No Voices! No Demons in the Garden!

In the opening chapter of the book of Job, God sees that Satan has shown up, and asks him where he has been. "I have been going to and fro on the earth," Satan said, "and walking up and down in it."

I don't know, with certainty, that the people who first told that story literally believed that Satan had been walking up and down in it, but I should not be surprised. What does surprise me is that there still are people who believe that Satan is an evil being, going to and fro on the earth; that is to say, people who do not mean that Satan is a metaphor for evil, or wickedness. They mean that a very evil being is prowling in the garden of politics.

Satan is part of an ancient worldview. God was up in heaven, with angels and gospel choirs. Satan, a very clever fallen angel, or something, was the master of a lower realm, under the earth, with his own entourage of evil critters: imps and minor-league devils. We humans lived on earth, apparently bound, finally, either to ascend through the air up to God, or to spend the rest of eternity in Hell, with Satan. Apparently, even God agreed that an eternity in Hell was good enough for some of us. Angels counseled good behavior, and Satan walked up and down on earth, cruising for victims.

There are people who still live there! Some of them want to become President!

Here is the problem: it is very difficult to move out of that world and take just some of the furniture with you. If you say that Satan is just a metaphor for great evil, then what is Hell a metaphor of? Is God a metaphor, too? Is heaven just a metaphor, too, for goodness of something like that? So what many people try to do is just to live in that ancient worldview part-time; on Sunday, maybe, and during funerals. The rest of the time they take an airplane, or an antibiotic.

But when people start talking like politicians, and suggest that The End Time is near, or that Satan is in the White House, going to and fro and walking up and down in it, we are hearing something akin to madness: pure, certifiable, dangerous madness! Do we want someone like that dealing with Iran, or Russia, or Syria? Do we want a leftover Neanderthal to design a health care program, or to legislate a proper role for women, created from leftover ribs?

We should insist, not only that school teachers can read and write and understand math, but that anyone who wants to become President has to live right here, in the Twenty-First century, and have gone to a school with science classes.

And I think they should promise that they do not hear voices! Except maybe of leprechauns.

Comments

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