An example of fundamentalist dualism

But somewhere on Sand Mountain a woman needs no proof
That evil can lie so close to truth
                              - Kate & Ira Campbell

Christian fundamentalism, in this case.  This is from the editor of Mississippi [Southern] Baptist Convention's state newspaper: "What the world needs in 2005" by William Perkins, Jr. Baptist Record 01/06/05 (print edition).

This is a good example of how for many people, the so-called War on Terror fills a political, psychological and even religious void left by the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union:

Even though communism, the great enemy of our way of life, and its harsh dictatorships have faded away in many parts of the world, new threats have arisen in its place to test our mettle.  Thus it has always been, and thus it will be. ... [my emphasis]

The evil one, the father of confusion and strife and misery and death, would have it no other way. ...

Anyone who remotely doubts the presence of the Devil and evil schemes in the workings of this world must have his/her head in the sand.  He is real, and he roams among us seeking whom he may devour (1Peter 5:8)

I've written in a number of posts about the dangerous aspects of conceiving conflicts in our messy world, especially foreign policy issues, as a simple matter of Good vs. Evil.  If two nations are disputing about borders, or military buildups, or trade arrangements, or any of the things nations normally dispute about, they can make a deal over things like that.  Boundaries can be redrawn, new security arrangements established, new trade pacts negotiated.

But if what is at dispute is the will of God, absolute good vs. absolute evil, God vs. Satan, it becomes much harder to settle differences.  Can we compromise with Satan?  Can we make a deal with Evil?

In a theological sense, though, this particular Christian perspective does have something to recommend it.  That is, evil in the world is not just a matter of personal choices.  There are larger forces atwork - economic trends, the psychology of war, to take two examples - that cause a great deal of harm to human beings.  If the notion of Satan helps to make people mindful of that reality, that's a good thing.

On the other hand, evil actions are also the results of choices by individuals. Alberto Gonzales could have chosen to warn the president that torture was illegal; instead he was willing to encourage evasion of the law to allow gruesome, sadistic acts to be committed.  It's not at all difficult to thing of dozens of examples from personal life that would illustrate the same point.  "The Devil made me do it" is not an excuse, any more than "I was just following orders" was able to get Charles Graner off on his court-martial for torture this past week.

I'm mentioning these examples because they provide an unfortunately very current example of one of the main dangers of Good vs. Evil thinking as applied to war in particular.  If the other side is not just the opponents or people with evil goals, but Evil itself, Satan himself, it becomes much easier to convince ourselves that anything Our Side does is justified, no matter how cruel or destructive and no matter how many innocents may be hurt in the process.

A Christian solution?

Perkins' solution is one that all Christians, not just fundamentalists, would like to believe is true:

What the world needs in 2005 is what it has always needed: Jesus, the Son of God and Savior of the world.  It just seems that the world needs Jesus more and more with every passing year.

Now, that's boilerplate evangelical Christianity.  But Perkins is using it specifically in reference to problems in the material world, not just in reference to individual souls.  He mentions genocide in Rwanda, the Balkan Wars, Chechnya, Sudan and North Korea.

So in all honesty, Christians need to reflect on whether it would really solve the problems of the world if eveyone became Christians, "accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior," as the evangelical formula puts it.

History isn't enouraging on that point.  In fact, groups with seemingly many similarities may wind up hating each other with particular intensity.  This was an aspect ofthe human condition that particularly caught the attention of Sigmund Freud; he thought this resulted from what he called the "narcissism of small differences."

We could go back to the days of the Protestant Reformation, and look at the bloody century that followed as Christian princes waged war against other Christian princes, first in the series of conflicts known as the Wars of Religion, then in the Thirty Years War that was the biggest slaughter in Europe prior to the First World War.

But we don't have to go back that far.  In the First World War, the Christian Protestant German Kaiser and the Christian Catholic Austrian Kaiser waged war against Christian France and Christian England, and later against Christian America led by the devout Christian and son of a Christian minister Woodrow Wilson. Wilson intended to insist on a fair peace settlement, one in accord with his Christian principles, but the Treaty of Versailles he thought would be his great legacy was a bandit's peace that laid the groundwork for the Second World War.

And in today's world, the reality is that peace in the material world also requires a meaningful dialogue among religious leaders and among ordinary believers from different faith.  If the only kind of dialogue in which one is willing to engage is proselytizing, no real dialogue can take place.

One of the marketing pitches of Christian fundamentalists is that their version of the faith offers one a "certainty of salvation."  But from the Inquisition to witch hunts to Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs slaughtering each other ruthlessly and much in between, a great deal of harm has been done by those who were certain that they knew God's will in this world.  If universal Christian conversion - which of course is never going to happen - were accompanied by universal Christian humility, that might promote peace.

Otherwise, we're all better off recognizing, in the words of country-folk singer Kate Campbell, "that evil can lie so close to truth."