I ran across this while reading the blog of a Pagan Quaker (Yes there is such a thing, yes it's a different discussion).  It's part of the Faith and Practice statement of a particular Christan Quaker group called Freedom Friends http://freedomfriends.org

In the Batman comics, the Joker is evil. He enjoys making people suffer. It is often the suffering as much as the material rewards that gives him pleasure. In real life, We all knew kids like that in school. But as we look at the suffering around the world in this century, very little of it seems to be done for pure joy of seeing people suffer.

Off the top. I don't believe this statement that "the devil made me do it" because I don't think there is an entity like the devil.

I think there is evil. And to describe this evil, the writers of the bible used the devil as a thing to describe it.

What do you think?

What better time than Hallowe’en to write about magic and the battle between the forces of good and evil? Stephen Holmes, the acting head of divinity at St.

The confession is that, with the exception of a few times when I led the service, I have not attended church for a full year. Partly it's because I moved, leaving behind what was both a community and a congregation (and it's my former church that I occasionally returned to as a preacher.  I don't yet feel any such sense of community where I now live. But that's not the whole story.

Have you ever thought about the possibility that they don't exist?

I know that there are people across the world who are evil (but I can say that in my life I have not met many)

There are also ill people who do evil things. But does that make them evil? ( If so, I have met many in my life).

So when does ill become evil?

Just pondering after the shooting at Fort Bragg.

I think Gambling is bad. However on a small scale it is not that bad but on a large scale it produces a lot of suffering.

The UCC has a policy on Gambling which supports a boycott of  funds generated from gambling, like the trillium fund. However in effect the church only boycotts gambling funds that come from government run casinos and lotteries. (Small scale gambling)

(From The United Church http://www.united-church.ca/economic/gambling)

Traditional reasons for opposition to gambling include the following:

Couldn't the Devil in the Jewish-Christian tradition be nothing more (or less) than the human ego, and sin nothing more (or less) than the fruit of a life centered on that ego?  

Is this just a "liberal" view or are their "conservatives" who view the Devil and sin this way as well?

How do we feed and nurture evil? Or maybe the question should be, why do we feed and nurture evil? What is in the human physche that stops  us from confronting evil in its tracks ? I would like to hear your responses.