After the tragedy in Tucson a few weeks ago, it was inevitable that we would hear the word “evil.” Sarah Palin called the accused gunman “an evil man.” Former teachers referred to his “evil stare.” The New York Post said he looked “every bit the face of evil.” Even President Obama used the word in his moving memorial speech: “Scripture tells us that there is evil in the world…”

Jared Loughner may be a lot of things, but he’s not evil. To call him that is to grossly mistake him for something that’s biblical in scope when the reality is far less profound: Jared Loughner is mentally ill.

That we have a Harvard educated, intelligent, articulate president who relies on scripture to explain complicated problems is disappointing, to say the least.

But, it’s easy for politicians to call the man who committed such unthinkable acts “evil.” To admit otherwise would be to admit that they hold some culpability in not providing enough care for the mentally ill.

That’s not to say that Jared Loughner would not have slipped though the cracks of even the best mental health care system. But we will never know, especially if we keep passing the buck off to some mystical force we call “evil.”

This issue really strikes a still-raw nerve in me. As I have talked about before, my son, who suffers from a mood disorder, went far too long without treatment because I was convinced that his behaviors were due to a Satanic influence.

Why do we have so many people – politicians, college teachers, newspaper reporters – giving legitimacy to this concept of “evil”? There is no such thing. There is nothing mystical at work here. Even though we cannot imagine ourselves ever doing something so heinous, there is still a logical explanation for it.

My son does not have a severe mental illness. He has mood swings that are controlled by very low doses of two different reuptake inhibitors. Yet even with that slight imbalance, I saw behaviors that were quite extreme. I can only imagine what a person with severe mental illness is capable of.

With Jared Loughner, we don’t have to imagine. We saw the tragic results.

It’s easy to dismiss Loughner as evil and go on about our lives. It is much more difficult to call out the use of antiquated superstitious beliefs to explain things that science has answers for.

The problem with the former is not only that it allows us to continue ignoring the inadequacies of our mental health care system, but it also gives credibility to the fundamentalist and evangelical Christians who are preaching and teaching people that Satan and demons are real.

I was drawn into the world of spiritual warfare teachings. This is what I wrote in a post last year, recalling my journey to Christianity and back,

Everywhere I looked, there was confirmation of this idea that there is a battle going on in the heavenly realm for our souls. Every time we would step out in faith and do something great for God’s Kingdom, we would come under attack, in the form of negative thoughts, bad attitudes (especially from our children), and other events that seemed to stand in our path.

Soon, every doubt I had about Christianity was thought by me to be an attack from Satan. My circle of Christian friends confirmed this belief as true and everything that went on in our lives was viewed through this lens.

I started to fear worldly influences as an attempt by Satan to undermine my beliefs and the plan that god had for me. So, I limited what I would watch and listen to. I even limited what the kids could watch and listen to. After the “Freedom in Christ” conference, I even went though all of my books and CDs and threw out anything that was against god, including yoga videos and most secular music. It was black and white – if it wasn’t honoring god, it was working against god and not something that I should let in.

That is certainly not the kind of belief system that President Obama demonstrates or endorses, but when he says things like, “Scripture tells us that there is evil in the world…” it gives credence to those beliefs.

Those beliefs are, at best, ignorant, at worst, dangerous. It’s time we stopped encouraging them.

We didn’t observe Halloween while we were Christians because we believed in spiritual warfare.  We believed that Satan and demons were trying to stop us from carrying out God’s will by attacking our thoughts and putting obstacles in our paths.

Even as I type that, it is hard to accept that I believed that, but I did, very much so.

In a post from 2007, I wrote,

This year, we will spend the week leading up to Halloween in intercessory prayer on behalf of those who are to take part in Halloween festivities, especially anyone dabbling in the occult.

Yes, I was that extreme.  And on Halloween that year, we stayed in and had a family movie night.  I wouldn’t even give out candy to trick-or-treaters.

Since leaving Christianity, I have read books and articles based on the science of psychology and learned the truth about what was really going on when I thought I was under spiritual attack.  I have also learned why those works I read on spiritual warfare seemed so believable to me; the books written on the subject start with very true things about human psychology and put a spiritual warfare explanation to them.  That kernel of truth gives it verisimilitude.  It was easy for someone like me, who was searching for answers that were consistent with my faith, to believe in the spiritual warfare explanation because it contains those elements of truth that give it plausibility.

I still feel extremely foolish for believing in it, though.  But then, I feel foolish for pretty much all of the things I believed when I was a Christian.

At least that is all behind me and I am free from all that nonsense – and free to enjoy Halloween.  I think next year I will dress up as a devil, just because I can.

To some, this may seem ridiculous.  But, it’s a very common belief in fundamentalist/evangelical Christianity that anything that is based on another religion or presents something other than the Christian god as the path to inner peace is, at best, anti-Christian, at worst, of the devil himself.

When I was a Christian, my husband and I went through a program to free ourselves from the strongholds that the devil had in our lives.  (Gah, I am ashamed to even admit that!)  One of the steps was to get rid of anything that was satanic in our home.  We threw out a bunch of CDs, DVDs, books, and video games that had any violent, sexual, or otherwise un-godly content, including witchcraft, horoscopes, or non-Christian religions.

We got rid of our collection of yoga DVDs and videos, and my husband, who had been practicing yoga for may years, stopped doing it altogether.  (I had stopped before then.)

Just what is so bad about yoga anyway?

“Yoga begins and ends with an understanding of the body that is, to say the very least, at odds with the Christian understanding,” [Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary] writes. “Christians are not called to empty the mind or to see the human body as a means of connecting to and coming to know the divine. Believers are called to meditate upon the Word of God — an external Word that comes to us by divine revelation — not to meditate by means of incomprehensible syllables.”

Mohler even cites Douglas R. Groothuis, Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary, who once wrote, “All forms of yoga involve occult assumptions.”

I feel like such an idiot for ever getting to a place where I believed such nonsense, but I am also so relieved that I can now see it for what it is and that I am no longer living my life based on such silly superstition.

And I am happy to report that my husband does yoga now, every day.

When I was clearing out my Christian books the other day, I put a bunch in a box to send to some friends who had given them to me out of their personal library when they moved.  I figured it was the right thing to do, rather than throw them out.

I wanted to enclose a letter, letting them know how things are going for me, but I kept getting hung up on the fact that I know they cannot believe that anyone can be alright without Jesus.  No matter what I say, it will be a sad and painful experience for them to receive the books from me, knowing that I have rejected god.

The thing is, these are people who are in a lot of ways not happy.  I mean, I don’t know how they are right now, since I haven’t seen them in well over a year.  But, before they moved, they were pouring everything into their ministry and had become very overwhelmed and very overweight.  They were both having health problems due to obesity and money problems due to how much they were giving to others.

I imagine what it would be like if they saw me now.  I have changed so much.  I am much happier and less stressed than I was before.  I have developed a healthy selfishness, since becoming an atheist, where I now take time for myself and take care of myself.  I have lost 20 pounds, so far.  I am doing things that make me happy, without the guilt.  All of my relationships have improved.  My life is going great.

How could they explain that away?  How would they be able to reconcile their belief that a person needs god and my experience that I am better off without belief?

The answer, of course, is satan.

The Christian explanation for the happiness and success of non-Christians is that Satan, the prince of this world, will give you everything you want in this life, if you turn from god.

If you are miserable in faith, it’s because god is testing you and making you more like his son – but, you’ll be rewarded in heaven.  If you are happy in atheism, it’s because you turned from god and satan is trying to deceive you into thinking it’s the better life by rewarding you with earthly pleasures – but, you will not be truly happy in the long run without god, the source of all things good, and you’ll be punished for eternity, on top of that.

There really is no winning that argument.

Obviously, I made a deal with the devil, to be happy and healthy.

Of course, my eternal soul will suffer in hell.  But, at least all the fun people will be there.

Dear Pat Robertson,

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out.  And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action.  But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating.  I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher.  The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished.  Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle.  Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing.  And that was before the earthquake.  Haven’t you seen “Crossroads”?  Or “Damn Yankees”?  If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox — that kind of thing.  An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style.  Nothing against it — I’m just saying: Not how I roll.  You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings — just, come on, you’re making me look bad.  And not the good kind of bad.  Keep blaming God.  That’s working.  But leave me out of it, please.  Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best,

Satan

LILY COYLE, MINNEAPOLIS

Brilliant!

Hat tip: The Meming of Life