Bad Theology...Or Satanic Inversion?
Evil is the inversion of Good. In Milton's Paradise Lost, Lucifer boasted, "I will make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven," and spends many stanzas leveling the playing field with rhetorical tricks and moral relativism to equalize the respective values of Good and Evil, rotating the moral universe so that the poles rest on the same horizontal axis.
Then there is a quick exchange of cards, the rotation continues, and--from Lucifer's egocentric point of view-- the universe is turned upside down, with Lucifer at the apex and God at the bottom.
Up now equals "down," and down equals "up."
And voila: Milton's Lucifer steals the show as a freedom-fighting hero of sorts struggling out of the hands of an angry and oppressive Tyrant (i.e. God).
That it is Lucifer who demonstrates unbridled anger and boasts of his intentions to oppress and torment the entire human race is besides the point (as Lucifer himself assures us)...or is God's fault (as Lucifer explains with rationalizing sophistries).
It's all projection and rhetorical tricks, of course, as God Himself is Immovable, and Lucifer--a.k.a. Satan-- though deluded accordingly, knows it and must finally admit that spite is his motivation (though he manages to somewhat justify that, as well).
Nevertheless, the deft card-exchange can lead to confusion when the proverbial wolf-in-sheep's-clothing flashes credentials:
Virginia Tech mass murderer Cho Seung-Hui played this hand: "Jesus loves crucifying me."
That Jesus card was stolen (and shuffled in to a deck that was not full to begin with).
Christian Doctrine holds that Christ allowed Himself to be crucified in our stead in an act of selfless Love because he was not fond at all of seeing us suffer (no less "crucified"), however deserving.
Seung-Hui appeared to be the only one enjoying crucifying people for the purpose of satisfying his own selfish--and vindictive-- ego and sense of "just deserts," so he was simply projecting his own darkness on God--precisely like Milton's Lucifer did.
True, Christ told his disciples "Pick up your cross and follow me," but that was in the context of a wicked world that "loved to crucify," and Seung-Hui was an agent of that world, crucifying others, and then killing himself.
And it was utter destruction, not redemptive Salvation.
"Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people," Seung-Hui played again.
Right. "The People." Seung-Hui was acting on behalf of generations of faceless, nameless, anonymous people while massacring weak (i.e. weaponless) and defenseless people who had faces and names.
Meanwhile on the cross, Jesus prayed for his crucifiers (both for those who had faces and names and for generations of us afterward, who continue to crucify, however unwittingly): "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do."
It was such forgiveness, and Love, which has inspired generations of "weak and defenseless people" to be strong and able to withstand--and prevail against-- hate and violence.
posted by John | 7:01 AM
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