The Many Disguises of Satan

Archdiocese of Washington ^ | July 11, 2012 | Msgr. Charles Pope

[NYer]

It would be easy if Satan came as he is often portrayed, with horns and a pitchfork. We would naturally flee this ugliness.

Alas, he often comes cloaked in beauty, in sheep’s clothing:

• He claims to offer us freedom and autonomy from an unreasonable God and Church, liberation from rules and being “told what to do.”
• He cloaks himself in the false righteousness of being “tolerant” and “not judging others.”
• He exalts us by telling us we have finally come of age and can disregard the “hang-ups” and “repression” our ancestors had of sex and pleasure.
• He flatters us by extolling our scientific knowledge and inflates us by equating it with wisdom and moral superiority over our “primitive” fore-bearers.
• He reassures us by insisting we are merely the victims here, victims of biological urges, bad parenting, economic injustice, that we are not depraved, just deprived.
• He humors us by making us laugh at sin, making light of it in comedian’s routines, sitcoms, music and otherwise turning sin into a form of entertainment.
• He anesthetizes the pain of guilt and sin by sending us teachers who tickle our ears and assure us that what we know deep down to be wrong is actually fine, even virtuous.
• He affirms us by insisting that whenever shortcomings in us have been called to our attention it is simply unfair since other people are surely worse, that self esteem is something owed to us and others who lessen it are unkind.
• He sings to us the lullaby of presumption assuring us that consequences and judgment will not be our lot and, with this lullaby, we drift off into a moral sleep of indifference and false confidence.

But in the end, there is a wolf under the sheepskin. Satan is ugly. He enslaves, condemns, ridicules and ensnares. His “reassurances” bring pain and grief as the awful effects of sin unwind: hatred, fear, resentments, revenge, suffering, disease, addiction, bondage, strife, divorce, estrangement, war, insurrection, disloyalty, scorn, bitterness, depression, anxiety, depletion, poverty, loss and deep, deep sorrow.

Beware, Satan has many disguises and he seldom presents as he really is. The movie The Passion of the Christ brilliantly presented Satan in the Garden. At first there was almost a strange beauty. But a closer look revealed increasingly hideous details: cold, fixed eyes, sharp and discolored nails, sickly pale skin, suddenly androgynous qualities, and a disgusting maggot crawling in and out of the nose. An audible moan came from the audience in the theater where I first saw it. Would that, beyond the movie, we could sense this revulsion and clarity as to the evil of Satan and his truest reality.

Here is a very powerful video on the disguises of sin:

I Am Sin

[NYer]

Ping!

[DarthVader]

Excellent article!!

[Leep]

Whatever his disquise what he really offers is giving into sin and mostly denying God’s truth.

[Conservative Vermont Vet]

Here are my "nominees:"

[Ann Archy]

And he comes with a SMILING FACE!!!

[randog]

"My dear brothers, never forget, when you hear the progress of enlightenment vaunted, that the devil's best trick is to persuade you that he doesn't exist!"

--Charles Baudelaire

[Alex Murphy]

It would be easy if Satan came as he is often portrayed, with horns and a pitchfork. We would naturally flee this ugliness. Alas, he often comes cloaked in beauty, in sheep’s clothing

[chris37]

He’s currently disguised as the president of the united states, and he’s giving our free candy from his black panel van that will cost you your very soul.

[spokeshave]

...take a stab (no pun intended) as which one the article refers to...........>

[ReformationFan]

Very good article. And very true.

[PMAS]

*

[RichInOC]

“I know someone will ask me, ‘Do you really mean, at this time of day, to re-introduce our old friend the devil—hoofs and horns and all?’ Well, what the time of day has to do with it I do not know. And I am not particular about the hoofs and horns. But in other respects my answer is ‘Yes, I do.’ I do not claim to know anything about his personal appearance. If anybody really wants to know him better I would say to that person. ‘Don’t worry. If you really want to, you will. Whether you’ll like it when you do is another question.’”

—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

[Melian]

Mark Twain wrote some wonderful short stories about how attractive Satan was; not ugly as usually portrayed. He still managed to show the cold evil for for what it is.

[onedoug]

As an Old Testament believer I feel that Satan requires the human mind for its existence.

There is abundant evidence for God in the universe. There is no evidence whatsoever for Satan however, until he is abstracted by human consciousness to excuse its own evil.

Imagery of “the devil” undermines ethical monotheism.

Isaiah 45:7

[Berlin_Freeper]

I will now leave it to each one of you to reflect on this "pomp of the devil," on this culture to which we say "no." Being baptized means precisely a substantial emancipation, a liberation from this culture. Today as well we know a type of culture in which the truth does count. Even if there is the apparent desire to make all truth appear, the only thing that counts is the sensation and the spirit of calumny and destruction. A culture that does not seek the good, the moralism of which is in reality a mask to confuse, to create confusion and destruction. Against this culture, in which lying presents itself in the guise of truth and of information, against this culture that seeks only material prosperity and denies God, we say "no." We also know well from many Psalms this contrast of a culture in which one seems incapable of being touched by all the evils of the world, one places oneself above all, above God, while in reality it is a culture of evil, a dominion of evil.

[ADSUM]

Here’s how psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, M.D., explains it in his classic best-seller, “People of the Lie”:

Malignant narcissism is characterized by an unsubmitted will. All adults who are mentally healthy submit themselves one way or another to something higher than themselves, be it God or truth or love or some other ideal. They do what God wants them to do rather than what they would desire. “Thy will, not mine, be done,” the God-submitted person says. They believe in what is true rather than what they would like to be true.

… In summary, to a greater or lesser degree, all mentally healthy individuals submit themselves to the demands of their own conscience. Not so the evil, however. In the conflict between their guilt and their will, it is the guilt that must go and the will that must win.

The reader will be struck by the extraordinary willfulness of evil people. They are men and women of obviously strong will, determined to have their own way. There is a remarkable power in the manner in which they attempt to control others.

[Tax-chick]

The video at the bottom of the article is really good.