KPop Demon Hunters was released just over three months ago, and my middle schoolers are still talking about it. They hum the (super catchy) songs and make plans to re-watch the movie with friends.
While the movie has some questionable content, I encourage you not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, particularly if the kids in your life have already seen the film. Some deep, biblical truths lurk behind the supernatural elements.
Shame enslaves
Rumi, a part-demon member of the group that hunts and kills demons, desperately tries to hide her demon markings from those around her, but throughout the film, Rumi realizes that covering up the problem–literally with her long sleeves and figuratively by hiding the truth–and pretending it doesn’t exist don’t eradicate her shame. The shame she feels about her markings and her hatred toward her demon side aren’t actually enough to defeat evil (personified in the movie by Gwa-Mi, literally “Ghost-Demon”). Rumi chooses to expose her own shameful markings, telling others that they don’t have to give in to their shame or hide their weakness. But when she discloses her demon part, her closest friends at first reject her. Rumi comes to understand that every demon and every person is a slave to shame or hate, and the only way to overcome the shame and hate is empathy for those enslaved.
Sick and tired of a world where everyone has to hide their shame and hate demons in order to survive, Rumi allows herself to be filled with empathy for those everyone hates, which in turn allows her to feel empathy for herself. Her most powerful tool for defeating hate and shame becomes love for herself and others, even those who are her enemies. That love convinces her friends to see her differently and eventually to see others differently. Rumi learns that when her markings are exposed to the world she can be fully known and therefore fully loved.
The destruction of the closet
Most LGBT+ people can relate. They hide in the closet for years, deeply ashamed of their attractions or internal feelings of gender incongruence and doing everything they can to pretend they’re straight or cisgendered. Just like Gwa-Mi uses shame as The Accuser to draw people away from love and into his grasp, so Satan, The Accuser, uses shame to draw people away from the love of Christ and other Christians. He uses the closet years to whisper cunning lies: “God doesn’t love you. Your parents would be so embarrassed if you came out; they’ll disown you. You’re not working hard enough to change. If God really loved you, He’d answer your prayers. Just forget God, come out, and follow your desires; that’s when you’ll find true happiness.”
Unfortunately, The Accuser isn’t entirely wrong. Rumi’s mother figure, Celine, pressures her to hide the patterns on her skin and reject the demon part of herself. When Rumi is outed as part-demon, she’s publicly humiliated by her enemies, rejected by Celine, and abandoned by her closest friends for a time.
In many Christian churches and families, those who come out face humiliation, rejection, and abandonment, too. Christians who are open about their experience of same-sex attraction or gender incongruence are met with suspicion, a demand to change their attractions or feelings of gender, or an insistence that they cannot be LGBT+ and Christian. So, many gay and trans kids in Christian families choose the pain of the closet over the pain of lost relationships. In the end, though, the wounds of the closet often lead to lifelong struggles with depression, anxiety, isolation, and even loss of faith or suicidality.
The only way LGBT+ teens can escape these wounds is if they never enter the closet in the first place. For the sake of the health and faith of gay and trans kids and teens growing up in our churches, the Church must eliminate the closet altogether.
Change is possible
While it may be too late for the adults in our churches, we can still make a difference for the kids who will one day realize they experience same-sex attractions or gender incongruence. We can eliminate the closet and closet wounds. We can ensure LGBT+ kids know God loves them deeply, know it is safe to share about their attractions and internal gender with parents and pastors, become fully known and fully loved among Christian community, and understand that God’s wisdom is good for them, too.
KPop Demon Hunters obviously contains loads of spiritual elements—demons, souls, a powerful Ghost-Demon character—but when we peek beneath the surface of these elements, we find the essence of the movie: everyone struggles with shame and the temptations that shame brings, and everyone needs a Savior. We all experience brokenness. We can hide it, hoping no one ever notices and allow it to drag us into anxiety, depression, even suicidality. Or we can show others our “markings,” allow them to know us fully, and invite them to fully love us, brokennesses and all.
Christ redeems brokenness
Rumi recognizes the markings she bears that tell the world her dad is a demon and that she has the capacity for evil don’t have to be hidden. Because, in a way, everyone is broken and everyone has the capacity for evil. Christ is ultimately the One who will one day return to destroy the power and presence of sin, take away all shame, and redeem all brokenness. Until that day comes, it’s when we’re honest with ourselves and others about our brokenness, the temptations we face due to our brokenness, and our capacity to sin that we can most effectively fight those temptations, bring sin into the light, and experience the support and connectedness in a community of Believers.
If your kids have seen this movie, take a moment to have an intentional conversation. Remind them that if they ever experience same-sex attractions or gender incongruence, you are a safe person to tell. Remind them you desire to walk alongside them toward God’s good wisdom. Remind them that because of Jesus we do not have to be ashamed of our brokenness and that God is faithful to redeem those brokennesses for our good and His glory.
