Remember the TV comedian Flip Wilson, who popularized, "The devil made me do it."?
Does anyone believe in the devil anymore?
Phil Zuckerman doesn't. Phil is a professor of sociology who gets to write articles for Psychology Today. One of those is titled, "The Devil? Seriously? How can people believe the manifestly absurd?"
In his 1,182 word snark he writes that 57 percent of American adults believe in the devil. He admits that because otherwise he would have no one to ridicule.
Among those who believe in the devil is Jordan Boyd, a writer for The Federalist, who comments on the recent shooting at an Allen, Texas, outlet mall that left eight dead and at least seven others wounded:
For Christians, the deaths of eight legally innocent people are a grave reminder that, as Ephesians 6:12 states, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
Deranged and demonic people doing deranged and demonic acts are something Christians are warned to expect in a world controlled by evil. Moments of apparent hopelessness like this one are soothed by the promise of an eternal end to death, suffering, and mourning. The fact that God himself plans to wipe away our tears brings a certain kind of peace to worried and weary souls.
For the ruling class, however, shootings like this one are terrifying because they are an enigma. In a desperate plea to satiate their endless hopelessness, leftists try to blame life’s trials and tribulations on what they claim to be the biggest problems society has to offer. Leftists continually invoke sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and other labels to interpret adversity.
Without a devil we're at a loss to explain an abortion doctor who said he would hear squeaking noises from born alive babies, and his first instinct was to suffocate them so the mom wouldn't suffer.
Without a devil, how do we explain that United Nations officially declaring, "sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual."
Without a devil, how do we explain our government pending $350,000 translating a LGBTQ dictionary, with fun words like "anal fisting," into Spanish.
I'm sure Phil Zuckerman would have an answer. After all he is a professor of secular studies at Pitzer College, which celebrates cultural diversity and intercultural understanding. It will set you back $80,432 a year, but that's a small price for all that celebration. The blog Phil writes for Psychology Today, "The Secular Life," explores such matters as "What Religion Gets Wrong About Masturbation," "Is Sex Sinful? and "Can Prayer Be Harmful?"
So the lines are drawn. On one side we have Jordan, who -- I'm just guessing here -- probably goes to church. On the other side we have Phil, who -- I'm just guessing here -- probably goes to faculty meetings.
I think I'll side with Flip, Jordan and the majority of the American people.