Oh God, You Devil - Dealing With Evil

‘There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.’
C.S. Lewis

The Devil Made Me Do It

What indeed is the right balance when it comes to Satan? Growing up, I gave him/it/her way to much attention, control and credit in my life. That did a couple things:

1. It made me think angels and demons - but mostly demons - were involved in everything from stubbed toes to lost homework, and that made me essentially ruddy paranoid. 

2. It made me more concerned about what Satan was up to than what God was up to.

I think my life, before really getting serious about God, was an unhealthy mix of religious hypocrisy and charismatic weirdness. Everything was attributed to the devil and demons. Laziness, lust, tiredness, anger, bad grades, general stupidity, taxes, natural disasters and the list goes on. The problem with that approach is very little was attributed to me! James does say 'but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.' Ya, 'his own evil desire' or stupidity, lust etc. I'll never forget the depiction of a person struggling with the 'demon of pride' in a very popular Christian fiction book (which I would still recommend), but the idea that something external to you is the source of your own arrogance or selfishness is a little far out. It overlooks the deeper more challenging issues of character we all face.

I don't know if you can relate, but that mindset convinced me that the only thing worse than a complete absence of some kind of faith is just enough to make you fearful and/or hypocritical. I have always found it odd how much people fear the occult and such like, even while claiming they don't believe in God. Yea, exactly! How come they don't believe in God, but fear Harry Potter (which I love - Wingardium Leviosa!) and Gandalf the Grey (White after the Balrog dust up)?

Fear No Evil

I've met people who completely balk at the idea of God and religion but quake at the mention of witchcraft and Obeah (Jamaican black magic). How come? Even in movies (except ones like Constantine and The Prophecy series - but even then) demons and the devil are real threats but the only way to combat them is with a mystical sword or a kick-butting magical boot or something like that. God? No, he's no good as a defence against the Dark Arts. Then in the movies it's always Catholic priests (did The Exorcist and the Omen series get that going?) coming to the rescue and inevitably getting their butts whooped in the name of the Lord. There was this one movie (the name escapes me) where the weapon used to send the incarnate devil back to hell was on over-sized toy rocket. An over-sized toy rocket!? C'mon! Satan's supposed to be the Prince of Darkness not a wayward teenager (though the two greatly resemble each other in intent and ability to create pain and misfortune).

I think there are those people, religious and otherwise, that give evil far more credit than they give good. Now in one sense, I don't blame them, evil gets way more headlines and media coverage than good does - and then there's all the wars, and eight long years of 'W'. But maybe evil gets so much support because we give it so much support - both religious and non-religious folk.

For sure evil is real. But certainly we are our greatest enemies. My good confession as a Christian was 'Jesus is Lord' not 'Satan is the devil'. So I subscribe to James and pay attention to how I may be tempted by my own 'evil desire' rather than running around afraid of demonic attack. Now, I'm not saying that we can't or are not hounded by minions of hell (though I don't recommend sitting around waiting for the doorbell to ring). But maybe we should think about how we are hounded a little differently.

Personal Demons

Granted, books like Job will get you wondering if God is gonna roll the dice over your faithfulness (a part of me kinda hopes God will be like 'ahh - no not this one he's too weak to test right now') but I do think that these divine transactions probably occur a little differently in heavenly realms. We see an earthly explanation for a spiritual event - difficult to translate I think. Indeed, the spiritual world would be an alien place to us all from this side of heaven.

Still, I have my doubts. Take demon possession. Far less of an occurrence than the reports suggest methinks (I have no idea how much it is reported - go figure) but it's really a popular past time in Jamaica and religious circles generally. Every now and then at some all-girls institution, some one will get possessed and make a whole party of it. Most of the time I just think it's plain old mental illness. Why? Cause when religious people are mentally ill - they are possessed. When non-religious people are mentally ill – they’re just crazy! I'm just saying before you start beating people with a hardbound copy of your favourite NIV red letter Bible, give the doc a call. I just find it a bit suspect that most of the people who seem to get possessed are Christians and Churchgoers. Shouldn't the main victims be non-Church goers and those who are vulnerable to satan’s attacks?

Natural disasters are another thing - but God get's the blame for those mostly. The 2004 Tsunami was a very tough one wasn't it? I surfed a public commentary site and persons of all faiths and creeds offered their condolences and prayers or sombre best wishes. Then the Christians came along and pronounced the reason for the death and pain was 'God's judgment' and anger at the people for their sin! Now, how in the world do they know that? I mean everybody is going to die some day - by tsunami or heart failure, but we are gonna go. Jesus said, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were guiltier than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."


For goodness sake

Now again, the reality of evil in the world is undeniable - it's way too apparent to ignore. While I think satan can attack us to discourage us, rob of faith, hope and maybe even life, through whatever nefarious means - evil can only be manifested by one outlet in this world: mankind, and good can only be expressed through the same.

Paul attests that 'God works for the good for those who love him' - I believe that to be true. Indeed, I think that 'good works for the good of those who love to do good' is another way to put it.

C. Arthur Young

Women, Woe, Men & God

It was when I became a Christian back in '92 that I heard about this 'women must be submissive to men' business. It threw me into an uncomfortably confusing world that perhaps, 17 years later and some 7 years into marriage, has only just begun to make sense - only just...I think.

Now Paul mentions in 1 Timothy 2 that ' 11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.' Calm down. I didn't write this - call Paul up and shout at him (there's context - but that's another note).

Then there are the passages on wives respecting husbands and husbands being the 'head of the house' etc. Now I heard these scriptures - but the confusing thing was what I saw. I have yet to meet an actual 'submissive' woman (I hear they exist but I don't believe it) - and back in my single days the wives always seemed to be in charge and to have the last word - the husband, as head of house, deemed his wife correct! I silently vowed to myself that I would not be such a husband. However, what made me even more disturbed and annoyed was that I always found the least submissive of women to be the most attractive - so I married one.

Now my wife was not in on my 'silent vow' so she hasn't paid any attention to it whatsoever - and since it completely slipped my mind to tell her my plan - well, I'm just going with the flow. But I was decidedly befuddled as a young man and young Christian as to what this submission was all about. Should I expect the women to wash my car on demand? Should they fawn at my feet and say that I am right even when I am obviously wrong? If I was about to walk into the street and into the path of an oncoming Tata bus; should they remain 'in quietness and full submission'? After all, as a man I clearly must know exactly what I am doing...right?

Well, since then I've come to a few conclusions - none of these conclusions apply to my wife, unless of course they are happy ones, and any resemblance to her is purely coincidental. At any rate I am being forced to write all this by some dude with a high-powered weapon that is dictating everything to me.

Ahem:

1. It WAS Eve's fault. Yes it was and I make no apologies. It has come to my attention that women think they are smarter than men at all times. It has also come to my attention that women are in fact smarter than men at all times. Eve should have known better - Adam was a complete idiot. This was confirmed when watching a UK TV show about pre-teen children sent to live on their own for two weeks. In innocence, a couple of them liked each other and started 'dating' (they are no more than 10 y/o). The undue attention caused the girl to do the most sensible thing and conspire with the boy to pretend they had broken up publicly and proceed to date 'secretly'. It was all her idea. A boy would never have even begun to think this - we are not smart enough. Later we discovered that she already had a boyfriend. Sigh. IT WAS EVE'S FAULT.

2. Men will do anything to get a woman to shut up...including make her happy. Yes, it's true. But women know it's true. Nagging is an age-old technique to getting what she wants, and in lieu of the man doing the right thing ad libitum, she must talk incessantly until he does it. After the 4th year, 3rd if she is proficient, a man will do almost anything to get her to stop talking for as long as possible. If the woman is made happy as a result of his efforts to get her to stop talking - this is only a pleasant side effect. Now we know why Adam ate the fruit. See point 1.

3. The most confusing and dangerous moment in the Universe is when a woman asks her man 'What do YOU think/want?'. Most men know that the woman does not want to know what he thinks/wants...or does she? His experience will tell him that she only wants to know if he knows what she thinks/wants. The seconds in which he deliberates what it is she REALLY wants to know are the most painful in a man's life. He must determine whether he will be talked at for not knowing what she thinks (by saying 'I don't know') or for not caring what she thinks by insensitively expressing an opinion different from hers aka his own opinion. How very dare him... I mean us. By far, the safest answer (since you asked) is 'whatever you want/think'. However, this will work for only a limited time.

4. Women are experts at deceiving...themselves. The illustration in point 1 would have already helped. Men are liars - but they absolutely suck at it. Women, on the other hand have perfected the art. But what makes a woman a good liar is that she genuinely believes what she is saying, as a lie, to be the truth (hence all women reading this have no idea what I'm talking about). This is also what makes women right most of the time - they have the ability to change the parameters of correctness to suit their conclusions. Amazing. I'm beginning to seriously doubt if there was snake in the tree and that it said anything at all to Eve. Indeed, if there was a snake in the tree it was minding its own business. But if you were to ask Eve if there was a snake and it told her to eat the fruit she would say 'yes' and pass a lie detector test to boot. That said, the fruit has been eaten and we are now in a grand cosmic mess. Adam still continues to be an idiot and somewhere in creation there is a very offended snake.

5. All wars are caused by women. Shakespeare (via Macbeth) and the the Iliad (Helen of Troy/Trojan War) prove this point, if at least theoretically. You don't have to believe me but I guarantee it's true. Wars are generally fought by men for money and power - money and power are for getting things done - women want things done. Consequentially, the Iraq war was a result of Bush doing his best to get his wife to stop talking. See point 2.

6. God is having a good laugh...and then a good cry.

Even in nature, the female of the species is the more aggressive and usually does most of the nesting, feeding, raring, hunting etc. Take lions, the females do the hunting and raring of the cubs. The males however, rule the pride based on their decidedly more stylish hairdo and larger size. But the females get the job done.

Why all the submission for women then? Well, men need it - their self-esteem and masculinity depend on it. And since there is no woman known to man who will be submissive on purpose, well we have to at least present the illusion of it. As the saying goes 'the man is the head, but the woman is the neck that nods/shakes the head'.

Anyway, the dude with the high-powered weapon wants me to get him something to eat. Till next time.

C. Arthur Young