Softened by evil

(This replaces a previous post. I didn't see enough traffic to that, so I thought a more 'eye catching' title might get people reading about this man who has something to say that we should all hear. It’s a good deal more important than what the Presiding Bishop of TEC has to say in her video. The new title comes from a line you can just hear at the beginning of the second video, "You don't get hardened, you actually get softened by doing this." To understand the 'this', you need to play the rest.)

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Looking for something else on YouTube, I came across this documentary about Afghanistan featuring the Australian painter and documentary film-maker, George Gittoes, whose painting The Preacher features on the cover of my book Revelation Unwrapped. Be warned, it is quite hard to watch.

Shortly before the book was published (initially by me paying for its printing and distribution) I saw a black-and-white version of The Preacher in the Sydney Diocesan newspaper, Southern Cross, after it had won a prize for religious art. It was based on a photo George took during the Kibeho massacre in Rwanda (see here for an account), and it showed a man in a distinctive yellow jacket whom George saw preaching hope to those facing death.

I knew it was ideal for the book, but I also knew we couldn’t pay much for the rights to use it, so I asked a friend in Australia to write and ask (a) whether he’d let us use it, and (b) what he would charge. The answers were (a) yes — provided he could see the cover first — and (b) nothing. Since then, the book has sold several thousand copies, but George not only let us use the picture for nothing, he lent us several other pictures and came along with his artist friends to the book launch at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney (where he called me a crazy Pom).

I found George Gittoes to be one of the most fascinating — and scarey — people I’ve come across. He is a deeply spiritual man. In an earlier documentary for ABC he said words to the effect that if you work for God you wouldn’t earn much — you’d have a great time, but there was no money in it. At the same time, this is a man who has seen more death and destruction than most of us could imagine existed, let alone cope with. You need to watch this video below. The phrase “That’s what they’ll kill you for ... they want to kill the judgement in your eyes,” has got to be one of the most profound things you’ll ever hear. Try to turn up the beginning and listening to that as well.

George is a man doing something astonishing, combining art, faith and passionate commitment. He deserves more attention, but there aren’t many of his paintings you’d ever be able to hang on your walls. (I do wish he’d get his hair cut again, though.)

If I were to sum up what I think George’s art expresses, it is that where the human spirit meets true evil then people either turn into demons or become Christ-like. The terrible reality, though, is that any of us could go either way.

John Richardson
2 August 2009

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The Devil's work

Tomorrow night I’m resuming a sermon series we’ve been doing on Revelation, picking up at chapter 8. So far, so straightforward, but next week it is chapter 9, and here we get into the whole area of devils and demons.

Now I’ve never had any trouble believing in the Devil, nor do I have any trouble with the idea of demons generally. In fact, on one or two occasions in my mininstry, I’ve found myself in situations where it has been reasonable to suppose that some kind of ‘personal’, but malevolent, spiritual influence has been at work.

My question, in the light of Revelation 9, is not “Do the Devil and demons exist?” Rather, it is, “What influence should we ascribe to them, and how should this enter into our thinking about mission and ministry?”

I am reminded of the two cautions given by CS Lewis in The Screwtape Letters, one that we should make too much of the devil, the other that we should make too little. Some time ago, I think I was really falling into the first error. Tonight, I find myself wondering if I, along with most of my Christian brothers and sisters, have been making far too little.

This was prompted partly by reading an online article by Matthew Parris, extolling the virtues of suicide, partly by reading and reflecting on the ‘Christian’ blogs. To take the latter first, I put the word ‘Christian’ in inverted commas, because the content and tone of many of these blogs would suggest to the outsider that Christianity is a fervent belief that other Christians have got something wrong and should be cast into the blogosphere equivalent of outer darkness.

All the dominical and apostolic warnings about judgement and urgings to love one another seem to be forgotten. And I would add that this is as true for so-called ‘Liberals’ as it is for Conservatives and Traditionalists. The sheer ‘unhealth’ of the Anglican church at present is so astonishing that I begin to wonder if the best term for it is ‘demonic’.

At the same time, going back to Parris’s article, the Western world seems to be sliding into a situation where what was unimagineable half a century ago is now being routinely touted. Who would have believed, in the aftermath of the destruction of Nazism, that our own Royal College of Nursing would take a step which everyone knows will pave the way for assisted suicides by the terminally ill? Surely the nursing profession saw itself then as a barrier to such developments, if not for the sake of the patient then as a necessary means of upholding civilization?

The point is not whether there are, or are not, circumstances in which taking a life might be a merciful act — doubtless there are. But what is at stake is something much bigger: the very nature of humanity and human society. It is surely not insignificant that Parris describes suicide as, “the supreme act of defiance, the final raspberry” we can blow at God.

It feels (at least to me) as if we are caught up in a redefining of nature, purpose and meaning. Yet what is emerging is not something greater, but rather something greatly diminished. Jacques Barzun wrote of the trend in Western society as being From Dawn to Decadence. Os Guiness wrote of The Dust of Death. Hans Rookmaker’s Modern Art and the Death of a Culture paints a similar picture.

Meanwhile, the Church of England, which itself stood for centuries as something of a ‘buttress of the truth’ — albeit often an imperfect one — is emasculated and incompetent. The most popular question amongst Anglicans for some time has surely been that posed by a certain Pontius Pilate at the trial of our Lord: “What is truth?” — that, and the question asked by the serpent in the Garden: “Has God really said ...?”

This is surely a clue! But in any case, we have the specific warning delivered by the Holy Spirit himself: “the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.” That should be enough, except that we apparently can’t even decide whether the Spirit should be called He or She, and would more happily argue over that than look to see where these demonic doctrines might have entered the Church.

If the Devil can be pleased by anything, he must surely be quite pleased by the way things are going at the moment. His time may be short, but perhaps his view of existence is the same as that adopted by so many today. So long as it is fun, it is enough.

Revd John P Richardson
1 August 2009

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Frightened by 'Apparitions'?

I have just whiled away an hour, following my return from the Proclamation Trust preachers’ conference (see this post here), watching the first episode of Apparitions on BBC1. This stars Martin Shaw as the Roman Catholic ‘Chief-Exorcist-in-waiting’ coming up against the forces of evil (as you would).

As drama went, it wasn’t the worst ‘exorcists and demons’ drama I’ve ever seen — better than End of Days, anyway. Shaw was the sort of ‘reassuring wise uncle priest’ you’d like every one of them to be (no shades of Fathers Ted, Jack or Dougal here). It was slightly unnerving seeing 1^st Lieutenant Harry Welsh from Easy Company turn up, but that’s the problem with using actors, they tend to take on different roles — in this case, Rick Warden as the devil, making yet another British actor who I now know persuasively played an American soldier in Band of Brothers, alongside Damian Lewis, Dexter Fletcher and, most amazingly, Simon Pegg. But I digress.

The reason I found myself sitting through this was that earlier today I, along (presumably) with all the other clergy in our Diocese, received an e-mail ad clerum (a circular to the clergy) from the Bishop of Chelmsford warning that this series “could stimulate interest in the Ministry of Deliverance, especially” it added ominously “among vulnerable people.”

“Other aspects of the series,” it went on, “are likely to cause serious offence with graphic scenes of murder, sexual activity, including the use of Christian and pagan symbols.”

Well, there was certainly a shocking scene at the beginning and a gory murder at the end, but no sex this week. As to the use of Christian and pagan symbols, well, it was about Roman Catholicism so no surprise there.

Nevertheless, we have been warned that the series “could generate expressions of concern, including complaints based on previous experience of Deliverance Ministry beyond the main denominations.”

Now I have to say at this point I’m not quite clear what is meant. Are we to watch out for people complaining of exorcisms that didn’t work, especially if some other bunch carried them out? Later the letter suggests, “Some denominations regard the Church of England as having particular expertise in Deliverance Ministry, so there may be an increase in contact from clergy of other denominations seeking help or assessment.” So if the phone goes ...

On the other hand, we have been told to “Avoid public statements which encourage fear of, or fascination with Deliverance Ministry.” (Does that include this blog?)

Most importantly of all, the letter finishes with a clear admonition:

NO ACTS OF EXORCISM OR DELIVERANCE MINISTRY ARE TO BE PERFORMED IN THE DIOCESE WITHOUT SPECIFIC PERMISSION IN EACH CASE BEING SOUGHT FROM THE DIOCESAN BISHOP. THIS MINISTRY CAN ONLY BE PERFORMED BY THOSE BISHOP’S ADVISERS WHO ARE SPECIFICALLY AUTHORISED TO DO SO.

Emphasis original, as they say.

Now I really don’t want to imply there is nothing to worry about and that the devil is a figment of the imagination. On the contrary, I have come across a few (very few) situations in my own ministry where ‘deliverance’ was definitely called for, and promptly provided (I prayed, Jesus delivered, as per Acts 19:13). I am also well aware of the ‘unpleasantness’ back in 1974 which led to the panicky introduction of all sorts of diocesan rules and regulations to prevent ordinary clergy getting the church into more trouble.

But I can’t help wondering whether this isn’t (a) a bit over the top and (b) rather wide of the mark as a response. I always love this quote from Luther’s commentary on Galatians:

When I was a boy, there were many witches who cast spells upon cattle and upon people, especially upon children. They also damaged the crops through storms and hail, which they caused by their sorcery. Now that the Gospel has been revealed, such things are unheard of, because the Gospel drives the devil and all his illusions from their seat of power.

Luther does not deny the existence of either the devil or his works. But he does not appeal to exorcisms as an answer. Rather, it is the gospel which drives away the devil.

The whole world lies under the power of the devil (1 John 5:19), so in that sense everyone needs an exorcism. But the devil is overcome by Christ and the gospel. Exorcism without the gospel, however, is of no real use. Interestingly, even Apparitions said as much, where Martin Shaw’s character read from Luke 11:24-26:

When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.

So if anyone is frightened about the devil as a result of watching TV tonight, I’ll be glad to help. But I’ll be reaching for my Bible and Two Ways to Live before I fetch the bell and candle.

Revd John P Richardson
13 November 2008

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