Devil Inside

What Really Defiles Us?

The band INXS has a song titled Devil Inside which appears on their 1987 hit album Kick as well as their greatest hits album. The song is about the capacity for evil within human beings. INXS uses three tropes as their metaphor. Seduction, pride, and systemic evil feature in the song as evidence for the human capacity to do evil. In Christianity this capacity is attributed to original sin. Whether it is depravity, deprivity, or just capacity for evil we see evidence of this in our world. I would be remiss if I did not point out that Wesleyans also believe human beings have the capacity to do good. This is accomplished in our doctrine of prevenient grace. While we get hung up on the capacity for evil, I believe we need to look at our own choices and responses to that capacity. But let’s look at what INXS is trying to say before we get too deep in the theology.

After each trope, there is a wondering. After seduction we get a wondering of how the other half die:

Words are weapons
Sharper than knives
Makes you wonder
How the other half die
Other half die

After pride we have the wonder of living:

Look at them go
Look at them kick
Makes you wonder
How the other half live

Do you see the two sides of the same thing present in the lyrics? We are seeing each from the other view. How does the other half live through the evil without consequence? How do the others die? Words are weapons. A friend with an M.D. and I have a chat one time in which I was asking if words actually caused pain to younger generations. I was trying to understand the reaction to words that seemed much more visceral than my Gen-X context. He mentioned that yes, he believed that words could cause actual physical pain. He went on to say that our generation was desensitized to the pain and that was sad. In other words, the capacity to cause pain with words was lost on us unless we paid attention. That hit hard as someone who loves a good snarky comment or biting satire. Those are valid, but I began to unsderstand that they are only good when used to punch up so to speak.

The chorus is catchy as it just repeats the theme of the song. But the sexy dance rock drives the lyrics so well.

Devil inside
The devil inside
Every single one of us
The devil inside
Devil inside
Devil inside

I believe it is vitally important for us to remember that we all have the capacity to do evil - even the entirely sanctified. Our free agency of choice is still present. But I believe we must also believe that those we look up to or follow are capable of evil. I wish more white American Christians could believe themselves, their leaders, and their political heroes capable of evil. The world might be in a better spot if we could see past the logs in our eyes. This brings me to the systemic lyrics.

Here come the world
With the look in its eye
Future uncertain
But certainly slight

Look at the faces
Listen to the bells
It’s hard to believe
We need a place called hell
A place called hell

That last line has stuck with me since I first heard it. “It’s hard to believe we need a place called hell.” That was in the late eighties when we still had the looming threat of nuclear war. What a quaint time. Now we face existential threats on an ongoing and ridiculously absurd rate just from our own governments making stupid choices. Of course, the systems are only as good as the people we choose to lead them. I think white evangelical Christians have been horrendous at choosing because we allowed politicians to tell us what we believe. Just look at how many Roman Catholics don’t understand that the Popes are always speaking from straight up doctrinal and theological clarity within their tradition. If only we had as much courage. Instead we keep bringing hell on earth for people.

It is not just in grand existential terms. But also in small and seemingly insignificant choices that we bring hell. In my own denomination, the fundamentalists have lost patience with hounding fellow clergy who reject fundamentalism and embrace our actual doctrines that they have chosen a new method of attack. When those you oppose refuse to cooperate and teach contradictory doctrine, attack the places they teach sound doctrine. Guilt by association may be a logical fallacy, but who doesn’t love a good logical fallacy. Of course the irony is that often the fundamentalists are literally teaching against our essential doctrines as they claim the venues of teaching somehow rub off on the teachers.

In other words, they think it is that which comes from the outside which defiles. Dr. Richard Beck refers to this as the disgust response in his book Unclean. But is also a response we see in scripture. In the Gospel of Mark chapter seven Jesus is asked by the Pharisees and teachers of the law why his disciples don’t perform a ceremonial washing of hands before meals. This was scandalous to the religious leaders. Jesus replies in his usual way, but says something incredibly important. He explains to the crowds that it is not what comes from outside that defiles because it is taken in through the mouth rather than the heart. He also says those things that come from the outside end up in the sewer - you probably get the point. Jesus then says it is that which comes from inside that can defile. INXS hits that point with Devil Inside.

I’m gonna get in some theological weeds for a moment. Whatever you may think of the idea of evil, it is problematic to try and personify evil. Scripture uses the terminology of The Accuser (The Satan) and other phrases, but never personifies that the same way that Trinitarian personhood is used. Brian Zahnd likes to say The Satan in a sub person as a theological understanding. I agree because when we setup a dualistic understanding of God versus evil, we place too much power in the idea of evil. That’s how we get to ideas like “the Devil made me do it.” Our own guilt is shifted in the blame of evil on outside forces. What’s always funny to me is how selective that concern can be. When we choose evil, we are responsible. Yes, there are places we find ourselves in that we sometimes feel compelled to make certain decisions, but they are still our decisions. Trauma response may also push us toward unhealthy choices, but their is no Devil pushing us independent of our own minds and hearts.

A takeaway here is that if we are teaching “sound doctrine” in an open venue that may not stand for that doctrine, the unsoundness is not going to rub off on the speaker. That is an external concern. It is also a silly concern. The principle of “the appearance of things” rules too many accusations and fallacies. Here’s how Jesus describes it:

He said to them, “So, are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7: 18-23 NRSVue)

I always find it interesting that deceit, slander, pride, and folly get listed with sins like murder. I mean technically using certain logical fallacies can slander and deceive. Here’s a subtextual comment. It is much easier to slander with fallacious claims than to do the hard work of understanding. It is also sin to use deceit to cause people to believe falsehoods. IYKYK

We all may have a devil inside, but the implication is that we also have goodness in us. Genesis is pretty clear on that count and New Creation is a fulfillment of the promises of relational holiness. The fact that we Wesleyan-Holiness folk keep reaching for the lies rather than shouting about our hope of prevenient grace is sad. We can sing INXS’ Shine Like it Does rather than Devil Inside.

This is the story
Since time began
There will come a day
When we will know

Shine like it does
Into every heart
Shine like it does
And if you’re looking
You will find it

Sounds a bit like prevenient grace and that is Good News.

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