Dancing with the Devil

I have walked out of very few movies in my life. One of them was “8 Millimeter”, a movie about about “snuff films” starring Nicholas Cage. Needless to say, it was extremely offensive……..but, it contained one of the most valuable pieces of theology that I have ever run across. At one point Cage’s character says,

” When you dance with the Devil………. the Devil doesn’t change……you do”

This has to be one of the greatest truths……….one of the most valuable warnings …………of life. And yet we do it every day. We participate in something…….a small act of dishonesty, gossip, pornography. We say to ourselves that we aren’t harming anybody. We even have derogatory terms for those who avoid our “Petty Sin of the Day” (PSD). We can them prudes, Pollyannas, intolerant………and we enjoy a little dance with the devil.

The thing is that we ARE hurting somebody………we are hurting ourselves. Every little inconsequential violation makes the next PSD easier. Every PSD leaves a mark on our psyche. There are pornographic images that I looked at…….. willingly……..40 years ago that are still in my head. I will carry them to my grave. My little “dance with the Devil” as a young man has changed me forever. The same is true of the “little white lie”……….the pirated video……..the demeaning comment about a co-worker.

Each of these things changes us……..and they are cumulative. Furthermore, they accumulate in us, not just individually……….but also as a society. When I was in Junior high there was a TV series, “Mission Impossible”. In one episode the female star was shown from the back without a shirt or bra on. It was shocking, it had never been done on prime time TV……people talked about it…..and it changed us as a society. Today it is not at all hard to see full frontal nudity on your TV, in your family room at 7pm. There was a time when you turned the TV off, or sent the kids from the room when something objectional came on. When was the last time you did that?

You have changed.

And it goes further. I used to watch “Law and Order”. Then I noticed that Christians were usually portrayed as hateful, bigoted angry people and the LGBT community was usually portrayed as kind gentle people. The Christians were usually the “Bad Guys”. I occasionally see the show now and it has improved. But, anti-Christian bias in our society is growing. You Tube now blocks “Christian” as a keyword in ad searches. Yes, you read that right…….check it out.

We, as a society have changed.

We used to try to teach our children judgement. “Good judgement” was a goal to strive for. Today “judgementalism” is one of the great evils in our society.

The Bible is chock full of rules…….six hundred some odd of them ……….and we don’t like rules…… we chafe against them. And yet if you look at the main ones: Love God……Love your neighbor……the ten commandments……..they are there for our own good. Like the wall around the sheep pen…….. they are there for our protection. They are there to prevent our “dance with the Devil”………to prevent us from changing into something less than we were created to be.

Advice from one demon to another from “The Screwtape Letters”

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God). It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards will do the trick.

Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one — the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

C.S. Lewis