CASPER
THE FRIENDLY GHOST
te, please, that I'm not talking just about people. The Devil lodges himself in many groupings, and in many situations.
Perhaps it's:
* in the general public of Germany during the Third Reich (World War II as, in part, an act of exorcism?)
* in the world's slave trade which ran ugly throughout the course of history but became its ugliest self in the 1700s and early 1800s because of the vast new US market.
* in the Khmer Rouge, in the days of the killing fields.
* at My Lai when US soldiers slaughtered villagers (war as, in part, an act of demonic possession?).
* in a corporate boardroom, as they plan a cover-up for the damage done by their product.
* in a school taken over by violence and disruption.
* in the mob psychology of the worst stages of the French Revolution.
* in the long string of 'bad popes' in Middle Ages Europe.
There is usually a person whose sellout to the Devil most characterizes the group's (for instance, Hitler or Pol Pot), but their possession is nonetheless a part of something bigger. The bigger it is, the more complete its captivity to the Father of Lies. And the more important it is for the witness of Christ's followers to take it on. But human society (and the people in it) denies the Devil even more than the evil he foments, and in the same ways: by putting both of them out of mind and out of our personal and collective history. The Devil can be exorcised from any of these 'principalities' or any group of people no less than from any one person. But it takes Christ, love, and believers working together as a team or community, to get the Devil out.
Perhaps it's:
* in the general public of Germany during the Third Reich (World War II as, in part, an act of exorcism?)
* in the world's slave trade which ran ugly throughout the course of history but became its ugliest self in the 1700s and early 1800s because of the vast new US market.
* in the Khmer Rouge, in the days of the killing fields.
* at My Lai when US soldiers slaughtered villagers (war as, in part, an act of demonic possession?).
* in a corporate boardroom, as they plan a cover-up for the damage done by their product.
* in a school taken over by violence and disruption.
* in the mob psychology of the worst stages of the French Revolution.
* in the long string of 'bad popes' in Middle Ages Europe.
There is usually a person whose sellout to the Devil most characterizes the group's (for instance, Hitler or Pol Pot), but their possession is nonetheless a part of something bigger. The bigger it is, the more complete its captivity to the Father of Lies. And the more important it is for the witness of Christ's followers to take it on. But human society (and the people in it) denies the Devil even more than the evil he foments, and in the same ways: by putting both of them out of mind and out of our personal and collective history. The Devil can be exorcised from any of these 'principalities' or any group of people no less than from any one person. But it takes Christ, love, and believers working together as a team or community, to get the Devil out.