Why Would Anyone Today Believe In Demons?

Walt Whitman -- "I am infinite, i contain multitudes." In that spirit:

I can be psychological: the subconscious is where some of our darkest longings seek to find expression.

I can be Jungian: there is a collective unconscious, and it has a Shadow side.

I can be clinical: there are many elements of epilepsy, addiction, obsession, as well as simple neural disease or insult, that manifest in strange behaviors that are impossible to neatly classify.

I can be poetic: the Void is hungry, and must constantly be fed.

I can be anthropological: human history is filled with different ways we try to understand both inhumanity and illness as departures from an ideal norm, often personalized and anthropomorphized.

I can be cheerfully liberal: We fear the dark, but there's really nothing there except for our need to learn and understand and grow beyond our fears.

I can be grimly liberal: Greedy selfishness can and should be eliminated, but as long as it is allowed to flourish its ultimate expression is in oppression, discrimination, racism, and genocide. (But a mandatory addition to the public school curriculum or government program can slow or stop greedy selfishness at its root!)

I can be nihilistic: The Dark is ultimately All.

I can be cautiously political: Some people believe that there are others who often are influenced somewhat by factors beyond their understanding or control, and i think we all agree that those people need and deserve our help, with the best tools available in our society today.

Or, i can be a fairly mainstream Christian: I think we dismiss the Bible's talk of demonic influences and possession too easily; i'm not always sure i see what scripture is getting at when demons are described and dealt with, but it certainly has some powerful analogies to lives i see playing out around me, let alone in my own erratic heart.

Hey, i can be a really liberal Christian: Haven't you heard of Walter Wink? "The Powers That Be" helps us see demonic possession as less a matter of an individual issue, but of structures and systems, governmental to congregational, and reminds us that the spiritual realities of change are as important as the politics of transformation.

But some days i'm just a traditional, basically Orthodox Christian: I believe there are demonic forces at work in the world that wish me ill and drag me down, within and without, that affect relationships and communities and events, on which prayer and fasting have a very real impact. Those acts often help in stopping and changing those assaults. Those acts help me stay on the path i try to follow, but am often tempted to stray from. I might not participate in an exorcism, but i would never mock someone for choosing to do so -- i might ask them if they really think they know what they're doing, the same as i would someone "playing" with a Ouija board. I don't want to burn them, wouldn't laugh at someone for doing so, but i would walk away.

Of course, for saying i contain many contradictory aspects of my personality, some might say "He has a demon in him!" I'm with C.S. Lewis, who said we don't help matters by being too interested in the demonic any more than we do by claiming there is not and could be no such thing.