Stop Fleeing Evil and Pursue Good Instead

I think that the Christians who make these lists must be the descendants of the “Foot-Washing Baptists” mentioned in To Kill A Mockingbird, who think that everything that gives pleasure is sin.  They are either completely allergic to fun of any kind, or have an alarmingly monomaniacal view of the forms of licit fun. Either you have to avoid video games altogether, or you can only play the alarming Wisdom Tree video games about which I’ve already ranted. You shouldn’t read anything except Bibles and tracts, or else you’re allowed to read a slim selection of fiction 98% of which was written by Hilda Stahl and Frank Peretti  (Peretti is not all that bad, to be fair). We will sit around singing only the worst Vacation Bible School hymns, or else we will allow you to listen to “Christian Rock” which we take on trust is free from backmasking. Fun is automatically suspect unless it has been baptized, because fun makes you feel free, and you mustn’t be free.

You mustn’t be free, the unconscious reasoning goes, because when you’re free you’re unafraid, and there are so many things to be afraid of. The devil is around every corner. God may have saved us, once upon a time, but afterwards he abandoned us in a maze of dangers on a planet overrun by demons. You have to be hypervigilant or else you’ll be caught. That seems to be the creed of this particular type of Christian. I’ve met many Protestants like this, but it’s certainly a heresy fallen into by many Catholics– Charismatic Catholics, traditionalist Catholics, Catholics of all kinds. If it’s fun, if it’s different, if it makes you feel good, it’s suspect. We’re supposed to avoid evil and evil is everywhere, so better to avoid anything fun. Don’t watch television except for boring things. Don’t read fantasy or science fiction. Wear home-sewn prairie dresses and homeschool your children, not because you like dresses or think homeschooling is a good choice, but because you have to withdraw from the world. Make your home a cloister, a bunker. Flee evil. Hide from evil. Flee and hide from everything that looks like it might be evil. Flee from things that aren’t really evil but sound like evil. See, hear, speak no evil. Jump into bed, pull up the covers, squeeze your eyes shut and maybe you won’t fall prey to evil.

I have found a more excellent way.

Evil is privation. Evil is, at its very heart, a void. It’s a lack of a thing that should be there. If you go around searching for voids you shouldn’t fall into, you’ll never see the paths you ought to walk. Instead of constantly searching for new evils to avoid, we as Christians ought to set ourselves to look for the good we ought to do. Look for the things that exist. Seek the good, and celebrate it. Stop making lists of things you mustn’t do, to avoid demonic possession. Demons are the creatures who have permanently chosen to flee the good. They are the only things which don’t abhor a vacuum. If they find a void in someone, they may take up residence there and make the void worse. Don’t avoid demons, fill voids. Fill uncharity with charity. Fill artificial stuffiness with the joy of the Lord. Fill prideful stoicism with genuine tears. Fill fear with trust. Fill superstitious lack of faith with undying faith.

Never flee from evil again. Pursue good instead.

Let’s never again waste time making a list of silly random words which might make us possessed. Let’s make a list of the things we ought to actively do, instead. Fortunately, such a list has already been made for us: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”

Think about such things.

Such things are infinite, after all. If you preoccupy your mind with them, you’ll never have a moment to think about whether a certain practice might make you possessed– but if you think about these things and follow them with your whole heart, you won’t have a moment to perform a truly sinful or dangerous act anyway.

This, I think, is what Christians ought to do. I’m not good at it, but I see it as right, and I try.

Love is so much better than avoidance.