AN AMERICAN NIGHTMARE
What happens when demons take control of the human soul, and from there
take control of the human will and human mind? The answer to this question
has been given to us by the deeply tragic events at Virginia College on
16 April. On that day, a South Korean immigrant to the USA, Cho Seung-hui,
cold-bloodedly gunned down thirty-two fellow-students in an outburst of
rage and hatred. His insanity was bred of a profound alienation, an alienation
which had come about because spirits alien to humanity had entered into
him and taken charge of him.
Psychologists call the state of this tragic young man 'persecution mania' and ‘schizophrenia’. This is true, inasmuch as the young man in question felt persecuted and spoke with two different voices. His state of relative rationality was his own state. Thus, Cho Seung-hui said: 'You have vandalised my heart, raped my soul and tortured my conscience'. Here he spoke rationally. He had indeed been violated, not so much by materialistic, pleasure-seeking US society, but rather by the demons who sat inside him and filled his heart, soul and conscience with love for their towering pride, hatred for all mankind, evil and insanity. This state of insanity was expressed by the voice of the chief demon, who spoke with hatred for religion and believers, by whom the demons feel persecuted. This was borne out as, his face twisted with hatred and his mouth twisted with foul language, this victim of the demons said: ‘Jesus loves crucifying me’. The love of God does indeed seem like crucifixion for the demons.
Seung-hui's possession by satanic pride is also clear from the fact that the young man blamed others for all his problems, never himself. There was no Christian sense of self-reproach and humility, only the devilish, towering pride that blames others for all our faults and then seeks revenge for its own inadequacy in a rage of hate. Hence the words: ‘I die like Jesus Christ’. These words are so profoundly blasphemous and slanderous that only the Enemy (Satan) and Slanderer (the Devil) could inspire them. Jesus Christ died in a sacrifice, giving life to all mankind. This young man died in an anti-sacrifice, giving death to as much of mankind as possible. Where there is the opposite to Christ, the Lover of mankind, there we find Satan, the Enemy of mankind.
It is easy to assert that US gun culture gave this young man the chance to murder 32 others very quickly. But one so deeply possessed by the evil would no doubt have been inspired to find a more difficult way of murdering so many so swiftly. Sadly, there is one thing extraordinary in all this, that such events, and worse, happen every day. The Western media have given much publicity to this one case. Yet, virtually every day young men in Iraq, possessed by the same evil spirits, carry out the same brutal actions with their suicide bombs, massacring hundreds every week, when not every day. For them the Western media reserve less time and space. And yet it is the same demons at work, the same Slanderer of God, the same Enemy of mankind, who does indeed 'vandalise our hearts, rape our souls and torture our consciences', who does indeed 'love crucifying us'.
The American soul, like the soul of this and many other countries, is falling into a deep spiritual sleep. And so its dreams become its nightmares and its nightmares become its realities. To you all, we say: Rise from your nightmares of death, because Christ is Risen from the dead.
