Naming your Demons

Do you believe in Demonic possession? After Orlando, I am starting to think that I do. 
-Kasey

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I know what you mean, Kasey.

As it happens I am currently doing prep work for a Biblical text where Jesus drives many demons out of a man who was suffering from possession, and it's the sort of text that always can be counted on to raise questions for people whose pastors encourage that sort of thing.

The role of demonic possession in the mindset of the church is a fascinating one. With a few notable exceptions, most modern churches (at least as we practice in North America) do not deal much with direct demon possession, and so the possessions we read about in the scripture are often interpreted as well known modern phenomena seen through the lens of an ancient Worldview. The most common I've encountered (and even was guilty of myself) was interpreting the Demons of Bible times as mental illness.

As a quick sidenote, that kind of mindset can be DEVASTATING to people suffering from mental illness, because it often leads to horribly harmful methods employed to deal with the mental illness in question. Preachers are not psychologists. Short version, read the Bible however you like, but encourage those with mental illness to get professional help. Don't ask the pastor to "fix them." If he is willing to, I can promise it won't end well.

Back on topic, facing such a subject in the wake of the Orlando shooting did put the entire concept back on the burner for me, so to speak, and so I have an answer for you, of sorts.

It does not bother me too terribly to think of what happened as something driven by a demonic force, but with one important caveat... if you choose to look at it that way, you need to see that the shooter was not the only one driven in such a way.

More and more stories are coming out of the shooter as a homosexual wracked by guilt and self loathing, driven to do a horrible thing by hatred for others that was born in hatred of himself. You want to call that a demon, I can live with that. But I am seeing that demon, and others like it, all over the place these days.

People claiming that the victims got what they deserved because they were at a gay club. People claiming that this justifies fear and hatred of Muslims. People who don't particularly care because the victims were largely POC.

People driven to say horrible things by something dark inside them, something they don't even recognize within themselves. Something that possesses them.

Most of us on social media are aware of someone or other who strikes us as horrible for one reason or another, and usually there is someone else, often a mutual friend, who will defend them, saying; "Look, what he said was horrible, but he is a great guy if you know him, would do anything for a friend..."

We seem beset by people who are, if you know them, good people, but capable of great acts of fear and hatred at even the slightest provocation.

Call it demonic possession if you wish, or just evil. Call it human nature if you tend towards pessimism. Call it a form of mental illness in the worst cases if you must. But what is important here is not that you see it in others and shake your head and sigh.

Because often we want to call something demonic in order to absolve ourselves of it. If someone was driven by horrible evil, then we who are NOT horribly evil, could never be capable of it. But that isn't how demons work. If the Orlando shooter was driven by demons, those same demons could drive you, and, I would argue, possibly already do. So we can't just wash our hands of such forces, regardless of how we classify them.

Instead, recognize how those same demons are at work inside of you. Name your demons, be they homophobia, sexism, racism, classism, ableism, whatever forms those dark entities of fear and hate can take. Confront them, and try to defeat them. If you don't eventually the person hurting others in a way you can't even imagine... will be you.