On demons and what really matters

Palm branch. Image source.

Here's a post from Tripp Fuller: I Am Undefeated Against Demons. 1 and 0. (via) It's about this one time where someone came to Fuller's church seeking an exorcism, claiming to be possessed by a demon. I love the part where the church secretary says to Fuller, "Since you’re the only one here from the South and you used to be an evangelical, we figured, you could handle this."

Fuller doesn't believe in demons. But here's someone coming to him, in need of help. He needs to help him, and the way to do that is just go along with the "it's a demon" framework, even though it's not.

He started talking. And while he was talking, his face would do a thing, and the voice would change, and the demon would pop out to say hi like an uninvited co-host on a podcast. Then he was back. Then the demon was back. Then he was back.

As I listened, here is what I was actually hearing. This guy was a horrible boss. He was making piles of money off people he treated badly. He was a workaholic. He had an addiction problem. He was taking all of it out on his family.

Now, friend. If anything is going to count as demonic, that will do.

Really fascinating that Fuller is witnessing this odd behavior and still totally doesn't believe it's a demon. The *actual* problem is that this guy is mistreating the people around him. 

Fuller tells this guy that the way to get rid of demons is to let the love of God in. Accept God's love for you, and stop hurting the people around you. And Fuller prays over this guy, while hitting water with a palm branch- not that he believes the palm branch is doing anything, but because this "demon-possessed" guy is looking for some kind of ritual to get rid of the demon.

I'm really interested in this post because it's a perspective on demons that I've totally never heard before. Basically, the idea is that when people talk about demons, there aren't *actually* demons, but if people want to use spiritual concepts like that to describe their experiences, fine, whatever- BUT the important thing is about how people treat each other, about relationships, about emotional health. And these spiritual concepts like "demons" are maybe acceptable to believe in, but only in service to what actually matters (love, community, emotional health, etc).

(Here's a question: so apparently Fuller doesn't believe this "demon" is really a demon- but he tells this guy to "let the love of God in"- does he believe "the love of God" is a real thing, or is that also just an imaginary concept that we can believe in if it's helpful for us, sort of a metaphorical way to think about accepting yourself and caring for the people around you?)

Let's contrast this with the mindset where these spiritual things- heaven, hell, God, the devil, angels, demons- are real, and they are more real than the physical world we can perceive. The gospel I was taught said that what really matters is whether you go to heaven or hell for all eternity. Our lives on earth are just the blink of an eye; it doesn't really matter what we do here. The only important thing we can do in our earthly lives is to correctly believe in Jesus and "get saved" so we go to heaven instead of hell.

And so, in this mindset where the spiritual world is more real than the physical world, ideas like morality, human connection, and emotional health are kind of... orthogonal to what really matters and what's really real. Yeah sure, God wants you to be a good person, love others, etc, but that's just some arbitrary rules that God made up- we just have to do them because God said to, not because they are central to the things that really matter.

And there's a tension... The more you believe in hell, the more you believe that your friends are in danger of going to hell, the more you will harass them, lie to them, coerce them- anything you can possibly do to push them toward "getting saved." Belief in the realness of the spiritual world is at odds with common-sense morality.

At the church where I grew up, people didn't talk about demons lurking in the world around us, possibly affecting our lives. (With one exception: I heard warnings about Harry Potter. Specifically, the concern that Christians had was that the spells in Harry Potter are real, so if kids read the books and then try those things out, it really will summon demons.) I know there some churches where people talk about demons all the time, but that wasn't my experience. Then when I was in college, some of my Christian friends would describe things that happened to them as "spiritual warfare"- like "I had a really good conversation with a non-Christian friend, I told her about Jesus- but then after that, I felt really discouraged and just kept thinking about all the things I should have said differently- maybe it's spiritual warfare." Ie, maybe the devil is planting these thoughts of discouragement in your head, because you did a *good* thing by talking to your friend about Jesus, and the devil is trying to stop you. I kind of believed that, but also I felt like, "really? We really believe that the devil himself is influencing our emotions? Isn't that kind of, uh, crazy?" I always thought it was suspicious that people would call it "spiritual warfare" like a vague and abstract euphemism, comes across as less bonkers than "the devil is doing this to me."

I have 1 anecdote about demons. So, when I was a college student, I went to a Christian conference. At one point, there was a group of us just hanging out and talking, maybe 5 students, and one of the other students there (let's call her Claire) told this story about when she personally had cast out a demon. So this is something I heard secondhand; I have no way to tell you how true any of it is. But anyway, Claire said there was a girl, let's call her Hannah, who was acting weird one night, and putting her legs in weird positions, and Claire and her friends were sure it was because Hannah was possessed by a demon. (I think there was more to it than that, like Hannah had a history of weird/"sinful" behavior, so she was thought to be more likely to be demon-possessed than the average person, but I don't remember the details.) So Claire and her friends stayed there with Hannah all night, commanding the demon to leave "in the name of Jesus." Claire told us, if you say "in the name of Jesus," the demon has to leave, it has to. Apparently they sat there with Hannah for quite a long time telling the demon to come out "in the name of Jesus," and eventually, by the time it was morning, Hannah seemed to be back to normal. 

When I heard this story, the main angle I viewed it from was "if this is true, this is PROOF that the spiritual world is real, and our Christian beliefs are true." That's what I wanted back then: proof. To get the enticement of atheism out of my head. Sure, there are plenty of people out there claiming some kind of miracle happened to them, but how do we know they're not making it up? Is there photo/video evidence? Do we have statements written down, by the people who witnessed it, immediately after it happened? Can we ask these witnesses a bunch of questions to get a clear picture of what happened, and make sure they're not mistaken about it?

So I viewed it through the lens of wanting proof, wanting to know if my beliefs were true or false. I noticed that my friends didn't seem to view this kind of story in that way- I had this urge to collect and preserve evidence, but other Christians didn't seem to have that. I guess they weren't viewing it in terms of "I need to prove this to myself and to other people." I guess they don't have something inside them that's always telling them to be an atheist.

It's very interesting to me, reading Fuller's blog post, about how he sees this guy right in front of him, exhibiting such odd behavior, and it doesn't affect his non-belief in demons at all. He just ignores all that, and says the real problem is the way this "demon-possessed" guy has broken his relationships with his family and co-workers, and the solution is to get this guy to accept the love of God, and then to treat people better. Like the question of whether the spiritual world exists- whether demons are real- doesn't matter at all. The only thing that matters is how we treat each other.

It's a perspective that views religion not as the realest thing, but as a tool that is useful only to the extent that it helps with the things we feel are most important to our lives in this physical world. Human connection, community, emotional health, that kind of thing. It's the opposite of "our earthly lives are just the blink of an eye, and all that matters is eternity in heaven or hell."

It feels like it's basically the same thing as "none of these religious claims are true at all, but they are good because they are useful for encouraging people to live in a moral way and love each other." (One could also make the argument that religion encourages people to do bad things, though. So maybe if all this is not true anyway, we'd be better off with no religion at all.)

So it's not "we believe our religion is true, now let's live according to the implications of that, no matter how strange they may seem- that's what faith is supposed to be." It's more like, we have our own experiences, real experiences and feelings in the physical world, and we're very rooted in that- that's real. And if religion can kind of give us a framework for viewing those experiences, great- but if religion ever tells us something too weird or not matching what we see in the real world, well then religion has reached the end of its usefulness, and we don't take it that seriously. Have common sense instead of having faith.

On the one hand, I like this, because it's something that actually makes sense (we should treat each other right) rather than something that depends on arguing about if demons exist/ if God exists/ etc. On the other hand, isn't this the same thing as saying my religion is not true? I don't like that; I want it to be true. I'm not just here for metaphors and inspiration; I really believe He lived and died and His tomb is empty.

But I'm stuck in a weird place where I feel that religion only matters if it leads you to do counter-intuitive things, things that look like a bad idea to people outside the religion; but also, don't ever do that- history is full of the wreckage of things that people did because their religion told them to, which everyone outside the religion could quite obviously see were bad ideas.

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Related

Don't know why I never realized this about Old Testament prophets

Faith, Fruit, and "Do you actually believe your religion?"

"The Kingdom of Children" (a book about child liberation theology)

Being Right vs Doing Good

So. Demons.

Katy Perry's God-Given Freedom

Don't know why I never realized this about Old Testament prophets

Stained glass image of a biblical prophet. Image source.

So here's an interesting post: How a Tale of Demonic Possession Predicted the Decline of an Early Medieval Empire (via).

In the ninth century, Frankish courtier Einhard was, apparently, exorcising a demon. Turns out the demon's name was Wiggo and he had some things to say about the ruling class:

He was Satan’s doorkeeper, Wiggo declared. He had been roaming the land of the Franks with 11 friends for the last several years. “Following our instructions,” the demon continued, “we destroyed the grain, grapes and all the earth’s produce that is useful to mankind. We slaughtered the stock with disease and even directed plague and pestilence against human beings.” The priest asked what had given Wiggo such power. The demon replied, “By reason of the perverseness of this people, and of the manifold sins of those who are set up to rule over them.”

The sins of the Franks and their rulers had made the land fertile for Wiggo and his friends. This was a land without justice in which greed ran rampant: The powerful “abuse the higher place,” Wiggo said, “which they received that they might justly rule their subjects, giving themselves up to pride and vainglory; hatred and malice they direct not only against those who are far off but against their neighbors and those with whom they are allied; friend mistrusts friend, brother hates brother, and father has no love for son.” None, Wiggo concluded, gave honor to God as they did in previous generations. His speech finished and his work apparently done, the demon left the girl, overcome by the power of the martyrs’ relics.

The article is about how people used stories about demons (and other supernatural happenings) as a way to indirectly call out their leaders' abuses of power. Because, you can't really go tell the king "here's my opinion on what you're doing wrong." But you can say "a demon told me that it's been given power to cause all these problems in our society because of the bad behavior of our rulers."

Fascinating!

And, here's a question: What if the prophets from the bible were doing something similar?

I've always conceptualized the Old Testament prophets like this: 

So, God gave all these laws to his people, and they need to simply follow those laws, and God will bless them and make their society prosperous. It's not that hard, just follow the laws. Mostly about believing in the correct religion, and doing whatever little arbitrary traditions God set up, like how exactly to sacrifice animals and when to have feasts and whatever.

But the Israelite people strayed from God and didn't follow his laws. Ugh, you guys, why can't you just do this? It's not that hard. So God sent prophets to tell them "come on you guys, you need to stop worshiping those bad gods, and worship the correct god instead, otherwise all kinds of terrible things will happen to you."

But for the most part the people didn't listen to the prophets. God kept stalling for time, kept delaying the punishment that they deserved, but eventually he let the Assyrians invade Israel and the Babylonians invade Judah, as punishment for the people's sin. And that "sin" was basically believing in the wrong gods.

Basically, when I was evangelical, I took it at face value what the Old Testament prophets said. The people weren't faithful to God, so God sends prophets to warn them, but that doesn't work, so eventually he lets other armies invade and conquer them.

But hey wait a minute, what if it was more like this instead:

It wasn't about "the people" sinning. It was about the rulers and upper class. And their "sin" wasn't simply about believing in the "wrong" gods- it was about oppression and injustice and how they didn't help the poor. And it wasn't really God telling the prophets these things- that was just a way to frame their criticism so that they would be allowed to say it. And when enemy armies invaded, that wasn't actually related to their society's sin. It was unrelated but offered a convenient narrative for the prophets to use.

Hmm, interesting.

Also, I always read the rebuke from Old Testament prophets as being primarily about "you guys are following the wrong gods instead of the right god"- simply about what label you put on your religious activities, not about what you actually *do* and the way you actually *treat people*. Sure, if you had asked me why the other religions were bad, I would have trotted out some apologetics answer about "those other religions had human sacrifice and prostitution" but that was a secondary concern for me- the main concern was that the god you have in mind when you do your worship isn't the right one.

And I always read the bible from that mindset. If the prophets primarily wrote about social justice, I would not even have noticed. Sure, I know there are a few bible passages where the prophets' criticisms are about the way they treat people, and not about which religion they belong to- like Isaiah 58. But mostly their criticism was about which god(s) the people believed in, right? Right? ... It would be fascinating to read the bible again and see if the prophets' writings are mostly about social justice or about what label you use for your god(s).

Another thing I wonder: The people who believed in demons back then- in the bible or in ninth-century Europe- what did those beliefs look like exactly? Did they literally believe it, or was it more of a vibes-based thing?

I've been ex-evangelical for a long time, but I don't think I've thought about this before. Were the biblical prophets speaking to all the people, about their religious affiliation, or were they speaking to those in power, about their failure to create a just society? And were the eventual invasions by Assyria and Babylon really punishments from God, or were they just things that happened that the prophets used as part of their story?

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Related:

Don't Protect God 

Maybe Jesus Was A Pharisee

My mind is blown by how cool the Synoptic Problem is 

No One Can Take The Bible From Me 

The Bible Stories As I Read Them Were Never Actually In The Bible

Blogaround

1. The Difference Between Mental Illness and Demonic Possession (February 1) "Yes—in the early 1990s, I think I participated in group exorcisms where the subjects were mentally ill, and not demon-possessed at all. And I wonder if I did more harm than good." An article about how to tell the difference. Personally, I believe demons probably do exist, but I don't think I believe any anecdotes I've heard from actual people about their actual experiences encountering an actual demon. Just seems so incredibly unlikely that a person would actually encounter one and also be able to figure out that's what it was.

2. Perspective: What pictures of abortions can and can’t do (February 6) This is a good article about the topic of what a fetus looks like- from the pregnancy apps happily declaring "your baby is the size of a blueberry!", to the abortion activists showing photos of fetuses after they have been damaged by the abortion process, to the women who had miscarriages and want to find the body and lovingly bury it. 

Personally, I don't like how images are used by both the "pro-life" and pro-choice sides, to either say "this is totally a baby!" or "this is just a meaningless clump of cells" because both of those are inaccurate and are trying to manipulate the images to support their argument, rather than trying to actually get at the truth of what a fetus looks like.

And I'm also uncomfortable with the idea that the physical appearance of the fetus should have any place in arguments on the legality of abortion. I think pregnant people should have accurate information- no hiding the fact that it does have tiny baby features, but also being realistic about when these things develop during pregnancy (the first trimester is completely different from the third trimester)- and then make their own decisions.

3. The Ant and the Universe (February 4) "The rubber band starts out one meter long, and stretches out one meter per second. This is one of those magical math rubber bands that can stretch indefinitely."

4. Stop praising Pastor Andy Stanley for pretending to love gay people (January 25) WELL-SAID.

I posted the link Andy Stanley's comments a few weeks ago (about how gay Christians who attend church are very committed to the church, and the church is lucky to have them, and straight Christians should learn from them). He's right, and it's something that conservative Christians need to hear- but don't take it to mean Stanley is queer-affirming or anything like that. It's quite possible he's just on the nicer end of "hate the sin, love the sinner."

Queer Christians know all about Christians who say very nice things about queer people but when it comes right down to it, you eventually figure out they don't support queer rights at all.

5. Enhanced clobber-texting methods (February 7) "A clobber text permitting torture would have been trumpeted by the advocates of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' as the definitive biblical word settling the matter beyond dispute, but a clobber text prohibiting the practice would have been relegated to endless exegetical dissection."

The Slacktivist has it exactly right. It's not just the clobber text itself- a bible verse that clearly says "don't do X", where X is whatever culture war issue is being debated. It's the whole culture around how to read the bible, how some verses are treated as more important than others because, uh, because, well, because... because... well, it's just obvious, and anyone who brings up a bible verse that says differently is "twisting Scripture."

6. Grace Community Church Rejected Elder’s Calls to ‘Do Justice’ in Abuse Case (February 9) [content note: domestic violence, coverup, spiritual abuse] "'They sided with a child abuser, who turned out to be a child molester, over a mother desperately trying to protect her three innocent young children. And that was and is flatly wrong, and needs to be made right,' Cho said to CT. 'Numerous elders have admitted in various private conversations that ‘mistakes were made’ and that they would make a different decision today knowing what they know now. But those admissions mean you need to make it right with the person you wronged; that is utterly basic Christianity.'"

7. Revival comes, again, to Asbury University (February 11) and Asbury Professor: We’re Witnessing a ‘Surprising Work of God’ (February 13) So... the story here is that Asbury University (a Christian university in Kentucky) had a chapel service last Wednesday, and people continued to stay there and sing worship songs and make public confessions and so on, for days... this chapel service is continuing for days (I am not sure if it's still going now or not- didn't find an article that said it ended...)

And yeah people are saying it's "revival" and "God is working" and all that.

So, uh, my thoughts on this:

My first question was, what sort of Christian denomination are we talking about here? What's the background? Is it in any way associated with Pentecostal/charismatic churches? Because, Pentecostal/charismatic churches are really into this kind of thing, they expect it to happen, they know how to set up their church service in such a way that influences people's emotions to make people think "God is working" and all that. So if this is somehow related to Christians who have a Pentecostal/charismatic background, I am not very impressed. But if these are Christians who come from the sort of church background where the worship services are fairly tame and they haven't experienced anything like this at all, well, now that's something. Then it's significant.

Apparently they are non-denominational or maybe associated with Methodists. So, yeah, not Pentecostal/charismatic. Okay, well then, that's unexpected- that makes me more curious about what's going on here.

Basically, I believe that it is totally possible that God does things that affect our physical reality. But, I am extremely skeptical of any actual account of any actual such events. (Oh lol this is kind of the same as what I said about link #1.) 

But hey, maybe this really is God, just deciding for some reason to be affectionate with people in this one particular place and time. 

But, uh, also a lot of it is people spreading the news "there's a revival happening" and then other Christians drive in from other places to see it and participate- so, it perpetuates itself.

I am also very skeptical about the way that people are interpreting this. Like, calling it a "revival." To me it seems more like, a bunch of people having a positive emotional/ spiritual experience- okay, but it doesn't really go any farther than that...? 

I mean, the only really long-term effect I can think of is like... maybe if you're there and you experience it, that feels like strong evidence that God exists and God can be experienced, and that would be something you remember in the future if you're considering the question of God existing/ what religion you are or are not going to identify with. (Oh lol, I just realized the Christianese term I'm looking for here is "it strengthens their faith" wow I'm really out of practice.) Uh, I hesitate about how to word this because I know I have readers who are atheists- basically, I think it's valid to dismiss other people's personal spiritual experiences as evidence for God and/or for a specific religion (because so many people have all kinds of different contradictory spiritual experiences)- but if it's your own spiritual experience, that's different.

When Christians see things like this and say "God is working," I think one of the main things they mean by "working" is "God is going to convince people to convert to Christianity." Which... I mean, that's just an interpretation. Just because a lot of Christians are having an emotional experience singing worship songs... like what does that have anything to do with non-Christians converting to Christianity? It's totally not connected- but in a certain type of Christian ideology, God being present and powerful means that God is going to convince non-Christians to believe in Jesus. In that ideology, it's connected.

One of my concerns is that when people have a spiritual experience like this, it confirms whatever religious ideology they already believe in. Who knows, maybe God is like "I choose, for my own ~mysterious reasons~ to create a spiritual experience for these people, even though they have a lot of very incorrect beliefs about me" (and really, doesn't everyone have a bunch of incorrect beliefs about God? They are beyond our understanding, that's kind of Their thing...) and then people take it to mean "oh, it really is true! All the beliefs I have about God really are true!" That's kind of a jump in logic (jump from "the spiritual world exists" to "God wants people to become Christians"- yeah, it doesn't follow).

And then I saw this tweet, which makes a good point:

I'm confused by the excitement re: the #AsburyRevival. It's a multi-day emotional rollercoaster with lots of singing. That's all.

"Revival" is happening when people start doing Isaiah 58:6-9 & Micah 6:8. Period.

Why wait for "revival" to get off your ass and do something? Go!

— Nick Laparra (@NickLaparra) February 13, 2023

YES! I think it's a little weird putting so much emphasis on emotional experiences... (Hence my side-eye towards the Pentecostal movement...) Like, I believe God is with us ALL THE TIME. And we already know what They want us to do: Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly before God. You don't need a "spiritual experience." Go do it.

Blogaround

A baby duck swimming. Image source.

1. Notes from Philly Trans Wellness Conference: Strategy Words for Medical Self Advocacy (posted 2018) "I REFUSE: This is the SAFE WORD of healthcare, essentially a sledgehammer of a word that means FULL STOP."

Also this: F*ck Your Health Volume I: Hey, Let’s Get A Pap Exam! It's a guide for trans people who have a cervix and therefore need to get pap exams, about how to make the experience less scary/triggering. I am not trans, but because I am asexual, going to the gynecologist is really hard, and wow this guide is useful for me.

2. Muhammad Was Visited by a Demon (and Other Things Evangelicals Taught Me) (posted March 21) I was never taught this explicitly, but if somebody said it I would have felt like "ah yeah, that's reasonable, that could be the case" because it's 100% consistent with what I was taught about demons (they are real) and religions besides Christianity (they are bad).

3. Clarity: Shane Claiborne & The Wild Goose Festival (posted March 25) "And — for crying out loud — Methodist queer kids are already hearing that their sexual orientation is a 'big issue.' Can we not find someone else?"

Blogaround

"She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted." Image source.

Links about the orange antichrist:

1. Would You Talk About An Abused Friend Like You Talk About Melania Trump? (posted February 1)

2. Donald Trump is hiding his tax returns: Day 589 (posted January 26) "Realizing the extent of the horrible things he has no problem regularly revealing about himself makes it even more disturbing to imagine what sort of deeds he would try to hide."

3. Kellyanne Conway makes up 'Bowling Green massacre' to defend President Trump's immigration ban (posted February 3) This isn't satire. She actually said this.

4. What History Teaches Us About Trump's Immigration Order (posted January 29) "White abolitionists posted 'wanted' posters around the city, with sketches of the two 'man stealers,' who in turn withstood five days of increasingly taut heckling and threats wherever they traveled. Egging on the crowd, leading abolitionists like Wendell Phillips promised to 'trample [the Fugitive Slave] law under out feet.'"

5. Our Articles on the Attacks Trump Says the Media Didn’t Cover (posted February 7) "Just as striking was what the [White House's] list excluded: attacks targeting Muslims, who make up the overwhelming majority of victims of Islamist terrorism."

6. Elizabeth Warren Reads Coretta Scott King Letter about Jeff Sessions. DAMNNNNNNNNNNNNNN. Senator Warren is right- everyone should read this. Wow. I learned about the civil rights movement in school, how there used to be segregation and racial discrimination written into the laws of the United States, but that was a long time ago. Well guess what, white people- it wasn't actually that long ago, and I'm appalled to learn that some of the same people (ahem Jeff Sessions) who were involved in violent intimidation of black voters are STILL lurking in the US government now. Everyone needs to read Coretta Scott King's letter. DAMNNNNNN.

7. Bryan Fischer: Jesus Would Support the Muslim Ban Since Going To Heaven Involves “Extreme Vetting” (posted February 7) You know how I always say believing in hell COMPLETELY RUINS anything good about Christianity, how it leads to all sorts of shocking, heartless, anti-human beliefs and actions? Well here's Bryan Fischer showing us an excellent example of that exact thing.

8. Ontario to provide life-saving health care to children affected by U.S. travel ban (posted February 3) Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.

Links about various other things:

1. Buzz Aldrin, Bill Nye Take 'Giant Leap' Down NY Fashion Week Runway (posted February 1) Cool! More photos here and here.

2. How Far Is Too Far (posted February 2) "Because did oral sex count as sex? And if you couldn’t have penis in vagina sex could you ever actually have sex at all? And what if by “petting” you were able to bring someone to orgasm? Was that sex? Even if no penises went into any vaginas? I mean, I guess if you went back to the standard line that asking about where the line was already meant you went too far you had your answers."

3. Harry Potter Theory: Golden Flames Explained (posted February 2) I love this fan theory.

4. When Belief Becomes a Work (posted January 20) "And then he questioned my salvation for even considering the possibility that someone could possibly be Christian and an evolutionist at the same time." (And also you should read this storify.)

5. Discourse in the Garden of Eden (posted January 31) "It’s the tale of humanity’s first bad faith argument."

6. Abortion Is Not a Bible Issue (posted February 3) "Well, I have news for [Franklin] Graham—following his logic, it’s not a biblical command for this country to ban abortion, either."

7. Study: For Those With Autism, Fixations Can Be Beneficial (posted February 3) No shit, Sherlock.

8. Medicine vs. Exorcism: The Real Miracle. (posted January 29) "In fact, this disease may well be responsible for many cases that are considered by Christians to be demonic possession because of its weird, unnerving psychological manifestations and its sudden onset in someone who seemed healthy beforehand."

9. The Danger of the “Wayward Woman” of Proverbs (posted February 7) [content note: rape of a child] "After all, why take the time to learn about grooming when the story already fits perfectly into a “wayward woman” narrative you already know by heart from Proverbs?"

10. Why You Shouldn’t See The Shack – but Why so Many Will (posted January 31) I'm sharing this because it's an example of a thing that Good Christians do- this blogger believes that the movie "The Shack" teaches some incorrect ideas about God, and therefore he says you shouldn't see it. Not "watch it and we can discuss the messages it communicates" but "you shouldn't see it." (This is TOTALLY DIFFERENT from the way feminists critcize harmful messages in movies and other media.) He's from that brand of conservative Christianity that believes it's dangerous to even listen to something that teaches the "wrong" things about God. And the whole blog post is full of "isn't it so sad how so many people nowadays believe things about God that are different from what I believe"- that's not an exact quote, that's me summarizing, but this is an exact quote: "I have the audacity to suggest there is one, specific way to understand all of the scriptures" LOLOLOLOL and by the most lucky of all coincidences, that "one specific way" just happens to be the way that he understands them.

Now This Is Some High-Caliber Victim-Blaming

Ke$ha. Image source.

[trigger warning: rape and victim-blaming]

So, here's what's going on with Ke$ha: she says that her producer, Dr. Luke, drugged and raped her when she was 18, and also continued to abuse her after that. But because of her contract, she has to keep working with him. She challenged this in court, but the judge ruled that she could not get out of her contract.

As a feminist, I believe her, because statistically, women don't just make up rape accusations- in fact, it's much more common for rape victims to not report it because so often, victims aren't believed, or they're questioned about what they may have done to cause it, etc. And this case is interesting because it shows how acting "neutral"- not intervening to change Ke$ha's contract- would actually be harming the victim. Similarly, I have heard of situations where a person is raped by a roommate, and their landlord won't force the rapist to move out, so the victim ends up being the one who moves out, so they don't have to live with their rapist. This is something we need to think about when we talk about how to fight rape culture and make the world safer.

But anyway, I came across this pretty terrible video, called Kesha Cries in Court - After Realizing Selling Her Soul to Satan was Wrong Choice. Sounds super-compassionate, right? [sarcasm]



I mean, you don't have to watch the video, because it's so terrible. Here's the main point: Look how sad Ke$ha is. Well, that's what happens when you sell your soul to the devil.

Umm, okay then. It seems this person believes that the music industry is controlled by satan, and that by entering into a contract with Sony, Ke$ha sold her soul to the devil, which was obviously a bad choice and so OF COURSE it would end badly for her.

That's EXACTLY what victim-blaming is. When something bad happens to someone, and instead of caring about them, you say "see I told you it was a bad idea to do ABC, now look what's happened to you."

The creator of this video doesn't care about Ke$ha. Yeah, sure, he says he cares about her. But he doesn't. Instead, he cares about how this situation can be spun as evidence to support his ideas about how satan totally controls the music industry. He's happy to have an opportunity to say "I told you so."

The video says that this whole situation is Ke$ha's fault- she shouldn't have signed a music contract in the first place. THIS IS VICTIM-BLAMING. Nowhere does the video say that hey, maybe it's the accused rapist's fault. Maybe it's Sony's fault. Maybe it's the system that is forcing her to stay in the contract.

And instead of saying, "hey let's make the world safer for female musicians, so that they're able to sign contracts and be successful without the risk of being stuck with a rapist", the creator of the video wants to see bad things happen to Ke$ha, to show that his claims about satan were right.

It's a pretty good example of how someone's pet theory about "don't do ABC because bad things will happen to you" can be a motivation for victim-blaming.

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note: Okay let's just talk about the demon stuff a little bit. In my experience in Christian culture, nobody talked like the guy in the video. This is really really extreme and not normal for Christians, in my experience. [I'm saying this because I usually have examples on my blog where I say "a Christian said this, and it sounds really extreme and fringe, but actually it's totally consistent with everything about the Christian culture I used to be in- people just don't usually say it out loud." This is not one of those times.] Like, people in my church definitely believed in demons and shared anecdotes about how somebody tried to copy a spell in Harry Potter and then terrible things happened to them, but mostly the belief in demons was very vague and not often mentioned- I never heard anyone point to a specific event and say a demon caused it, or point to a specific person and say "this person is possessed by a demon", or warn against a specific action because that action could cause satan to come into your life. I know some people who talked about "spiritual warfare" a lot, and I was never sure if they literally believed that satan was personally affecting events in our lives, or what. It felt too ridiculous to actually say that out loud in order to ask them.

Blogaround

My adorable kitty. In a box.

1. Adventures of God 8 (posted January 16) lol

2. GIMPS Project Discovers Largest Known Prime Number: 2^74,207,281-1 (posted January 7) Hooray! And now, of course, we have a new largest known perfect number: (2^74,207,281-1)*(2^74,207,281-1).

3. What’s the deal with God and vegetables? (posted January 20) "I mean, what did Cain do that was so goddamn wrong? He worked his ass off to give God vegetables, and God’s sitting here moralizing because for some reason he doesn’t like vegetables. No."

4. Stop saying Trump has a mental disorder (posted January 20)

5. Man's obituary: 'Please do not vote for Donald Trump' (posted January 22) "Jeffrey would ask that in lieu of flowers, please do not vote for Donald Trump."

6. Demons and the Consequences of Feeding Children’s Fears (posted January 21) "At one point when I was girl, another woman in my parents’ Bible study group told a story about confronting a demon in her hallway late at night. It must have been let in, she said, by some rock music her teenage daughter had been listening to that afternoon. I found that freaking terrifying. I wondered, sometimes, what I might do that might accidentally invite a demon in? I was terrified—utterly petrified—of getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night."

7. Trump: I could shoot people in streets and not lose support (posted January 23) He seems nice.

8. China braces for worst cold in 30 years (posted January 21) YOU GUYS IT IS SUPER COLD HERE IN SHANGHAI.

9. This tweet:

The Bible is not the Word of God; Jesus is.

— Broderick Greer (@BroderickGreer) 2016年1月24日

10. Satanic Temple’s Seven Tenets Are Morally Superior To Ten Commandments (posted January 22) This is interesting. It's not a fair comparison though- the Satanic Temple's Seven Tenets were clearly written in the context of modern western culture, in response to the problems caused by religion, whereas the Ten Commandments are older and more universally applicable in many cultures, I would say. Also, the Seven Tenets seem to be a set of guiding principles on how to live your life, which is not analogous to the position of the Ten Commandments within Christianity. If you asked a Christian to come up with a set of guiding principles for life, based on the bible, I don't think the Ten Commandments would be the first thing that came to mind- there's way better stuff than that. The Golden Rule, the Greatest Commandment, stuff like that.

11. Reimburse That $h*t! 可以报销！Fapiao Rap Song. Oh my goodness this will be hilarious to anyone who's worked in China.

So. Demons.

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Libby Anne has a good post up about believing in demons. She talks about the recent news story where Arkansas state representative Justin Harris "rehomed" his two adopted daughters with a man who then sexually abused them. Apparently, Harris made this decision because he believed the two girls were possessed by demons.

Libby Anne then talks about her own experiences as an evangelical, believing in demons. She says that her parents taught that demons are actively involved in our lives, and her mother even believed her sister's migraine was caused by a demon in her. Throughout her entire childhood, Libby Anne was terrified of demons.

Wow, I'm really glad I missed out on that whole teaching. I can totally see how, as Libby Anne says, it's traumatizing to a child to teach them the world is full of demons. And that it's their responsibility to really really really believe in Jesus, or else the demons might get them. Just, wow, that's awful.

This is an example where evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity teach the same thing, in theory, but the fundamentalists are the ones who actually live like they believe it. (My background is evangelical Christianity, and Libby Anne's background was definitely more conservative than mine, though as far as I know, she refers to it as evangelical rather than fundamentalist.)

In the evangelical Christian culture I come from, we believe in demons, you know, theoretically, but I never heard anyone actually claim a specific event in their own life was caused by a demon. Occasionally someone would tell a secondhand or thirdhand anecdote about encountering a demon, but it was always in a different country not full of white people, or perhaps in the US but in a camp in the middle of nowhere. Apparently some missionaries can sense the "spiritual darkness" when they're in certain cities in Africa or whatever. Lots of wild stories like that. We all believed them- or at least, it seemed to me like everyone believed them. I never heard anyone at church question them. It was common knowledge that in other countries, missionaries sometimes encounter demons.

It was always some bizarre, impossible-to-verify story from a foreign place. I never heard anyone say "I think my illness was caused by a demon." Never that close to home.

(Except one time. At a Christian conference, I met a student from a different college, who told us about how one night, her roommate had been possessed by a demon, and they stayed up all night ordering the demon to leave, in Jesus' name. I listened with rapt attention- wow, finally this was evidence that demons do exist. An actual firsthand account, not some urban legend repeated at church. At that time, I was really really interested because I was looking for evidence that the spiritual world existed. My faith/doubt were always being pulled between two options: conservative "the bible is inerrant" Christianity, or atheism. Yeah. I thought those were the only 2 religions.)

But. People did talk about "spiritual warfare", especially when I was in college and was super-involved with evangelism. Apparently, in anything evangelism-related, the unseen spiritual world plays a huge role. I invited my friend to bible study- God gave me the courage to do it! I felt embarrassed about talking about Jesus- must the the devil trying to make me feel bad so I'll stop! Everything good or bad was interpreted this way.

We used the word "spiritual warfare" a lot, but I don't think anyone ever defined what it was. It seemed to mean God and satan are directly causing these specific events in our lives, but... I mean, that's a little absurd, right? To think satan is actually interacting with us. We were comfortable crediting God with the good stuff, but people rarely claimed that some specific thing was literally caused by satan because that just sounded way too weird.

I remember how uncertain I felt, when my friends kept using the term "spiritual warfare" and I wanted to ask, "Wait, so... do we actually literally believe that the devil- you know, satan, the fallen angel himself- kept people from coming to our evangelistic event?" I don't remember whether or not I ever asked that question, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have received a straight answer. There would probably be some vague language about the spiritual world or whatever, but not "Yes, I literally believe satan does this stuff" or "No, I don't believe that, that just sounds ridiculous."

Fundamentalists don't have this problem. If they say they believe in demons, they really do believe in demons. Evangelicals teach the same stuff but won't admit it, or won't take it to its logical conclusion. This is true for a ton of other topics too.

I remember how I really admired my friend James, when he said the reason nobody decided to get saved at this one outreach event we did could be because of some unconfessed sin among those of us who organized the event. I thought, wow, now that sounds really really out there, but he wasn't embarrassed to say it. It sounds so ridiculous, but it's within the realm of possibility, according to the bible. I admired him for having the courage to actually say it out loud. (Who knows, he may have come from a more fundamentalist background than mine, where people said stuff like that all the time and no one thought it was weird.)

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So. In summary, the evangelical culture I come from totally believed in demons, but was shy about saying/teaching it explicitly. I always interpreted this as embarrassment over how obviously ridiculous it would sound if you actually said it directly.

Right now, personally, I don't really see any reason to believe one way or the other about the existence of demons. Maybe they do exist. Sure. Whatever. But I would never explain something that happened in my own life as being caused by a demon. So while theoretically I suppose they could exist, in a practical sense I don't believe in them.

For people like Libby Anne, who have been affected in such harmful ways by the belief in demons, oh geez, yeah, quit believing that. Be free. Don't be afraid. (And if that means becoming an atheist, I support that. I believe God wants us to have freedom and not be controlled by fear. For some people, atheism is what gives them freedom. Go for it.)

Blogaround

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1. A Reasonable Violence: Why Third Way is the Worst Way (posted July 26) Some good points here, but I'm not sure I can agree with it because of the unchallenged assumption that it's totally not okay for people to hold beliefs that oppose gay marriage. Of course I argue against those who oppose gay marriage, but I get why they believe that and how they really believe they are being loving. I'd like to see more grace for them, though they are epically wrong. But on the other hand, people will argue "screw them- LGBT people are the ones actually being oppressed, we have no patience for taking bigots by the hand and helping them see the truth." So... I'm not sure.

2. A scientist sets an example for the church (posted July 28) "Then I made one fateful decision — I decided to look up who had spoken at the lecture series previously. And, well, it was not what I wanted to see."

3. You guys! I have found THE perfect list to use for all our "how far is too far" questions! Simply indicate whether each item is acceptable for people who are dating, engaged, or married. (Of course, your youth group leaders will tell you that this is totally the WRONG way to go about it- you shouldn't ask "how far is too far", you should focus on honoring Jesus instead.)

Also, I used to think the slippery slope went like this: hand-holding, side-hugging, hugging, kissing, kissing with tongue, sex. You know, you kiss a guy and then next thing you know, you're having sex with him. But geez, check out all the other sexual and non-sexual things on this list. And the fact that the average person would be interested in a bunch of them and also not interested in a bunch of them. Sex isn't something that "just happens" because we all have massive out-of-control animal instincts that overpower us if we happen to make physical contact with a member of the opposite sex.

4. Stories of Demons on the Missions Field (posted July 24) "The kids were always seeing demons in the bathroom, the house, the classroom, the yard, and even the missionary kids who came over, confirmed that there was a demon living in the upstairs bathroom."

5. What’s the Deal with Matthew’s Genealogy? (posted July 19) "After Zerubbabel, Matthew starts improvising with a genealogy of his own invention, apparently drawn from a variety of sources. As we shall see, many of these names are Levite names associated with important priests in the Jewish scriptures, and their use by Matthew establishes Jesus as not only a king of David’s line, but a priest of Aaron’s."

6. On justice vs. ‘righteousness’ (posted July 29) "...it comes as a surprise to discover that though some of those occurrences are translated with grammatical variants on our word 'just,' the great bulk of dik-stem words are translated with grammatical variants on our word 'right.'" Oh my. That's a completely different thing.

7. How Being an Atheist Made Me a Better Christian (posted July 30) "With no savior, atheists must work to address suffering with their own hands. With no heaven or hell, atheists have to savor and enjoy every moment as a gift. I haven't lost that perspective."

8. Ebola Patient Dr. Kent Brantly on Flight From Liberia to Atlanta (posted August 2)

9. The Abortion Ministry of Dr. Willie Parker (posted July 30) "'You are going to slip and break your leg just for a day,' he says. 'And we'll give you a note that won't say abortion clinic on it.'"

Demons 'n Things

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In this week's edition of "Perfect Number writes about the gospel of Matthew" we are reading Matthew 12:22-50, which contains a bunch of various things Jesus said. Several of which are about demons.

I'm just going to go through and write whatever odd thoughts I have about each little section. Here we go!

"They they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, 'Could this be the Son of David?' But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, 'It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.'"

So, Beelzebul is another name for satan (to whom I give the middle finger of grammar, obviously). And Jesus basically tells these people that their idea about him using satan's power to drive out demons MAKES NO SENSE. Why would satan be working against the demons? Seriously guys.

And here's the obligatory "wait, do we actually believe in demons or not?" Soooooo... I believe in God, and I believe in angels, so it's not like demons are so bizarre and superstitious and unreasonable. I've heard some second-hand anecdotes about people who have encountered demons, but no particularly convincing evidence one way or the other. They probably exist, but they're very rare- don't start blaming people's illnesses on them or anything.

So anyway. 

"Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house."

Okay this is... odd. Jesus is giving us tips on how to rob someone's house. What.

"What did you learn in Sunday School today?"

"I learned that if you ever break into someone's house, don't forget to bring rope to tie them up so you can steal their stuff."

"...???"

Jesus was just talking about satan, so I think the "strong man" in this metaphor is satan. And Jesus is robbing satan of his control over the world. So gotta tie up satan first, obviously.

Okay I'm still a little lost with this metaphor.

How about this: So, some people are under the control of "strong men"- which could be addiction, stress, loneliness, etc etc, any sort of bad thing that might be harmful to one's life- and we need to help them with those problems rather than just whatever we believe their spiritual needs to be.

Because how can you do anything without first tying up the "strong man"?

"Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

So Jesus is dividing up the world into "us vs them." You can't try to just be neutral, because that's not possible- you're either with Jesus or opposed to Jesus.

This doesn't seem right. In the accounts of Jesus' life, I don't see him being super-confrontational toward everyone. He was a friend. He spoke in parables so people would gradually learn who he was and decide if they wanted to follow him or not. It just seems really wrong that he would think that people who are interested and listening to him but haven't made up their minds are somehow "against" him.

Jesus doesn't seem like the kind of person who divides up the world into "us vs them."

(Related: So, lately I'm kind of questioning the existence of hell. But if one believes that everyone who doesn't believe in Jesus goes to hell, then this "whoever is not with me is against me" bit fits with that. And since I don't think that belief seems right, for a lot of reasons, I'm left with not much to say about this verse. Hmm.)

Perhaps Jesus is more harsh than I thought? Or maybe, since he was just talking about satan and demons, this has something to do with that?

"And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven."

Uh what? How can there be a sin that can't be forgiven? What about God's mercy? Was Jesus' death not enough?

What is "blasphemy against the Spirit" anyway?

I just totally don't buy the "unforgivable sin" thing.

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad..."

This. I love this. You can tell if something is good or bad based on the results it produces.

"But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

This is also a little bizarre. Personally, I have this image of someone standing before God, after death, and God says, "Okay, so, that time in May 2002 when you were looking at a finger painting of a dog and said- and I quote- 'it looks dead', and you didn't realize the 5-year-old kid who painted it was standing right behind you... well?" and then you just feel terrible and know that was just a stupid careless thing you said and you have no excuse, nothing you can say to God to explain why you said that... and then God moves on to the next example in his long list of dumb things you said without thinking...

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It goes right along with the view of sin which sees sins as little isolated events to be listed, and the fact that that list has at least 1 item means you don't deserve to go to heaven. But yeah, I don't view sin that way.

So... what in the world is Jesus talking about here?

Perhaps we shouldn't take the "every empty word" thing literally? Maybe? Seriously though, I have no idea how to understand this. Any ideas?

"The Sign of Jonah"

Okay so in the next part of Matthew 12, some Pharisees asked Jesus for a "sign" and Jesus said no, they will just have to make do with "the sign of Jonah."

(Umm what about all the healings and stuff Jesus had been doing? Didn't those count as "signs"?)

This is Jonah as in Jonah and the whale. From the Old Testament, a few hundred years before Jesus. The story of Jonah can be found here.

Jesus explains 2 similarities between himself and the prophet Jonah:

1. Jonah was inside the whale (okay the NIV says "huge fish" but whatever) for "three days and three nights" and Jesus would be "in the heart of the earth" for "three days and three nights." You know, like when he died and then resurrected. But... uh... I hate to say it, but he wasn't. He was dead for Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night, and part of Sunday morning. It was like a day and a half. (If you've never thought about that, it's okay- I was a Christian for like 15 years before I realized this whole "he rose after 3 days" didn't mean anything near 72 hours.) BUT ANYWAY don't worry about the numbers. It's similar to Jonah, that's what matters.
2. The people of Nineveh repented when Jonah preached. Unlike the people that Jesus preached to. (Jesus uses this opportunity to give them a hard time about that.)

"When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation."

... What?

It's like Jesus is giving a biology lesson on the habits of demons. "They are generally solitary creatures, and they return every year to their place of birth so they can reproduce." What?

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Here's how I understand this passage: When a person has some bad habit or addiction or something, and they get rid of it, they have to replace it with something else- redirect that energy they had previously used for that bad habit. Otherwise, some other addiction or bad habit will come and take its place and be worse.

Like this one time, many years ago, I decided I wouldn't like boys or date anyone or think about boys or have feelings, because of how bad things had gone with this one boy. I didn't want anything to do with any of that. I would just not do anything and not have feelings and keep everything all shut up inside.

And then a few months later I was dating this other guy because like, I didn't have a choice, I just had all these emotions and I had to do SOMETHING with them. I didn't want to date him but what could I do?

And then he broke up with me and everything was horrible and then God changed my life and I learned to redirect all that energy and emotion toward God, so I wasn't driving myself crazy over boys.

So when you get rid of something bad in your life, make an effort to replace it with something good. Because all that time and energy you used to put into it has to go somewhere.

But one thing to note about Jesus' use of this little anecdote about demons- he relates it to "this wicked generation" rather than something that happens to individual people. So I think he's talking about the same sort of thing- get rid of one bad thing, but replace it with another- but on a wider, societal level.

"Jesus' Mother and Brothers"

So somebody tells Jesus his mother and brothers are outside, wanting to talk to him. Jesus says nope, "whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

That's kind of cool, being Jesus' brother/sister/mother (I guess "father" was already taken). And I'm going to just assume he went out and talked to his actual mother and brothers and didn't just blow them off with this comment.

I like this part because it shows Jesus' acceptance towards those who follow him- he even calls them his brother/sister/mother. It's not like we're his servants- we're like actual family. TOTALLY AWESOME!

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So that's all I have to say about Matthew 12:22-50. This passage had some weird things and some cool things. A lot of unanswered questions, so if you have any insights, please tell me in the comments!

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This post is part of a series on the gospel of Matthew.

Previous post: For the Bruised Reeds (Matthew 12:15-21)

Next post: Types of Soil (Matthew 13:1-23)

Click here to go to the beginning of the series.

"You of Little Faith..."

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This week, we're looking at Matthew 8:18-34, in which Jesus tries to dissuade potential disciples, belittles his followers as they panic and fear for their lives, and kills pigs.

Or something like that.

The cost of following Jesus (Matthew 8:18-22)

So in the first section of this week's passage, Jesus responds to two people who are interested in following him. It seems like he wants to discourage them from doing so. That's... odd.

To the first man, Jesus says, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." ("Son of Man" means Jesus, by the way.)

In other words, "Are you sure you want to follow me? You might end up homeless."

I find this a little odd, since just a few chapters ago Jesus was using "the birds of the air" to reassure us that we shouldn't worry about any of our basic needs- God provides food for the birds, so surely he'll provide for you.

The next potential follower tells Jesus, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father," to which Jesus replies, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." I've heard different interpretations of this. Some people say that "let me go and bury my father" didn't mean his father had died- it meant he wanted to live with his father for a while, until his father died (even though that could be years away) and then follow Jesus. Some people say it means his father had just died, and Jesus thinks that taking care of the funeral and everything is ACTUALLY LESS IMPORTANT than following him right away.

Which, ya know, sounds really heartless. Seriously, if this guy's father had just died... This is Exhibit A in "What not to say to a grieving person"...

So I prefer the first explanation, though I don't have the biblical language/culture knowledge to say "this one is the right interpretation."

But the point here is that people should know what they're getting into when they decide to follow Jesus. Which is what, exactly? Leaving their families and jobs. Facing suffering and persecution.

So it brings up this question: What part, if any, should warnings about "the cost of following Jesus" play in evangelism?

Because, the way I see it, following Jesus is hard and requires sacrifice, but it's worth it because you get JESUS. Definitely worth it.

Isn't it a bit strange that in this passage, Jesus only warned about the cost of discipleship, but didn't say anything about the benefits? (Though that may be because Jesus was wildly popular and everyone knew he was doing miracles and everything- everyone already knew the benefits and wanted in on it.)

Jesus calms the storm (Matthew 8:23-27)

Next, we have Jesus and his disciples on a boat in a storm. They freak out and wake him up, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" Then Jesus says, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" and makes the storm shut up.

"You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Umm. I mean, I know this is always taken to be a rhetorical question, meaning "oh how silly of you to be afraid and not trust me" but uh... it has a very obvious answer. "Why are you so afraid?" Maybe because they're in a freakin' LIFE-THREATENING STORM and they could DROWN?

I mean, gosh, Jesus, how did you miss that?

And why, whenever I'm in a bible study about this passage, is the interpretation "oh they should have trusted Jesus and not been afraid"? Trust him for WHAT? To not let them die? Sometimes God lets people die, for stupid reasons. (Ever read the news?)

Apparently the disciples are just supposed to KNOW that Jesus still has things to do so he can't die. They're supposed to know they're all main characters, not red shirts, and they will survive this storm because they've got to appear on every subsequent episode of "The Gospel of Matthew", until Judas gets killed off in part 1 of the season finale.

Really?

A significant number of the disciples were fishermen. I think they would know when a storm is or is not dangerous and life-threatening. And the fact that Jesus had to wake up and calm the storm proves that there actually was danger. I really don't buy the "you of little faith, why are you so afraid?" bit.

And you know what else- they DID have faith. They woke Jesus up and said, "Lord, save us!" They had the faith to think maybe Jesus could do something.

So that remains an open question. Readers, what do you think? Why did Jesus say "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" when the disciples had very valid reasons to be afraid?

And now I want to take this in a slightly different direction: Are there circumstances in my life to which Jesus could say, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" The disciples were afraid for very obvious and (in my opinion) completely valid reasons, but I'm often afraid of much less.

How about when I'm on an airplane? Haha, now that would be a totally legitimate place to say "you of little faith, why are you so afraid?" because there's totally nothing to be afraid of when flying, and yet I feel like the plane's probably about to fall out of the sky.

Seriously, every day, from every airport in the United States, hundreds of planes take off, and ALL OF THEM ARE FINE. And the pilot of whatever plane I'm on has flown hundreds of times before. IT'S FINE. Seriously. Safer than driving, according to the statistics. To have faith in the safety of flying makes sense because that faith is based in a lot of facts.

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What about bigger things in my life? What about every time I think "I can't ____ because what if ____?" and fear stops me from doing what I want to do? When those things I supposedly "can't" do are things I really believe God is calling me to?

I gotta believe that if God ever says, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" then he'll also acknowledge the existence of the storm and help me through it.

The healing of two demon-possessed men (Matthew 8:28-34)

Next, Jesus encountered two "demon-possessed men" who live in the tombs. They started shouting at him- apparently they recognized him as the Son of God and were afraid or ready to fight. Then the demons requested to be sent into a nearby herd of pigs. Jesus gives them permission, and then the demons cause the pigs to all run into a lake and drown. At that point, the people who lived in the town came out and begged Jesus to leave.

So the very obvious question when reading this story is "WTF?"

Demons? Demon-possession? Is that even a real thing?

First of all, if you believe angels exist, then why not demons? So yes, it sounds incredibly weird, but not any weirder than other things that Christians believe.

Also, if demons exist, that doesn't necessarily mean they're the demons sometimes portrayed in pop culture. If we choose to allow the possibility of demons, we should be careful not to start with any baseless assumptions about them- assumptions from movies, books, etc, whether in popular culture or Christian culture.

So I'm going to go ahead and take this story at face value. Demons? Okay then, demons. (But I reserve the right to later change my mind over whether I believe in demons.)

For some reason, this is how I picture a demon. Image source.

All right, so back to this account of Jesus' interaction with the two demon-possessed men. First of all, the demons recognized Jesus, and were afraid he had come to torture them. Interesting.

Next, the demons begged him, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs." Why? Why did they want to go into the pigs?

Jesus okays it, and the demons go into the pigs, and the whole herd of pigs drowns. I assume the demons caused the pigs to run into the water, though there's also the possibility that Jesus did it- like "Haha, I let you go into the pigs, but then I killed the pigs! Joke's on you!" but really, that sort of disregard for life and property doesn't seem like Jesus. So I think the demons killed the pigs.

Which shows how dangerous and evil the demons were. They come over and possess these pigs, and immediately destroy them. Imagine how terrible it must have been for those 2 guys who had all those demons in them, causing destruction, trying to kill everything. Perhaps the drowning of the pigs shows the amount of evil and torture and destruction that Jesus set these guys free from.

Next, the people in charge of the pigs ran and told the town about it, and the people of the town came and begged Jesus to leave. You can't blame them- that whole drowning-pigs thing is frickin' terrifying and creepy.

But doesn't it show that they preferred to live with the violence and danger caused by these two men who lived in the tombs, rather than the (also scary and unpredictable?) power that had set those men free?

Who knows where following Jesus will take you? What if, when he addresses your problems, it's scary and weird? (I guess this goes back to the "counting the cost" bit at the beginning of this passage- this town decided they didn't want anything to do with Jesus. Losing their pigs was too great a cost. And can you really blame them?)

Also, it's worth mentioning that pigs were considered unclean. Jews (you know, like Jesus and the disciples and most of the people in the bible) didn't eat pork. So I'm guessing the town was not a Jewish town.

One more thing to say about this section: Jesus seems to be the only one who has compassion for these two demon-possessed men. The town doesn't come out and say to them, "Oh, you're not insane anymore, Jesus healed you? That's wonderful!" No, instead they want nothing to do with this.

So here's a challenging question: How do you respond when someone works to help those who are seen as annoying or dangerous or beyond help? And how does society treat people who are criminals or disabled or mentally ill? Jesus had compassion on ALL of them, and I bet it was annoying sometimes. Like, these two guys, they were crazy, "so violent that no one could pass that way," according to Matthew.

Of all the people Jesus could stop and be nice to... Really?

But that's Jesus. If he didn't challenge me, if I always read the bible and said "ah yes, that seems reasonable" and moved on with life, then am I really reading the bible or not? As Anne Lamott said, "You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

So if you are a Christian, I hope that you're challenged by what you read in the bible. I hope you come to terms with what it costs to truly follow Jesus. I hope he challenges your fears and your prejudices.

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This post is part of a series on the gospel of Matthew.

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