Recognizing Evil vs. Illness

"Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and all, if followed long enough, will draw therefore, gradually nearer and finally meet at the center: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision.

Even on the biological level life is not like a river, but like a tree. It does not move toward unity, but away from it, and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil, but from other good." The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis - April, 1945

I thought of these words in the context of the recent attacks on the innocent. Societies have always had terrible events like these, but this feels different. The attacks on both churches and synagogues have many faithful on high alert. Parishioners wounded or killed while kneeling and receiving sacraments have happened at two churches now. We don't yet know the details of the person who ran his car into the Grand Blanc LDS church, other than he was a veteran with mental health issues. Yet he made a decision to target a church during service — very specific and evil.

Charlie Kirk, who was a guest invited to a campus of young people, was killed in plain sight to a shocked world for speaking about topics of good and evil, of human freedom, and how these things create or undo spiritual health. He was killed at the very moment he was asked about the number of mass killings perpetrated by transsexuals.

These evil events always lead to talks about gun control and mental health. Yet everyone knows that millions of gun owners are law-abiding citizens, and millions with mental health challenges or who identify as trans are most certainly neither evil nor murderers. So what is so eerie about these recent killings?

The young man who targeted the children in church in Minnesota was in the trans movement and reportedly saw a demon in the mirror that he spoke to. He felt tortured and wanted it to stop. This is in the demonic spiritual realm, and that makes it different.

The following piece, Symbols of Disruption: The Demonic in the Age of Uncertainty by Anne Hendershott, opens with this paragraph:

"From the Minneapolis shooter drawing a picture of himself staring into a mirror with his reflection not human but a beast with horns, to the recently resigned senior physician at the Centers for Disease Control proudly displaying photos of himself on social media dressed in full sadomasochistic leather regalia with the same horned demonic image tattooed on his chest—affirms the point that Satan is having a cultural moment.

Baphomet, the horned goat-like figure that evokes centuries of occultism and demonic possession, stands as a symbolic embodiment of inner torment, moral ambiguity, and an identification with evil. For the Church of Satan, the goat-like figure is a symbol of occult power and rebellion. "
-From Crisis Magazine, Sept. 4, 2025

Turning society away from the spiritual and towards an acceptance of any and all lifestyles and disorders as normal — conditions that just a pill or a surgery will fix, or ignoring abnormal behavior until it becomes a crisis — is ludicrous. It has not led to a utopia where everyone is equal and love is love, but the opposite. It seems to have opened a doorway to hell. This doorway has given evil a new platform, an evil which, as C.S. Lewis describes, cannot be changed or moved toward a neutral center or a happy crossroads of acceptance and supposed tolerance.

On the contrary, it seems to have created an opportunity for evil to somehow latch on to the vulnerable and unstable. This doorway is quite accessible, with social media, spreading vulgarity, hatred and perversion via dark underground movements and connections that were not available in Lewis' day. But such rotten fruits were present and recognizable to him all the same. Evil and the demonic promoted in books and movies has also taken a darker turn. Scary movies like Dracula and The Wolfman have always brought a spooky element to this season, and kids take delight. But the latest versions are unwatchable, even for adults with a strong stomach.

In the preview of this book, Lewis places a quote:

"No, there is no escape. There is no heaven with a little bit of hell in it - no plan to retain this or that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets. Out Satan must go, every hair and feather." -George MacDonald

We cannot become complacent or tire of telling the truth. We can't live in fear, or think politics and laws will change it or save us. We must keep striving to remove every burning hair and feather.