In his book The True Believer, Eric Hoffer makes this significant statement: “A movement can exist without a God but never without a devil. There has to be an enemy to be destroyed.”
Identifying a dangerous enemy that is Out There is without question the most effective short-term mobilizing principle for groups, including entire nations. Religious movements have long known that money, passion, and commitment will come flowing their way if a scary enough devil can be shown to be a clear and present danger.
As a seven-year-old I remember hearing that John F. Kennedy would endanger our country if he were elected. After all, he was Catholic. Protestant America feared that an Oval Office resident who bowed to the authority of Rome would subvert our entire culture.
Communists were a target of Christian preachers and teachers for generations. Entire denominations sustained their momentum for ministry by appealing to the need to block Communist incursions into the West.
But as sociologist Tony Campolo puts it, “All of a sudden one day the Communists were gone… We needed a new devil and we found one. He’s called the secular humanist. ‘They’re taking over the whole country. Look what they’re doing in the public schools.’” Campolo goes on to quote a study by the National Education Association that 72% of all teachers in America attend church at least once a month. He concludes that it would be far more redemptive for churches to honor and thank public school teachers for their tireless service instead of assuming they are agents of the evil one.
My pastoral email inbox is regularly filled with dire warnings about the many enemies who are confronting Christians in the 21st century. Islamic terrorists are trying to destroy our way of life; Hollywood is ruining our values; gay activists are targeting our youth; Darwinists are attempting to exclude all mention of God from public dialogue.
In recent years even Christmas has been thrust into the culture wars. The new enemy is the person who sends out a greeting card that says “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Some church leaders have agitated for shopping boycotts against stores that have removed Nativity scenes or Christmas trees. In his book, Lord, Save Us From Your Followers, Dan Merchant (who is an ardent follower of Jesus) asks, “Why is the gospel of love dividing America?”
Before we divide the entire universe into ideological camps of Us vs. Them, it would be wise to check out what the Christian sourcebook has to say. The Old Testament prophets loudly proclaimed that all of God’s people must indeed battle an enemy. But instead of locating the devil “out there” somewhere, they bluntly told their audiences to look within. The Old Testament perspective is summed up in 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
You can pick over the words of Jesus with a fine-toothed comb, but you will never find a summons to fight a holy war or draw lines of cultural demarcation. Yet Jesus had a great deal to say about battling the inner enemies of prideful stubbornness, unforgiveness, and refusal to walk with God. Before we call out the evil in others we must take a fearless personal inventory of the evil that remains deeply rooted within our own hearts.
As the infomercials might put it, “But wait. There’s more!” Jesus commands us to pray for the terrorist, the pornography distributor, and the secular humanist who wants to cleanse school textbooks of even the option of believing in God. We are to reject their messages. We should resist their means. But we are not to think of them as enemies to be destroyed. They are people for whom Christ died – men and women who stand, as we do, in constant need of his love and grace.
In short, Jesus' message is that if we courageously choose to be the right kind of people, we won't squander our lives trying to figure out how to eliminate the wrong kind of people. That's a strategy that would almost certainly prompt our "enemies" to give our faith a second look.
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