I don't talk or write much about the Devil. This character doesn't fit into my theology. However, the best description I've encountered of the Devil isn't that he is obviously evil, but that he is counterfeit. He makes a lie seem like the truth. Such a description of the Devil easily explains what happened this year in Maine and last year in Calif. (both anti-gay campaigns were so similar that ads filmed for one were used for the other).
How else might one explain that the Christian religion, based on love and truth, ran campaigns based on hatred and lies? How else to explain how hate has become a virtue and love something scorned? Surely the work of the Devil.
The lies worked because they were wrapped in religion. And Christians wouldn't lie. The Devil is having a good laugh at that one. The lies also worked because it allowed bigotry to be a Christian value.
Those campaigns are just the latest incident if the normalization of lying in many Christian institutions, undermining their legitimacy in the eyes of outsiders. Other incidents are clergy sex scandals and cover-up and a Catholic Church that closes schools and churches yet spends money on anti-gay campaigns.
The best devilish knee-slapper? In the more extreme Fundie churches it is gays who are seen as so evil they must be eliminated so that the country (or maybe the world) can be purified for their version of the End Times scenario. That lets the Devil himself off the hook and free to cause more mischief.
Quite the joke -- told at the expense of gays and all those who believe in a God of love. I think it was Thomas Jefferson who called for a revolution about once a generation. Perhaps this time the revolution needs to be within Christianity -- we need to take back our faith. From a book I was reading today: "You're going against centuries of Christian teaching." "So did Martin Luther."
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