Sunday, June 21, 1998
Jim Todhunter
"Demons and Stereotypes"
Psalm 22: 19-28 Galatians 3:23-29 Luke 8:26-39
I do not believe it is necessary to believe in the literal existence of demons to appreciate the psychological and spiritual truth of a story like the one from Luke's Gospel this morning. Jews like Jesus in his day believed that a human being was created from the dust of the earth and animated by the Spirit of God. Unlike the Greeks they did not believe that we are spiritual souls inhabiting earthly bodies. Instead they believed that our souls, that is, the totality of beings, is the ineffable mixture of earthly matter and the divine breath, the Spirit. The medieval Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, said "We are bodies inhabiting souls, not souls inhabiting bodies."
The Jews of Jesus' day believed that when things go wrong in a person's life, it is sometimes because demons have entered the person. Demons are other spirits, different from the Spirit of God. Though not necessarily bad, they frequently are. The presence of demons in a person creates a spiritual conflict between them and the divine Spirit. If the demons get the upper hand, the soul of the person, that is, the totality of the person becomes different in appearance, physically, emotionally. Mortal might cannot cast out these demons. Only spiritual authority. When the demons leave the Gerasene demoniac, we see him healed, that is, restored to a kind of total and holistic health.
What are the demons of our own day? Some are easy to enumerate: alcohol and other drugs, any pattern of behavior that is addicting, certain mental illnesses, and physical maladies that can be demonically ferocious.
The kind of demons I would like to focus on this morning are those associated with stereotypes. A stereotype is an image, a perception, that is not grounded in reality. It is an illusion that gets attached to a person and begins to take hold, turning the reality of that person into the illusion. The fundamental spiritual stereotype that each person confronts is the illusion that I am not a lovable and capable person created in the image of God. I am, in reality, a good and beautiful and capable person because God created me and God doesn't create anything that isn't beautiful. But if a demon enters with a different message, the message that there is something basically and irrevocably wrong with me, I may come to believe that illusion, and start acting like it is true. My behavior sustains a tragic self-fulfilling prophecy.
Examples of demons of this type in our society are racism, sexism, and homophobia. Perhaps you read this week about the results of a study that provided both good news and bad news about young women and education. The good news is that the performance gap between boys and girls in such subjects as science and math has all but vanished. The myth that boys are bound to outperform girls in these areas is based in the stereotype of girls as inherently less capable in these subjects. The truth is that with appropriate encouragement girls do fine. The bad news is that girls are also drinking, smoking, and engaging in violent antisocial behavior at a rising rate. The stereotype of girls as "sugar and spice and everything nice," has also been cast aside. Remember that Jesus warns us that when demons are cast out, a void in the soul is created, and if we are not careful, demons can return bringing with them even worse friends.
Racism brings with it a host of demons. The country was shocked recently by the horrifying crime committed in a small town in Texas. Three white men in a pickup truck picked up a disabled black man, tied him to the back of their truck and dragged along a country road until he was dead. All three white men had criminal records, had been drinking, and were allegedly connected with white racist organizations. Count the demons at work there. Ironically these men's commitment to such groups as the Aryan Nation were honed while they were in prison, a major recruiting ground for white supremacists. The terrible thing about the demons of racism is that they threatens to turn both perpetrators and victims into the stereotype.
In thinking about the demons of our day, especially racism, and also in reflecting on this Sunday as Father's Day, my thoughts turn to Bill Gordon, who left us last week. As you know, we will celebrate his life this afternoon. Father's Day is an appropriate day for Bill, because I don't know of anything more important to him than being a good father and husband. And in our society, as he knew well, the poison of racism is always threatening to undercut our best efforts.
Bill was a great storyteller. And when I was beginning to think that I had heard all his stories, some more than once, I would be surprised with a new one. He could be very quietly moving in describing all the demons out there trying to undercut a black man in our society. He described how, during the Second World War, his saw German prisoners of war get better treatment on a troop train than African American G.I.s. One of the most poignant I can recall is his describing driving north, I think it was in Georgia, with Anne and the three boys asleep in the car late at night. Hoping just to get north without any trouble, he was stopped by a white policeman in the early morning hours. And he was faced with the choice: pay the officer a bribe or get taken to jail on some trumped-up charge. Unspeakably demeaning.
Every black man I've ever gotten to know personally has sooner or later made it clear to me that just about every single day of his life he is faced with such assaults on his humanity, demons great and small. Perhaps there are fewer hideous hate crimes, but the little spiritual "murders" continue. There is something sad, twisted, and ironic when we say that we need to do more to save the black male in our society, when it is our society that has created the terrible crippling stereotypes.
But I think of Bill not just when I worry about the problem of racism; I think about him also in terms of healing and hope. Bill was concerned with remedies. Bill was a civil rights activist all his life. He was a friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and loved to tell stories of their association. And in Dr. King's spirit, he understood that hate and violence are not the answer. Bill and Anne could be very eloquent on the subject of how if the victim of abuse succumbs to hate, then, whatever the outcome, the oppressor has won.
Spiritually, the devil has won. I see Bill Gordon as someone who didn't simply survive white racism. I see him as a man who refused to let racism dehumanize him or turn him into someone or something he was not. In the story about Jesus and the Gerasene demoniac we can see that the demons literally turned this poor man into something else he became a monster. How are demons cast out? In the story there is this wonderful dialogue between the demons and Jesus. As happens elsewhere in the Gospels, the demons recognize the power of God in Jesus before people do. In recognizing Jesus they know that they are licked. Jesus doesn't so much cast them out, as they flee before him. In their absence the poor man's true essence reemerges and the Spirit of God grows in him. This is shown not only by his return to radiant physical and mental health, but also by his eager desire to follow Jesus.
How do we free ourselves of demons without adopting the tactics of hatred and violence? A hard question to answer, and also an easy question for white folks to moralize about. I once attended a lecture by the famous family therapist Rabbi Friedman. He believed that many psychological disorders acted like demons. They could be hard to overpower if you went after them frontally, because they would focus all their power to fight you psychologists call this resistance. As a therapist he said that the only real way to deal with demons is to outwit them. If they can be distracted one can work around them. And if you can outwit them, you have in fact broken their power.
Bill delighted in telling stories about how black folks outwitted the demons of racism that they faced. Sometimes it was stories about people keeping the focus on the task before them and not letting themselves be distracted by hate and abuse like Satchel Page, after having been forced to walk miles to pitch against an all-white team, striking out the whole lineup several times in a row; or Jesse Owens' Olympic triumph before Hitler's racism, or Rosa Parks simply refusing to yield her seat on the bus. But when the demons could be outwitted along the way, that was the best. In a favorite tale, Bill related how Dr. Booker T. Washington had been invited to speak before a prestigious audience on a southern campus. His train arrived in the town and it was necessary to get transportation to the campus a number of miles away. He hailed a horse drawn carriage and was told by the driver that he was not permitted to transport Negroes. He would lose his job if he did. Washington thought a moment and then asked the man if there was a rule against Negroes driving whites. "No," the man said. "Get in." And he arrived at his lecture on time. The story shows that love and wit can triumph over hate. I was always tempted to ask Bill what would have happened if the man in response to Washington's question had reached down and lashed him with the whip. I think Bill would have answered "But he didn't." The point is that the story shows that wit, humor and imagination are very powerful forces when you are up against demons.
Add to these, trust. Trust in oneself, and trust in God. You and I cannot beat the demons ourselves. We just don't have the spiritual resources. Christians believe that it is Jesus alone who can beat the devil. What we are called to do is find shelter in the power of the almighty, and stay human as best we can, drawing on all the resources of wit, humor, and imagination. And to stay put in what is right. To be steadfast. So many of the songs of the civil rights movement and the traditional of African-American spiritual say this over and over. "Keep your eye on the prize." "We shall not be moved." And before too long, "We Shall Overcome." In all these Bill ran the course with courage, determination, wit and good humor. And now he has overcome. Amen.
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