The Rise of Vague-Boogeyman Theology

Why We Keep Inventing Spiritual Agendas in Pop Culture

Every few weeks online, I see a familiar pattern repeat itself. Someone points at “Hollywood” and declares it’s being run by something. An agenda, a machine, a shadow network — usually unnamed, rarely evidenced, always ominous. The blank changes depending on who’s speaking. Satanists. Globalists. Wokeness. Freemasons. The Catholic Church. Take your pick.

Hollywood, apparently, is a very busy puppet show. What’s interesting isn’t the accusation itself. It’s the vagueness. No films named. No studios cited. No writers or producers identified. Just a sense that “they” are doing something, and we’d better be on guard.

I’ve started thinking of this pattern as vague-boogeyman theology, the habit of treating culture like it’s governed by shadowy spiritual overlords rather than messy human systems.

Hollywood Isn’t a Monolith

One of the biggest assumptions baked into these arguments is that “Hollywood” is a unified entity with a single worldview or mission. It isn’t.

Hollywood is fractured, competitive, chaotic, and mostly motivated by survival. Studios don’t even agree with each other, let alone coordinate secret theological messaging. Writers are freelancers. Directors chase passion projects. Executives chase trends. Algorithms chase engagement. Half the time, nobody knows why something succeeded or failed.

If Hollywood were capable of executing a coordinated spiritual agenda, it wouldn’t be rebooting the same franchises every three years out of sheer panic.

Storytelling Isn’t Doctrine

Another mistake people make is confusing storytelling with teaching theology.

Movies aren’t catechisms. They’re narratives. They borrow imagery that’s dramatic, symbolic, and familiar. Religious language and iconography fall into that category because they’ve been part of human storytelling for centuries.

When a film uses saints, angels, demons, or prayer, it isn’t automatically trying to redefine doctrine. It’s using tools that already exist in the cultural imagination.

Paul himself understood this. In Acts 17, he doesn’t panic over pagan art and poetry, he uses it as a bridge. He recognizes that humans are already reaching for transcendence, even when they don’t have the language right.

Where Spiritual Themes Actually Show Up

Ironically, if you want to see where modern audiences are most willing to engage spiritual ideas, it isn’t prestige dramas or faith-based films.

It’s religious horror.

Movies like The Conjuring, The Exorcist, Sinister, or The Exorcism of Emily Rose explore God, evil, prayer, the soul, judgment, and redemption; and secular audiences willingly sit through all of it. Horror is the one genre where people still allow the supernatural to exist without embarrassment.

You could argue that horror films do more to get people thinking about spiritual realities than most theological arguments on the internet. They don’t preach, they provoke. And provocation has always been a powerful starting point.

The Illusion of the “Machine”

When someone invokes “the ___ machine,” what they’re often doing is simplifying complexity.

Complex systems are uncomfortable. They’re hard to explain. They don’t give us a villain to point at. Boogeymen are easier. They make the world feel ordered. Intentional. Controlled.

But real agendas leave footprints:

• funding trails

• messaging consistency

• coordinated releases

• measurable outcomes

Vague suspicion doesn’t equal discernment. Discernment requires clarity.

Guarding Doctrine Without Inventing Enemies

Wanting to protect biblical definitions, theological clarity, and doctrinal integrity is a good thing. But when that instinct turns into hunting invisible cultural enemies, it stops being discernment and starts becoming anxiety.

Scripture warns us against that. We’re told to test everything and hold fast to what is good, not assume everything is an attack. We’re also cautioned against foolish controversies that generate more heat than light.

Not every story is trying to teach theology. Not every use of religious imagery is subversion. Sometimes a movie is just a movie. Sometimes it’s a flawed attempt to wrestle with big questions. Sometimes it accidentally opens doors for spiritual reflection it never intended.

God has always worked through imperfect messengers.

A Better Question to Ask

Instead of asking, “What agenda is Hollywood pushing?” A more productive question might be: What is this story revealing about what people fear, hope for, or long for spiritually right now? That question invites conversation instead of paranoia. It invites discernment instead of suspicion. And it treats people as image-bearers, not pawns.

Final Thought

Hollywood doesn’t need to be defended. It needs to be understood. When we reduce culture to shadowy machines and unnamed agendas, we don’t become more discerning, we become less curious. Curiosity has always been one of the best tools faith has for engaging the world honestly.

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Originally posted on my Substack at Fragments and Frequencies.

Seth Metoyer is a writer, artist, musician, and audio engineer exploring theology, metaphysics, music, and modern creative tools. With 25+ years in music and film, he writes for outlets like Heaven’s Metal Magazine and runs the independent label Broken Curfew Records. His work lives in the tension between faith, doubt, tradition, and the questions most people avoid asking.