'The Devil Is Busy' and HBO Max's New Documentary Proves It

A Prayer Before the Lie

HBO Max’s new documentary The Devil Is Busy wastes no time setting its tone. The film opens in Atlanta, following the head of security for an abortion clinic named Traci. We see her praying before work, asking God to “allow her to be great and assist in all she’s doing, all her endeavors.” It sounds reverent — even humble. But the tragedy is what follows: she spends her day ensuring that women can end the lives of their unborn children without interruption from “vile protestors.” The documentary presents this as compassion, as if God Himself blesses the work done in the clinic. The title claims The Devil Is Busy, but ironically, the film itself proves it is within the clinic walls, not what is happening outside of them.

What the Protestors Are Saying

The ”vile” things that these protestors are saying? The gospel.

“You see, Jesus Christ came to save you from Hell. This is a place that serves the Devil from the power of darkness. Turn away from your sins. You know in your heart of hearts, because you have a conscience that God has put in you, the law of God is written on all men’s hearts, and one of those is ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ Murder is on your heart, and you know that it’s wrong.”

While a protestor is speaking these words in the documentary, the title The Devil is Busy pops up. This is no mistake. They are trying to demonize the gospel. It seems that Traci turns a blind eye to what the protestors are saying, because she summarizes in her own words what she hears from them: “God told me to tell you you’re a murderer and you’re going to hell.” She blinds herself to the entirety of the message, hearing only what she wants to hear.

Painful Irony

Traci’s story reveals a painful contradiction she doesn’t see. She once had an abortion herself, then years later carried twins who were born prematurely: one stillborn, one who died shortly after birth. She confesses that she often wonders if her abortion was why she can’t have children. She calls it a curse. Yet in the same breath, she defends the very act that broke her heart. She says, “I always ask God, why did He curse me with this? Because I think about my legacy. I’m divorced and I don’t have children. But everybody deserves to know they matter.” The protestors outside her clinic are shouting that very message: that everybody matters, including the unborn child. And her abortion story still haunts her decades later, yet she is encouraging women to follow her down the abortion path.

She says, “God gives everybody the power of choice. We all have free will. And whatever your belief is, at the end of the day, your last day here, He’s not gonna look at one situation and judge the totality of your life on it. That’s my personal belief. Because the God I serve is a forgiving God.” Here, Traci implied that:

1. The act of abortion is something for which one will receive judgment and

2. The act of an abortion is something that needs to be forgiven.

It seems that Traci understands the sinfulness of what’s happening within the clinic walls and is relying on grace to cover it. But what does Romans 6:1-2 tell us?

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

The Devil Really Is Busy

The final scene shows Traci ending her day in her office, reflecting on the day, the protestors, and her work: “Unfortunately, God’s word is interpreted to meet whatever the need is of the people that are interpreting it. You pick out the parts that matter to you, right? And forget about the rest of it.” It seems that Traci is guilty of the very thing she is accusing the protestors of. These verses, she conveniently forgets:

Psalm 139:13: For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.

Psalm 139:16: Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

Isaiah 44:24: Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all alone.

Psalm 127:3-5a: Behold, children are a [a]gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.

Matthew 5:21: “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’"

Traci then bows her head in prayer and thanks God for the busy day, for the safety of the workers, and for the patients they “served.” It’s meant to be moving. Instead, it’s chilling. Because the Devil is busy whispering lies that sound like compassion, twisting Scripture to defend destruction, convincing people that forgiveness can exist without repentance.

What this film reveals isn’t just the darkness of abortion; it’s the spiritual confusion of a culture that no longer recognizes sin as sin. The devil’s work isn’t just in the clinic - it’s in the minds and hearts of those who call evil good and good evil. Christians must speak the truth with both conviction and compassion. We cannot let the language of grace be hijacked to justify sin. So yes, The Devil Is Busy. He is busy in abortion clinics, in lies told in the media, sometimes from behind a pulpit. But God is sovereign. His truth still convicts. And even in a documentary designed to glorify abortion, the cracks of conscience still shine through if only they knew the freedom that comes, not from defending sin, but from being set free from it.

(Editor's Note: Cat Thompson is Digital Marketing Coordinator at American Family Association.)

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