We Must Own Our Evil
Or else we will never grow as individuals and as a society
“I have a question for all of you. Show of hands,” said the pastor. I was in a chapel service, along with about 150 other men, in the homeless shelter where I’ve been spending most nights.
The pastor continued, “How many of you believe in demons?”
Sixty percent of the room raised their hands.
I was stunned. I was tempted to pull my phone out, although that’s against the rules in chapel, to check to see if it was really 2024. As opposed to 1024. Or 1024 B.C.
True, a room full of homeless men is not a representative sample of the population as a whole. Nevertheless, I was shocked that only 35% of the audience did not believe in demons. (The other 5% had fallen asleep.)
It reminded me of that common saying,
The devil made me do it.
Isn’t it convenient to have a scapegoat for all our bad behavior? A demon dwelling inside of us, the devil tempting us. Heaven forbid we, ourselves, take responsibility for the things we did.
The blame does not have to be shifted to an evil spirit, either. It can be shifted to anything.
