was close friends with church goers and they all read these type of books, so it wouldn't surprise me if this book was brought up. I remember far back when I wasn't allowed to watch The Little Bits, Care Bears, The Smurfs, and David the Gnome only because they had "magic" in it, which is strange only because I was allowed to watch Disney movies that involved "magic"; meanwhile I was allowed to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Inspector Gadget and Batman the Animated Series which has cartoon violence... so it was kinda confusing. But since He-Man was a huge issue in this book, I don't remember watching He-Man in my childhood only because I don't remember if it was another banned cartoon in my house or it was hardly on in my area. However thanks to Netflix, I was able see what it was like and I don't see anything wrong with it and I enjoyed it!
Anyways, this book reminds me of Legalism which is another way to control out of religion. since I'm very into animation history, I'm very curious to see who else is in his "evil" cartoon list. lol!
I agree, legalism is terrible. The same double standard existed in my house. Magic was of the devil, and yet it was okay if it came from a writer or a source that we could definitely pinpoint as Christian, such as C.S. Lewis. No one was watching the shows or movies themselves and offering parental guidance and explanations, they were just feeding off each other and working themselves into a righteous frenzy. I don’t think the fervor came strictly from this book. I think it was already in the air in the 80s and early 90s.
@@CerealAtMidnight yes indeed, in my pre-teens, my family was going to a church that was turning into legalism once when they brought in another pastor, I remember in Sunday school that they taught us that listening to pop music and contemporary christian music was bad. however after about 6 months we left because their teachings were too much about legalism where it came to the point where we needed to leave. that's one of the reasons why I watch these cartoons for myself and make my own judgement on what is accessible. anyways, I did look this dude up and he made more books after this one and I guess he just disappeared afterwards. go figure. lol!
He’s working on building shelter for kids in other countries now, which is a much more worthy cause.
@@CerealAtMidnight agreed! ;)
My folks bought into this shit... even after we came over to the catholic church... mom and dad raised me southern Baptist until I was 16
I read this book in the late 80s and was blown away! I was a toddler. They literally put me in special ed for speaking about it!...
I just had to convince my mom that D&D isn't satanic
Hopefully you succeeded!