J-Walking

Forgetting Satan

Thursday April 19, 2007

We are obsessively trying to figure out what made Cho Seung Hui do it. Why? Because if we don't label it, if we can't categorize it, then the illusion of our safety and the dream of our control are both shattered.

Mental illness is obviously high on the list of suspects - there can be no doubt that he was, at best, mentally unstable. At worst? Simply mad. A professor is now suggesting that Cho was imitating an extraordinarily violent and sadistic South Korean movie, Oldboy. Others have said it was isolation and the spurned love of a girl. I have even heard talk from some wondering if they should explore whether he was Christian and whether his church upbringing might have had something to do with it.

What strikes me as staggering in this discussion is what hasn't been discussed - what the great British theologian N.T. Wright calls, "the satan." In his books, Wright describes the figure this way: it "was seen by Jews as the quasi-personal source of evil standing behind both human wickedness and large-scale injustice, and sometimes operating through semi-independent 'demons.'" Every Christian movement for 2000 years of history has acknowledged the presence of this force. Jesus himself repeatedly warned his followers about him. Exorcisms were common practice for Jesus and were apparently important enough for Mother Teresa, who had one performed on her in the later years of her life.

Yet here, now, to mention satan is to be greeted with sniggers and rolled eyes. What a pedestrian understanding of humanity, I am told. How... religious, some have said to me. Why?

As we look around our world - at 22,000 children a day who die of starvation, of scores of millions of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, at the exultation of evil and violence in film (Grindhouse anyone?), at loneliness and fear and anxiety and terror - is it somehow implausible to suggest that the satan is having a field day?

And what of Cho Seung Hui? Is it not possible that the best explanation for this sort of evil is the satan or one of the evil forces that respond to him? It is not possible to hold even a moderately orthodox view of the Bible, of Jesus, and of God and not acknowledge the power of the evil one. Yet where is the serious discussion now about that force's power in Cho's life?

Maybe those brave students that first horrible night have given us the greatest single insight into what really happened here; maybe those praying students who said the Lord's Prayer over and over had it right by praying against the evil one and its power. Maybe we should be praying for the same thing.
Comments
Doug
April 20, 2007 6:43 PM
http://bitterbierce.blogspot.com

Donny, the 51st Psalm is a favorite of mine as well. In my denomination, we sing a verse after communion. And I was having a similar thought this morning, that of all the parents who lost children in that tragedy, the Chos are the ones who must be least comforted by sharing that grief. I prayed for them, too, and wondered what I could do. I thought about writing but I'm not sure I'd open the mail if I were them.

Donny
April 21, 2007 6:51 AM
HASH(0x93730b0)

Losing a child is more grief than you can imagine.
I know. The parents of the young victims got the devasting news about their babies dying.
Cho's mom heard about her loss and there is no one to grieve with her except other family members in shame. Cho very well could have been possessed. As a Christian this fact does not allude me. His ramblings of madness, including the reference to Jesus, sure look like that of Beings that know they are doomed. No love, no pity. That is evil personified. If so, it was the Evil Beings inside him doing the killing. Once they were gone, to inhabit yet another person, Cho was free of them and this earthly bond.
Vengeance cannot bring back a lost child, anger cannot bring back a lost child, and, actually, nothing can.
Only, life goes on somehow. Totally different than before, but it goes on. The sorrow I have for the families of the victims, is no less intense than that of Cho's mother and and family. (I also feel sorrow towards Cho.) I do wish that the Christian community would reach out to her. As Casting Crowns sings:
What if his people prayed?

Carol
April 21, 2007 7:23 PM
HASH(0x9373d0c)

The Amish community taught us much about forgiveness after their terrible tragedy. They did not hesitate to reach out to the wife of the shooter. But we each much reach forgiveness in the best way we can.

David Kuo
April 22, 2007 3:33 AM
HASH(0x936c50c)

Donny - I am sorry for your loss and pray that the healing touch of our Jesus continues to wash over you. David

Sean
April 28, 2007 6:27 PM
HASH(0x93752ec)

I believe these demons are real because I have had contact with them. It is a third of the angles that side with satan, and lost their standing with God, and are only capable of evil now.
It is possible that Cho was dealing with what is called a familiar spirit, it mimics his thoughts and it gets to the point where you think its thoughts are his thoughts. I know about this because this is the problem I am suffering. I never lost contact with my humanity though as Cho did, never crossed the line, I think many times these evil thoughts just pop up but I know they are not mine I know they are the work of the dark one, I have even heard its voice, I don't know why Jesus is allowing me to go through this but he is, like Cho I was always the loner, until I started going to Church. When you see a person like Cho, you need to let him know that Jesus loves him, not make fun of him and call him question mark man, most of the student seemed to want nothing to do with him, to me it did not seem like he had a single real friend, sure they invited him to football games and asked him what his major was but these are all typical social things that one would expect, the only person who tried to reach out to him was the teacher, perhaps, in cho's isolation, and under the taunt of being the question mark man, he just lost it, there is no excuse for what he did, but I do feel sorry for him, as much as I feel bad for the families and those that died, as I cried many times. I do believe that psychiatric help could have helped him, and perhaps it would have made this demonic force that was in control of his life weaker, I take psychotropic dead, or I get psychotic. Period. Also though when I am not on the meds strange things happen as it is almost like the demon begins to take over my body, I have even heard its voice, and seen other entitys, probably if they had their way I would just be another Cho, who knows how many of our acts our inspired by these evil beings? We live in sex crazed climate on the internet. Does the devil have the power of temptation? Over the years we have seen many shootings from many people from all walks of life, none of them rational, I even remember the pilot who crashed the plane on purpose. The heart is like soil the bad thought have to be dug out and it has to constantly be softened. We know that humans with their free will are capable of such henious acts of killing, some how though cho has a place in my heart and I don't really understand why except because I have been down that lonely road myself too, and have felt alot of anger, but unlike cho, I didn't give up on the world, and lose control of the anger that dwelt with in me, I would rather kill myself before I hurt someeone else, we become what we think about who knows what Cho allowed himself to think about in the weeks before the shooting, the fact the he went off on a long tirade about the blood of Jeus Christ is evidence that he might have been dealing with one of these shadowy entities, in ancient times these beings were acknowledged to exist, they didnt have all this foolishness of eloquent speakers trying to make a buck propounding foolish ideas, the more we think that satan is not real the stronger him or his cronies can become in our lives, in fact he probably likes it when we think he is not real, I have my own personal testimony that he is real, and believe that there are even people who worship satan that are engaged in criminal acts, Jesus called him the prince of the world, adn the bible said the whole world is lying in his power, after he is cast out of heaven, than Jesus will set his sites on earth to banish him from earth too, these creatures are powerful that play on the worst of all of us, and they are shadows invisible unless they choose to show themselves, there are even those who have chosen the path of evil, and chosen to serve them, I don't belive Cho was mentall ill, he definitely was not psychotic as to be able to apparently plan out so meticuously the attacks, Cho gave in to the dark side and treated his class mates like they were in some kind of video game, he gave in to his anger and chose the dark side, a little whisper here or there, who knows how long the enemy played on him? And we play right along with him when we refer to cho as question mark man and taunt him as it was said happened to him in highschool. After the Columbine shootings there was a brother of a girl that was killed that chose to go to schools across the country and speak that what we need is an atmosphere of love, there should have been people praying for cho long before it went this far, no man is an island.

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