This morning I listened to Meet the Press again. One of the guests was Tony Snow and one of the topics was Iran's supply of advanced IED's to Iraqi terrorists.
The discussion reminded me of a survey I heard last year. The survey looked at religion in different countries around the world.
Do you believe in God? The USA scored very high in belief in God but so did a lot of other countries.
Do you believe in the Devil? What made the USA unique was our belief in a Devil. As I recall, it was as high or even higher than belief in God and it was far higher than any other country.
In other words, we believe in the Devil more than any other culture. What does that say about us?
When this survey pointed it out, I started to think about it and I see the Devil a lot in our culture. We always seem to be afraid of some outside force, some devil, that wants to get us. And if things go wrong, it wasnt our fault; the Devil did it.
For decades we had the Cold War and the Devil was the Soviet Union. Any moment, they would drop nukes and kill us, so you had better eat your spinach and pay your taxes. The Soviet Devil had its high points in the McCarthy era and the Reagan era.
But then the Soviets suddenly collapsed and we were left without a Devil. After decades of building an entire system of weapons and rhetoric to fight an outside enemy, we didnt have one. Even though peace would seem like a good thing, it clearly left a lot of people feeling lost and without a purpose.
For many American's Bill Clinton became the devil. Sex and donuts - Clinton was the impersonation of sin and debauchery and the fix was a man who knew the Devil and clearly opposed him, President Bush.
Since Bush took office, I have really noticed the Devil.
The Devil is the President's justification for almost all of his policy decisions. Moreover, many of those decisions were delivered a Biblical fashion: pronouncements from on high without any democratic discussion or debate. The implication was that this was the clear answer and if you disagreed with it or had any doubts you were either a sinner or a Devil-worshiper or you hated the USA.
The President's immediate reaction to 9/11 was to proclaim that Al Queda is this mysterious, all powerful force that wants to kill us all and it is run by the Devil, Osama Bin Laden. We had to invade Afghanistan to get the Devil and his supporters, the Taliban. When we couldnt catch the Devil Osama, we shifted direction because it became clear that Saddam was the real devil and we had to kill him. After invading Iraq, it came the Axis of Evil and three new Devils: North Korea, Syria and Iran.
Why is the war in Iraq a total failure? Certainly not because of our President's bad decisions. No sir, the reason is the Devil - Iran.
I never really thought of our government policies this way before but this message clearly resonates with a large portion of our country. People understand the Devil, they understand an evil force lurking just out of reach to harm us. They understand that they need to sacrifice to stop the Devil and that we need a saviour to lead us.
Not only do we understand these messages, we seem to need them. Over and over again. And the evidence is that we believe the same message, the same pattern, over and over again. Every one of Bush's State of the Union speeches. Every year of his battle plan to save us from evil. The Devil is everywhere so stop complaining and support the troops.
The fact that we never actually get the Devil, that there is always a new one, doesn't seem to phase anyone. Are we lost without a Devil? Is the Devil the yin to our yang? Do we need the evil force to feel complete? Does the Devil's evil complete our own angelic nature?
There are other countries that strongly believe in God but have no concept of the Devil. If the Devil is clearly such a part of our psyche, what would it be like not to have a Devil? Would it make us less warlike? More peaceful and trusting? How do other countries manage it?
Yes, that survey on God and the Devil did not get much attention but was most thought-provoking.
