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<\/a><\/p>\nMornings are hard. I think my medicine gets low. Placing one foot in front of the other, I pushed toward the bathroom and took a pill. Immediately, I start feeling better. I always take the pill before I see my kids.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though I speak on many panels, I was nervous about this one. Often, I find it difficult to talk about suffering from Bipolar Disorder in public. People can be very nasty. Regardless, I pushed ahead. The church is a long drive from our house. I was thinking the entire way. When I arrived, I was thankful for the encouraging embrace of a dear friend. Before I knew it, the panel commenced.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in evil personified.\u201d Everyone in the room jumped a bit. While describing my experiences serving as a mental health chaplain in Fort Worth, I stumbled into a description of my belief in the personification of evil. Throughout the panel, I succinctly described what it was like to be a Christian suffering from Bipolar Disorder. Now, I was tasked with talking further about possession.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When people kept asking about my suspicions with regard to mental illness or possession in a number of mass shootings, I replied that we don\u2019t always know what\u2019s going on inside someone. Whatever these killers are suffering from, we know they\u2019re sick. Jesus said, \u201cI was sick and you visited me.\u201d Looking into the audience, I asked, \u201cHow many times have you visited these sickest amongst us?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A lady ran up to me after the panel and declared, \u201cI think that Dylann Roof is pure evil.\u201d Immediately, I replied, \u201cWell if you think he is that sick, I guess all of us who love Jesus should run toward him as fast as we can.\u201d The greater the sickness\u2026the greater our love response should be.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead of trying to explain acts of evil, maybe we should just start running toward the perpetrator.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Jesus does.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amen.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mornings are hard. I think my medicine gets low. Placing one foot in front of the other, I pushed toward the bathroom and took a pill. Immediately, I start feeling better. I always take the pill before I see my kids. \u00a0 Though I speak on many panels, I was nervous about this one. Often, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2509,"featured_media":3494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[1022,1123,1124,1810,2243,2731,3061,3201,3202,3203],"class_list":["post-3493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freshwritings","category-thoughts","tag-dylann-roof","tag-evil","tag-evil-personified","tag-jesus","tag-mental-illness","tag-possession","tag-running-toward-evil","tag-sick","tag-sickest","tag-sickness"],"yoast_head":"\n
Running Toward Evil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mornings are hard. I think my medicine gets low. Placing one foot in front of the other, I pushed toward the bathroom and took a pill. Immediately, I\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeffhood\/running-toward-evil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Running Toward Evil\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mornings are hard. I think my medicine gets low. Placing one foot in front of the other, I pushed toward the bathroom and took a pill. Immediately, I\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeffhood\/running-toward-evil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jeff Hood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-24T05:13:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff Hood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff Hood\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeffhood\/running-toward-evil\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeffhood\/running-toward-evil\/\",\"name\":\"Running Toward Evil\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeffhood\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-24T05:13:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-24T05:13:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jeffhood\/#\/schema\/person\/7520c1e5a6c2879d78536396c58007de\"},\"description\":\"Mornings are hard. 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Dr. Jeff Hood is a Catholic priest (Old Catholic), theologian, and nationally recognized activist based in North Little Rock, Arkansas. A spiritual advisor to death row inmates across the country, Dr. Hood has accompanied more people to their executions than any other advisor in the U.S., including the first-ever nitrogen hypoxia execution in 2024. His work sits at the intersection of justice, radical compassion, and public theology. Dr. Hood holds advanced degrees from Auburn, Emory, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, University of Alabama, Creighton, and Brite Divinity School, among others. He also earned a PhD in metaphysical theology and founded The New Theology School, where he serves as Dean and Professor of Prophetic Theology. Author of over 100 books\u2014including the award-winning The Courage to Be Queer\u2014Dr. Hood\u2019s writings and activism have been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, CNN, and more. 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