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TeacherAide The First Epic SESSION 8 ILLUSTRATING
THE POINT The
Intrigue of Evil In The Divine Intruder, James R. Edwards
writes: In imaginary works it is difficult to make virtuous
characters as believable and attractive as bad characters. The villains of
literature and screen—Captain Ahab, the boys who go bad in Lord of the
Flies, Darth Vader, Norman Bates, Hannibal the Cannibal—all are, as a
rule, larger figures, more gripping and more memorable, than are the heroes and
heroines of even the same authors and producers. This is as true of religious
literature as it is of secular literature. In Paradise Lost,
Milton's Satan has all the good lines, but who remembers a word of his Christ?
Dante's The Divine Comedy is one of the great masterpieces of world
literature, yet literary critics as well as college freshmen rarely read The
Paradiso, and those who do usually judge its virtue and bliss flat and
insipid compared to the gargoyled vices of The Inferno. There is a good reason why this is so. Human nature
stands closer to evil than to good. Intrigue, scheming, and deception are more
instinctual to us than love, goodness, and forgiveness. The vices are
"first nature," so to speak, whereas virtue is "second
nature," either a learned response or no response at all. It is easier to
figure out ways to cheat the IRS than to solve the problems of hunger or
violence. When we are wronged, we can hatch ten brilliant schemes of revenge;
but try to devise even a paltry plan for redeeming a bad situation. Dostoevsky
thus had an easier task in creating Raskolnikov, the brooding ax-killer of Crime
and Punishment, than he did in creating Alyosha, the only virtuous figure
in a family of miscreants in The Brothers Karamazov. This is not to
diminish Raskolnikov; he is a powerful figure of darkness and depravity. It is
simply to say that it is harder to make Alyosha as scintillatingly good as
Raskolnikov is bad. And it is nearly impossible to conceive of a world in which
the reverse would be true.
Citation: James R. Edwards, The Divine Intruder (NavPress, 2000), pp.109-10 Hurricane
Katrina Unleashes Human Nature Hurricane Katrina slammed
into the Gulf Coast throughout the last week of August—destroying buildings,
flooding cities, and leaving millions of people homeless. However, the storm's
most destructive consequence may have been the unleashing of human nature. While New Orleans law
officials and National Guardsmen concentrated on rescuing survivors, hundreds of
looters took to the streets in the days following Katrina's wrath. Initially the
looters targeted supermarkets and drug stores, focusing on food, medicine, and
diapers. However, these seemingly innocent motives soon turned to greed. On historic Canal Street,
dozens of looters ripped open the steel gates protecting clothing and jewelry
stores. Many waded through the flooded streets with industrial-sized trashcans
full of merchandise, which they floated on makeshift rafts. In Biloxi,
Mississippi, people picked through casino slot machines for coins and ransacked
other businesses. Frighteningly, many of the
looters made off with weapons. New Orleans' homeland security chief, Terry
Ebbert, said looters broke into stores all over town to steal guns, and the
Times-Picayune newspaper reported that the gun section at a new Wal-Mart in the
Lower Garden District was quickly cleaned out. "The looting is out of control," said French Quarter Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson. "We're using exhausted, scarce police to control looting when they should be used for search and rescue while we still have people on rooftops." Citation:
"Looters Run Wild in New Orleans," Foxnews.com (8-31-05);
submitted by Sam O'Neal, St. Charles, Illinois. THE
MORE YOU KNOW The phase, the
sons of God, found in Genesis 6:2 has been interpreted many different ways.
Many theologians over the years have that these sons
of God could have been fallen angels who chose and married women on the
earth. But a conflict is found in what Jesus stated in Matthew 22:30 that angels
can neither marry or be given in marriage. One belief could be found in that
statement that the sons of God were of
the family of Seth who professed a religious belief in God. But the daughters
of men have been understood by some to be the female descendants of the
apostate Cain. If this understanding of whom these people were is correct, then
one could understand why God has called out His children to live lives separated
from the sinful corruption of the world. I
THOUGHT I HEARD YOU SAY “Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.” Citation: C.S. Lewis in "Equality" from Present Concerns. Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no. 2. “For 35 years, the Motion Picture Production Code served as a moral guideline for American filmmakers. The code, to which filmmakers were required to adhere, included this paragraph: "No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, or sin." How quaint that sounds today.” Citation: Cal Thomas, Christian Reader, Vol. 31. “If you see another stumble or fall, let your first thought be that, of all men, you are most likely to stumble or fall in that same manner.” Citation: Thomas a Kempis, Leadership, Vol. 9, no. 1 “We and Christianity are the same in one thing only: We demand the entire person!”- Nazi Judge Roland Freisler “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line dividing good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn |