An Unexpected Birthday Present

Wow. A friend who also has a blog has given me a present: he has stirred me up to write again. Thank you Gorthaur and it makes me miss Turner even more and more as my Muse (where are you?)

Anyway I am going to put some of Gorthaur’s words here and some of my ideas in response. (I was going to answer him in his blog, but my answer got too long), so hopefully this will make sense:

Gorthaur said:

“To my mind there are two types of evil or "shadow." There is personal evil, and there is the collective evil. The "idea" of the collective shadow (or pure evil), for most is an objective reality. Unlike the personal "shadow" which always has hope for redemption often suggested by personal moral effort, the collective shadow leaves one with the idea that no one can stand against it. Many find refuge from the despair this pure evil causes thru their faith and obedience to value systems of their religion or ideologies. Historically this is the way to combat evil.”

I reply:

There is the concept of “sin” and there is the concept of “sins” in the Bible, which is what you have written about here. "Sin" is what entered into the world in the Garden of Eden when Satan tempted Adam through tempting Eve, to wonder if they didn’t actually know more than God did – the attitude and desire to do what is right in your own eyes.

Sin

"Sin" is universal and is no more possible to resist than “Don’t think of a pink elephant” is. As for the condition each one of us lives within in relation to sin, Romans 7 and 8 is the passage we “live” our everydays in as far as every person I have ever met or read about.

Sins

Then there are “sins”. Sins are personal choices that we make moment-by-moment to allow, as one writer puts it, "God to sit in the driver’s seat of my life" or whether I take that place for myself.

Most people worry about the “evil incarnate” – you know the guy (why a guy?) in the red suit with little pointy horns on his forehead, a long tail with an arrow at the end and a pitchfork? Well, the Bible talks about this evil one as an “angel of light”, one that was so beautiful and entrancing that his power was about that concept more than "evil" – to be attractive and therefore tempting -- not to be fearsome and easy to recognise.

It is why we get surprised when we discover we have not resisted evil. (See Bedazzled with Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser for the amazingly best illustration of this – and Elizabeth plays a very convincingly irresistible "evil" – well for the men at least! Personally, I would be after Brendan in a heartbeat, but that is a different story.)

Gorthaur said:

“Evil has been spiritual and intellectual concerns in human existence since the earliest times. In those olden days, during daylight hours, evil was generally perceived as non-existent. Yet, when the sun disappeared, evil lurked in the menacing shadows. Evil has always been associated with darkness. Much of mythology is permeated with ideas associated with the symbolic and sometimes literal ideas of ‘evil in the darkness.’”

I reply:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” Genesis 1:1-3

The first improvement God made when He created everything was to separate the light from the darkness.

Let’s face it, if I am going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I am going to put my fluffy slippers on BEFORE I walk on a floor in the darkness, knowing all those evil creepy crawlies have been running free because it is dark (just flick your lights on in the kitchen in the middle of the night!). Also, men jump out at you in dark alleys and from behind bushes and tend to hurt you. Darkness hides all kinds of evil intentions. Then there is what you do under the cover (and covers) of darkness when you are all alone sometimes (sorry to digress).

So I believe "darkness" is both a symbolic and a literal paradigm for where evil can lurk.

Note I said "CAN"; the greater evil is what we think should STAY in darkness and somehow peeks out and hits us in the face when we don’t expect it, such as what happened on a wonderfully clear day in New York one September 11th or in a school with children and guns.

Gorthaur said:

"To deny evil is foolhardy. Each of us has experienced evil, directly or vicariously - even through impersonal images of the media or fairy tale. Yet some think or teach that evil is not a permanent condition of the human condition. Since St. Augustine, there has existed the idea that evil is nothing but the absence of good. The ultimate conclusion of this idea is that evil can be eradicate by 'good works.' Many religious teachings rests on this concept."

I reply:

Actually, I think it is "evil's" intent and prime activity and key victory to have us think evil doesn't exist. Evil would have us convinced that all is relative and situational and that it is only our thinking that makes it so.

Take away -- for evil's sake -- all parameters. Create confusion about right and wrong. Soften wrong to be -- not only appealing -- but rational, understandable and excuseable. What a victory for evil - to deny it and foist responsibility on anyone or anything else!

And, I am sure there is rejoicing by all evil forces when they survey the numerous bums waving in the air with heads buried in the sand, ostrich style, when it comes to the concept of evil.

Trading Stamps Evil

But in this paragraph, Gorthaur, you have also hit on something I really think is evil. The church of today that has somehow gotten off on the idea of trading stamps.

Trading stamps is an old marketing concept that can be blamed for the many loyalty cards you have stuffing your wallet today. The purpose was to tap into our natural tendency toward self-serving greed and accumulation (creating stacks of money or in this case paper stamps or holes punched in a card). The stated purpose was loyalty, but the hidden purpose was to make you buy more stuff.

Anyway, when you bought groceries (typically) you got an equivalent number of trading stamps (that you had to lick and stick in little paper books). If you got enough books filled with stamps you could get a new toaster -- or in the case of the church today, you can (they will tell you) go to heaven (which is NOT the case at all - an entirely different concept is in place for the Heaven-bound, known as GRACE).

You get trading stamps in the church by serving tea and cookies after the service or the elder's meetings or by visiting the sick in hospitals or by darning socks (does anyone know what darning socks is about?) or you can crawl through glass on your knees carrying a cross in some cultures.

Or you can, of course, pay for new stuff for the church (or the pastor, his wife or kids) through well-documented and noted donations, offerings and tithes (does anyone know what a tithe was supposed to be?) that are then taken as a tax deduction.

Control Them

I think this idea comes from the hope that somehow you can control people (truly, truly an evil idea!). The best way to do this is to beat down their self-esteem and destroy the possibility of a support system with other human beings (See Hitler 101 or "The Wave", if you don’t know who Hitler is) and to ensure they are never really sure they are good enough! (smacking her lips with the deliciousness of this super duper idea)

As to where evil comes from, well God created us with the choice to follow Him or follow “what is best in our own eyes” sense of directions. He did NOT create us to be automatons (or robots) that just obey.

Why did He create us in the first place and give us this freedom? Because God wanted to love us and be loved in return. Can you imagine how sad God is to know that we don’t even have time for Him most days?

My Birthday

Today is my birthday and this is my gift to me: to remember who He is in my life and to thank Him for giving me the freedom to choose to follow Him or not. Sort of like religious freedom gone wild -- or where there is clear separation of the “church” from the “state”.

You see, if you tell me I must do some thing, I will not want to do it. If you, on the other hand, tell me not to do something, you can be sure I will want to and will likely do it.

However, if you tell me I am free to choose, after giving me clear parameters and laying out benefits and consequences for my choices -- then my choices are what is known as informed choice. God gives us INFORMED CHOICE to follow evil or Good.

It is like a TOS statement (Terms of Service) in the virtual world, most of us agree to them, yet never read them. We quote them as if they are law, yet many we quote don't even exisit and those that exist are common sense and easy to follow. Interesting how the virtual world parallels the real world even in this way. Neat huh?!!!

Happy Birthday to me!