Despite Satan's popularity, most evil just stupid
Evil is a subject that has never interested me much, and Satan as a personality is not someone I would invite over for a steak.
I've always felt it was better to keep my distance from Satan just in case some of his evil nature might rub off on me. But recently, all kinds of interest in Satan has been springing up like a demon out of a dung heap.
For instance, I saw a book the other day that was all about art that depicts Satan through two centuries. And theologians are writing about evil, most notably Elaine Pagels, from Princeton University, who wrote the excellent book "The Origin of Satan" (Random House, $23).
So I've been doing some reading and talking to people around here who have encountered evil in one way or another. I talked to a couple of retired Lutheran missionaries from Madagascar. They told me such bone-chilling stories about demons and exorcisms that I went home and checked under the bed, just to be safe.
Seriously, the Rev. Duane Olson, a retired missionary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, says the folk religion of the Malagasy people infects the culture with a solid belief in spirits, especially spirits of ancestors. And that belief translates into a conviction that evil spirits can capture human beings and turn them toward evil. The only way these spirits can be overcome and cast out, Olson believes, is through the power of Jesus Christ.
Olson remembers the first exorcism he saw as a young missionary in Madagascar when a woman was possessed by three demons named Red, Bad Feet and Long Tooth. The woman was thrashing about and screaming as Olson tried to preach. Finally, Olson and a native pastor took the woman to a gathering of pastors that included some exorcists.
A native pastor approached the woman and commanded the demons to leave. They refused and argued amongst themselves. Olson said he heard the voices and was startled when the demons decided to leave. As the demons fled, Olson heard the Malagasy word for "go home" receding into the distance. "Hoolie, hoolie, hoolie" the demons repeated as they returned to their nether world.
This kind of story may puzzle you, because much of the demonolatry found
in other countries does not seem to happen here. But Olson is a reputable clergyman who teaches world missions at Luther Seminary, a highly respected theological school in St. Paul, Minn. So it's OK to wonder about such stories, but to discount them out of hand may be a bit hasty.
Speaking of Lutherans, Martin Luther, the founder of that denomination, had many encounters with Satan, and some of the stories are legendary. The old reformer saw Satan and talked with him and finally concluded that the devil "lives under the eaves of the church."
Let's go back to that book about the artful depictions of Satan. The art I remember from childhood showed Satan dressed in red, with huge goat horns, piercing eyes, fangs and another set of eyes planted on his buttocks. As a boy I thought those backside eyes were the best idea ever conceived. But today's theologians think that creative picture of Satan is bogus.
"I don't conceive of Satan in that way," said Ardel Caneday, assistant professor in Biblical studies at Northwestern College in Roseville. "Those are efforts to describe Satan in a picture form. I would see Satan in much more subtle terms, as a human being who mastered the subtle art or craft of deception. In other words, there is something seductive about evil, and therefore he would not principally present himself as light and goodness."
Most Pentecostal Christians believe that demons can possess people and drive them into errant behavior. In the past, the exorcism process was dramatic and brutal, and often the possessed person had to be held down as the exorcist grappled with evil. But exorcisms today are gentler, and Pentecostals tend to focus more on spiritual problems such as compulsive behavior.
Further, it is my considered opinion that most of the evil that has come into my life was a product of my own stupidity. The old Pogo cartoon said it well: "We have met the enemy and he is us." And that raises another question: How can you tell the difference between a demonic person and a person who is acting like an idiot? I've known plenty of idiots, but I've never in my life met someone who was possessed by evil spirits.
Clark D. Morphew
3-16-96
