FAIRFAX, Va.—On Jan. 20, Eldon Beck, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps, his wife Shaela Beck, and six of their seven children watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at the George Mason University Center for the Arts.

“It felt like it was divine,” said Lt. Col. Beck. “You see the connection between the earth and the divine … Heaven and things beyond.”

According to the Shen Yun website, China was once known as “the land of the divine” because its people believed their culture was a gift from the heavens. Shen Yun’s opening piece depicts divine beings following the Creator down to earth to establish Chinese civilization.

“It tells the story of us making a decision to come to Earth, and that would be a hard thing,” said Lt. Col. Beck. “We'd experience challenges, and it’s not perfect here on this Earth, but we see this image of God saying, ‘Come to Earth’, and He will provide the means for us to be saved.”

“We see throughout this whole experience things that are familiar to us because it’s the beauty of the world that we live in, this amazing place, and the divine creations, and the goodness of people, but in a conflict against darker forces and evil forces that try to suppress the beauty and the goodness.”

Lt. Col. Beck shared his thoughts about the battle between good and evil, which he connected to the Chinese Communist Party’s oppressive rule.

“You see throughout the story, and certainly at the end, that those evil forces are—as powerful as they may seem—they’re temporary,” said Lt. Col. Beck. “They don’t last, and good conquers evil, and the power of God is greater than the fleeting power of evil.”

According to the Shen Yun website, traditional Chinese culture is deeply rooted in the spiritual teachings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, yet these were abolished when the Chinese Communist Party took power and enforced its own ideologies.

“When you look at something like the Chinese Communist Party, it seems very powerful, and it spreads its power in all sorts of devious ways, and it tries to make it look good, but ultimately that fails because the divine and the beauty and the goodness of what comes from God is eternal, and it can’t be destroyed.”

“That’s what’s deep inside of all of us, and anyone who comes here can see and feel that and can feel the truth that we can feel when we experience things that are beautiful and good.”

“We see here a whole group of people, both in music and in dance, who are at the top of their craft,” he said. “It’s very inspiring, you know, for my kids who put a lot of work into their music. This is something that helps them to see, to see greater depth in what they do, and to be inspired to keep working at it so they can get closer and closer to that level of perfection, so they can create more beauty and bring more goodness to the world.”

“Parents with children should bring them here,” he said. “They should turn off the screens, and the devices or the distractions that fill their lives, and bring them to see something real, and truly good, and inspiring.”