Judgment

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’⁴⁰And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’⁴⁴Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’⁴⁵Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Any questions?

Evil III

Part 3.

I met another person who would have been considered a personification of evil by many: John Wayne Gacy.

Gacy lived from about 1964 to 1968 in Waterloo, Iowa. A face people saw was that of a pleasant, hard-working, affable fellow, a man whose in-laws owned a group of Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises. Gacy worked at one of them, and showed promise as one who could own franchises himself one day. But, there was always the dark cloud. Toward the end of his time in Waterloo word had begun to spread that Gacy had unconventional sexual preferences. He had made passes at some of the adolescent boys that worked for him. In the spring of 1968 he was convicted of brutally raping a teenage boy. The sentence was ten years, but he was paroled in 1970, and he returned to his birthplace, Chicago. A few months after he arrived in Chicago he and his family purchased a house: a two-bedroom ranch with a crawl space. It was just outside the Chicago city limits.

By 1972 visitors to Gacy's home noticed a terrible odor. Gacy explained the odor as being from moisture accumulating in the crawl space.

No, that wasn't it.

Through 1976 - 1977 - 1978 young men disappeared, and the authorities could not pick up any trail for them. Police eventually focused on Gacy's house because the mother of the last victim remembered the construction firm at which her son had applied for work. They went to his home for the first time on December 13, 1978. They found several items that had belonged to the victims. They noticed that horrible odor. They looked in the crawl space, and found nothing. In a subsequent visit investigators noticed, in the crawl space, a mound of dirt. They dug, and found human remains. That same evening the Cook County Medical Examiner was called to the home. He recognized the stench immediately. It was the smell of death. By the end of the month 27 bodies had been found buried under the crawl space. There were others - two in the concrete of Gacy's patio, two in the Illinois River, one buried under Gacy's rec room. Poor fellow had run out of room in the crawl space, I guess.

Thirty-three in all.

I saw John Wayne Gacy briefly after he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. I was a correctional officer at the Joliet Correctional Center. I was on the tactical unit, and was taking some training in Springfield. Death Row was at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois, just down the river from St. Louis. We toured death row. Gacy was helping with some painting, so he wasn't quite as locked down as the other inmates.

I've met three famous people in my life, and two of them were serial killers. About those people I hang out with. . .

What convinced Arthur Gary Bishop and John Wayne Gacy that other people saw themselves as things to gratify Gacy/Bishop? What persuaded them that other people don't want to live? Or, what made that idea such a matter of indifference to them?

In the prior blog posts we addressed the idea of societal pressures, and maybe that partly explains the Nazi phenomenon. But, let's not forget that those who worked at the camps made a choice to do so. Even if they made the choice with a pistol pointed at their heads, they still made a choice.

We talked a bit about evil personified  - Satan, the devil, etc. But, like societal pressure, this being, even if you accept his existence, can't force you to do something that isn't in your nature to do. Notice how much luck Satan didn't have with Job and Jesus.

What, then?

A couple of thoughts.

When forensic psychologists talk about serial killers, they talk about murder as giving these people a high. Once a killer has killed, it gives him a high that nothing else can match. It sounds almost like addiction. One prism useful to folks who work with addiction is to categorize addictions into substance addictions and process addictions. Substance addictions are the better known: addiction to alcohol, crack, tobacco, meth, and others. Process addictions are addictions to things you do, rather than things you use. To use an example, as good as exercise is as a habit, it is bad if it turns into an addiction.

For Gacy and Bishop, could murder have been the ultimate process addiction?

Gerald May, a noted author on the subject of addiction, published a book entitled Addiction and Grace. His position is that the opposite of addiction is grace. If you absent grace from your life, some form of addiction is inevitable. I think May is worth paying attention to, although I'm not on board with all he has to say.

I think this note is long enough, but I do want to follow up another time with a concept that I think may be the most relevant to discussion of evil and its origins: C.G. Jung and the concept of the shadow personality.

Thanks for hanging out. As always, I'd love your thoughts.

Evil II

It has been common to attribute evil to some supernatural force. In the western monotheist religions we envision a personification of radical evil. Satan, the devil, Beelzebub, Lucifer. This being is referred to  in the Hebrew Scriptures as well as by Jesus, so if pressed about the existence of a devil, my response will be something like, "If it'll make you happy to have me affirm that, I will. But, we do have bigger and better fish to fry, no?" I happen to think there's plenty in human nature to create the evil we see.

From the Chicago Tribune, October 28, 2011:

Miguel Renteria broke a knife in the chest of his 18-year-old daughter during a struggle in his Skokie apartment this week, then pushed his elbow into her throat until she stopped moving. . .Renteria's crying 2-year-old granddaughter hit him with a toy, and Renteria stabbed the toddler 10 times in the abdomen with another knife. . ."While the knife was in her little heart, he made the sign of the cross."

The devil shows up in The Book of Genesis, in the Garden of Eden. The devil is a central character in the opening chapters of The Book of Job. I find it interesting that, in the original Hebrew in Job, the definite article is used: not Satan, but THE satan - the tempter. Satan as prosecuting attorney. That theme - Satan as prosecutor - is the dominant theme when Jesus speaks of Satan. When Satan directly tempts Jesus - let these stones become bread, throw yourself down from the parapet of the temple, you can have all the kingdoms of the world - it is, in part, a means by which we see the stuff of which Jesus was made.

A second theme that emerges is that Satan's temptations inevitably fail if the temptation presented is something that was not inside the temptee in the first place. The temptation to Adam and Eve? I'm thinking, although Scripture is silent on this, that they had been wondering about that tree and its fruit for some time, so when the serpent tempted, they were ready. And then, Adam, when confronted by God, gave in to the second temptation: Blame it on the woman! Blame it on SOMEone else - anyone else. Even blame it on God: The woman YOU gave me tempted me. . .Satan's tempting worked, because the urge to taste the fruit - and the urge to drop their reliance on God in favor of the illusion of independence - was inside them to start with.

Job? The temptation was the temptation to curse God. Great to worship and give thanks when you're the richest person in the land. When things go terribly, inexplicably wrong, curse God and die. The problem for the satan: that urge was not in Job. Satan's temptation was a FAIL. Not that Job didn't complain - he did plenty of that - but he never gave in to the urge to curse God. Satan did fulfill his role: we found out what Job was made of.

Jesus? Satan's temptations were an EPIC FAIL - even the offer of all the kingdoms of the world would not deter Jesus from his mission. Again, Satan could not tempt anyone to do anything that wasn't in their nature.

So we're back to human nature. Something within human nature, something that we seem hesitant to even mention these days - sin. Sin, not as action, but as something that is with us from the womb. The Greek term is Ha marteia - literally, "missing the mark."

I have known personally some people that have given in to that part of their nature. Trust me, that's not bragging.

I used to be Mormon (more properly, Latter-day Saint, or LDS.) No, the LDS faith is not - repeat, NOT - part of my thinking about evil. I had my reasons for leaving, but I still think very highly of most of the people that are LDS. Most of my family is LDS. Besides, I have never been on a "Let's bash the Mormons!" kick, and I have no intention to start now. This paragraph was to set up the following story.

I served a mission in the Philippines. I arrived in Manila in December, 1972, and went to my first assignment, in a couple of towns called Cainta and Taytay, in suburban Manila. My first missionary companion was an Elder from Oregon. My second was a bookish young fellow - glasses, round face, a little shorter than I was. He'd worked as a bookkeeper, and he'd been an Eagle Scout. He intended to further his education and become an accountant. His name? Elder Bishop. He went by what I thought was his first name, Gary, but I found out that Gary was his middle name. Arthur was his first name.

Arthur Gary Bishop. Name ring a bell to anyone in the mountain west region?

Elder Bishop and I became companions in February, 1973, and remained together until April, when I moved on to my next assignment, in Iloilo. We were never in touch after that - we shared a very pronounced trait in that we were both friendly enough, but hard to get close to.

Imagine my surprise when I read in a newspaper that the state of Utah had executed one Arthur Gary Bishop by lethal injection on June 10, 1988. I searched the article - this couldn't be the Elder Bishop I'd known, could it? But - Eagle Scout, served an LDS mission in the Philippines, bookkeeper (who'd had an earlier conviction for embezzlement - didn't see THAT coming.) Besides, how many Arthur Gary Bishops could there be in the state of Utah?

Yep. Same guy.

I'd lived for two months with a man who was hiding a monster inside. He was executed for torturing, sexually assaulting, and murdering young boys. Four, by one count. The ages were between 4 and 11. I was in no danger; I was bigger than he was and well able to take care of myself. I wasn't his meat.

What brought that murdering monster out of Arthur Gary Bishop?

Next post: consideration of the role of addiction in the evolution of evil.

Thanks for hanging out for a few. I'd love your thoughts.

The problem of evil. Part 1.

Whence evil?

I don’t know if there are many parents who read this blog and share it with their kids. Heck, I don’t know if there are many people who read this blog at all. But –

PARENTAL ADVISORY: The following contains material that is graphic, and may not be for all stomachs. Probably want to keep the kids away from this one.

Before Halloween a friend and former colleague posed a question on Facebook: What was the scariest horror move? My response was that I have never really been frightened much by horror movies. I just can’t suspend disbelief to the degree required, so I watch the goriest scenes thinking, “Gee – nice special effects. I wonder how they did that!” The second thought followed: Real life offers horrors enough. Who needs a movie? Schindler’s List was a truly terrifying move because its basis was reality, and because, if we were paying attention, it says something about all of us, not just the Nazis in World War II Germany. Any time one group of people is given absolute, unfettered control over any other group of human beings, there will be those who abuse the power, and may not even be aware that they are abusing both people and power.

Elie Wiesel was a Jew who lived in Romania before the War. He was a teenager when the Nazis invaded. He and his family were sent to the camps. Elie survived and wrote a book about the experience, Night. It’s a small book – my edition is 109 pages long. If you haven’t read it yet, go get a copy and read it. You can read it easily in one evening. You may sleep with difficulty that night.

Scenes that stand out in memory: Wiesel describes the hanging of a boy. There were three gallows set up on the occasion; adults were hanged on either side of the boy. The hangings occurred with all the inmates of the camp assembled. When the assembly was dismissed the adults were already dead. Their bodies had sufficient bulk so that the rope applied enough pressure to finish the job fairly quickly. The inmates all had to file past the gallows, all had to look the victims in the face. They were making an example of them, you see – corpse as object lesson.

The boy was not yet dead as the inmates filed past. For upwards of thirty minutes he hung there, in the agony of his struggle against death. And the voice of one of the inmates asked a question that has, ever since, haunted those who were there: “God, where ARE you?” And the answer that came to Wiesel internally: “Where is he? Here He is – He is hanging here on this gallows. . .”

Later, Wiesel’s father fell ill. In the Nazi camps, that was usually a fatal mistake. Why would the camp officials want to feed someone who could do no work? Wiesel’s father was not sent to the crematorium, as so many were. He was allowed to endure the pain of his slow death. On the night of January 28, 1945, Wiesel slept in a bunk right above his father. On the morning of January 29, 1945, when Wiesel awoke there was another inmate in the bunk where his father had been. Thus did this teenager learn that his father had died.

After the liberation of the camps, Wiesel relates:

One day I was able to get up, after gathering all my strength. I wanted to see myself in the mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto.

From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me.

The look in his eyes, as he stared into mine, has never left me.

It would be so easy to attribute the horrors of the Holocaust to the insanity of individuals. A striking thing, though: When the monsters that created all of this were examined later, many were observed to be completely sane. Just folks that lived In and adjusted to the society they lived in. Thomas Merton wrote an essay about Adolph Eichmann that presented this information. Folks would do their day at work in the camp, then go home to their families.

I think I’m doing more than one post about evil and its origins. It’s such an involved subject! But I do think that one area worth considering as a source of evil is societal. German culture had a history of anti-Semitism that long predated Hitler. Martin Luther, when he argued against the overabundance of religious rules and regulations, wrote publications inviting Jews to join his branch of Christianity. Look – none of those silly Catholic laws and rituals! Luther overlooked something: Jews were not not leaving  Judaism just because Catholicism wasn’t appealing; they weren’t just waiting for a new Christianity in order to become Christian. No – Jews were remaining Jews because that was the faith of their ancestors, and because they liked being Jews. When Luther realized that, he published tracts that included some of the most vituperative anti-Semitic material imaginable.

Anti-Semitism ran deep in German culture. Hitler didn’t invent this; he tapped into something that had been there for a long time. Thus, society as a source of evil.

I’ll be revisiting this topic, sources of evil. Hope you accompany me.

I’d love your thoughts.

Political observations. . .

. . .from where I sit, anyway.

The only campaign for candidates for President is on the Republican side since President Obama has no primary opposition. So,the Republican side is where my observations center, for whatever they're worth.

A note on that "whatever they're worth" comment (full disclosure): I am a Democrat, and I will be voting for Obama again. Some would take that as an indicator that my thoughts may not be worth a lot. Fair enough. You should also be aware that I place the same sort of importance on your thoughts about Obama that you place on mine about the Republicans. Since we all know that neither side is going to convince the other, let's all relax and enjoy the ride.

So, the candidates (alphabetically) (approximately):

BACHMANN: She comes off as, not only an idealogue, but a something of a ditz. That's not entirely fair to her; news reports indicate that she's actually quite bright. (The idealogue thing stands.) Her problem is, she misses details. She reads something, has a firm grasp of maybe 90% of it, which is far better than most of us do, but she completely ignores the other 10%, and it's that other 10% that contains the detail that would change the whole meaning of what she read. Thus, she gave a shout-out for Elvis Presley's birthday - on the anniversary date of his death.  That thing about Waterloo, Iowa being John Wayne's home town? Uh, no - Waterloo was the home town of John Wayne GACY, a serial killer. John Wayne the actor was also from Iowa - Winterset, Iowa. That thing about the Founding Fathers not resting until slavery was eradicated? Never mind - that was pure ditz. Many of the Founders were slave owners, and not interested in removing the institution.

BTW, I met John Wayne Gacy once. He was on death row at the Menard Correctional Center, near Chester, Illinois, just outside of St. Louis. I was a correctional officer, working in Joliet but on a tour of death row. I took a long, hot shower afterward.

Bachmann was the flavor-of-the-month at the time of the Iowa Straw Poll. I think she'll be little more than that. Fading fast.

CAIN: The current flavor of the month. His 9-9-9 plan has the beauty of simplicity. But, talk about the devil being in the details. One of the 9's is a national sales tax. There is not any national sales tax at this time. Iowa, my state, has a state sales tax of 6%.  A 9% sales tax, in addition to our 6% state sales tax, means that if you purchase, say, a frying pan, you'll be paying 15% tax on the purchase. And this is Cain's idea of how to rev the economy? Get people to buy more stuff? Seriously? A sales tax is the most regressive form of taxation in that its impact on low-income families is far greater, as a percentage of income, than its impact on high-income people. Cain is now backing off, and presenting a "9-0-9" tax low low-income people. That's supposed to be an improvement? News flash, Herman: many low income people, because of current tax codes, are already at 0% effective income tax. So, you move their income tax from zero to zero, and slap on a 9% national sales tax.

Seriously??

Rick Perry nailed Cain on this weakness in "9-9-9": "You're going to go to a state like New Hampshire, which has no sales tax at all, and you're fixing to give 'em one?"

Cain's answer to the issue of states already having a sales tax? "State sales tax don't count." I'm sorry, Herman - say again? That state sales tax comes out of my pocket, Herman - it damn well BETTER count!

Cain's answer to "How do you get this through Congress"? "I'm not worried about Congress." Really? You need a tax change as radical as this, and you aren't worried about Congress? Hint, Herman: you should worry about Congress. 9-9-9 or 9-0-9 doesn't do anything until Congress passes it. And if the Republican Congress has had its fun dragging their feet and the President through the mud - just you wait. Memories are long. Loooonnnnggggg.

Cain's got another issue. He claims to be stauncly pro-life, but some of the social conservatives have detected a softness in his position. He has come out and said, "No abortions. No exceptions." C'mon man - even my Roman Catholic Church doesn't go that far.

In a sense, that really doesn't matter. No Republican candidate - no prominent Republican at all, as far as I know - not one - could consider himself/herself pro-life, as the Catholic Church refers to pro-life. They're not within a mile of it. Unfortunately, most Democrats are no better. So, "Vote for the pro-life candidate"? OK - show me one. Just one.

This is long enough for today. We'll revisit. As always, love your thoughts, reactions, reflections. Yes, you can be a friend of mine - a great friend, a dear friend - and disagree with me. I'm cool with that.

Thanks for hanging out for a few!

writers' block

I just had a little exchange with a good friend and former co-worker, Ravis. Ravis does some writing; she';s currently working on a children's book. We exchanged a little about writers' block. I've had the issue with my blog - writers' block complete with a moat, gators and a squad of Marines.

I am convinced that the only way to get past writers' block is to just write. So, y'all are in on my big effort to defeat this case of writers' block.

Write, write, write. . .

Tomorrow night is our Parish Council Meeting. I'm the President of the Parish Council for St. Mary's Parish in Davenport. I'm also the Lector at the 5 PM Saturday Mass in April, July, and Octob. . .zzz. . .zzz. Well, I'm excited to do it.

Write, write, write. . .

About three weeks ago I drove to Des Moines and stayed for three days. The occasion was the 2011 Annual Convention of the Iowa chapter of thr American Insitute of Architects. The convention itself was a half-day of set-up and a day and a half of not much, but I enjoyed the company of those who staffed the booth with me, there was a free lunch - although, even now, I'm not quite sure what it was - and we had a dinner at a French sort of place. They had "potatoes dauphinoise". While the waitress took our order I mentioned that I'd try that dish just to find out what "potatoes dauphinoise" are. The waitress asked, "Would you like me to tell you, or do you want a surprise?" I took the surprise. They weren't bad. Think of a cross between hash browns and potatoes au gratin, and you'll haved it about right.

While driving across the state I thought often about what a beautiful state Iowa is. Those who are not from around here tend to think of Iowa as a sort of Kansas North, but we're nothing like that. Kansas is a flat as any musical key could be. Those who've ridden in the annual bike ride across Iowa will tell you, Iowa is not flat. Iowa is rolling country. There were lots of trees and the landscape was mostly green, but there was the occasional splash of golden yellow to let you know that the change of seasons was coming. And I found myself wondering, or hoping - hoping Iowans know how blessed they are in their state, in their country.

On I-80, on the way from Davenport to Des Moines, you will encounter the North Skunk River and the South Skunk River. Besides the question of why anyone would name something so marvelous as a river after a skunk (and what any Westerner thinks of as a river, any Iowan or Missourian would think of as a crick), one is left to wonder: How did they tell a North Skunk from a South Skunk? Was it the blue and gray coats?

Write. . .write. . .write. . .

There's nothing like good writing. And that was nothing like good writing. (That was a joke.)

Well, 'nuff for now of my effort to overcome the block. I love having you hang out for a few.

Faith Formation. Meri.

I'm not a cradle Catholic. I came to the faith as an adult. In 1992 I started to explore the idea of becoming Catholic, and what I found was a faith that spoke to both intellect and emotion as no other version of the faith had done.

The process of my becoming Catholic was greatly accelerated in late summer of that year, when I was advised by my doctors that I needed to have open heart surgery. I had to have an artificial aortic valve. This prompted me and my family and our parish priest at the Church of the Nativity in Dubuque to think that maybe we should not wait until the next year's Easter Vigil for my receiving the Sacraments of Initiation and joining the worldwide fellowship that is the Roman Catholic Church. So, in one day, September 26, 1992, I was baptized, I was confirmed, I was given the blessing of the sick, and I received my first Eucharist. That's pretty fast work; I received four of our seven Sacraments in one afternoon. I couldn't have received the other three. We were already married, so I couldn't do that again; I couldn't receive Holy Orders, because I was already married; there probably wouldn't have been much point in Reconciliation, because I was baptized just after noon, and what could I have done between then and the 4:30 Mass? Heck, what would I have had time to do?

I joined the Roman Catholic Church, and I have not looked back. I have not regretted it for a moment; I find enormous joy in my faith. Now, I attend Mass weekly; I am a lector at the 5 PM Mass at St. Mary's in Davenport in April, July and October; I am a eucharistic minister for the same Mass in May and November. I pray daily. I am loving it.

One memory from the early years: a rather unforgettable mass reconciliation service. One of our kids wore a Coed Naked Basketball t-shirt. She was wearing a jacket to the church, so we didn't know about the t-shirt until we got inside and she took that jacket off. Then it was, "Young lady, PUT THAT JACKET BACK ON and keep it on!"

At such a reconciliation service there are opening prayers and songs, then people go to a priest to make confession. The priests are scattered about the sanctuary; the space is open enough so that it's private, but it's not in a confessional, as such. One of our other daughters - our special needs daughter - went to one of the priests and started her confession. The priest kept looking over at us, which led us to wonder. . .Turns out that our daughter had confessed our sins. At least, our sins as she saw them. Harrrumph.

Time marches on, all too fast. Now, most of those kids have had kids, and Cindy and I are grandparents to ten. Tomorrow, one of those ten will be attending her first religious ed class, and I think she's pretty serious about finding her faith, learning about Our Lord, and joining the Church.

Meri is ten. She's a fifth-grader in the Bettendorf School System. She has a little brother, Logan, who is seven and who lives to push Meri's buttons. Meri is very tall for a fifth-grader; although she's ten, she is already over my shoulder. Brownish-blond hair, green eyes. People who see us together see the family resemblance immediately. There is nothing bashful about this girl.

Meri and her brother have been through a series of shocks over the past year that I don't want to get into here, except to say that too many other kids have been seriously damaged by similar events. Meri and Logan have had a solid rock and good support from their mom and from their grandparents. And, she has learned that part of what makes Grandma and Grandpa the people we are is that our lives are built around our faith. She couldn't articulate all of that just yet, but she does know that this is something she wants to find. So, tomorrow she'll be at the 9 AM Mass with us, and there will be a short ceremony - prayers and blessings - for the kids in Religious Ed, and for their teachers - then Meri will continue to learn, to find a new way to grow, and - who knows? - maybe at the next Easter Vigil she'll become a fully communicant member.

And I pray for our grandkids like I have prayed for no one before.

Thanks for hanging out for a few. Love your reactions.