I Like the Devil as Much as the Next Evangelical Poster Child

So I spent a good bit of the day waiting for the air conditioning folks to arrive at my house to take my money. They were nice about it and they were not here very long. They gave me a good education about heat pumps and we are back to a cool house once again.

Speaking of hot . . .

I read this interesting article by Mary Jacobs at the United Methodist Portal about how United Methodists view Satan and evil in the world. Now, I want to make it clear this is a general view and not one held by all members of the United Methodist Church. My church, for one, is more conservative and most of the folks tend to believe in old Lucifer. I thought it was funny that one of the reasons Methodists refrain from discussing the Devil and the personification of evil is that they do not want to sound too much like Baptists.

Here is a short excerpt from Ms. Jacobs' article:

Many United Methodists, for instance, gasped during the 2008 General Conference when an African delegate on the floor argued that homosexuality was "of the devil."

It wasn’t just his position on homosexuality that drew the offended gasps, says Jerry Walls, who taught philosophy of religion for 21 years at Asbury Theological Seminary. Adding the devil to the conversation made it a “double offense” in the minds of some delegates. “Bringing up the supernatural reality of Satan is enough to make a typical United Methodist go into conniptions,” he said.

Of course, the reality of Satan and the forces of evil tend to be much stronger in the third world, the next Christendom. My problem with most evangelical stances on Satan is that they use him as a whipping boy for everything that goes wrong in the world or in their lives. Truth is I don't think I need the devil to mess my life up and I need to take my share of the blame for the things I do of my own free will and not put them all on the great-horned beast.div>

So, what do you think about the Devil? Is he at work in your life?