Entitlement and Fundamental Apologetics

There is a reality of evil that is being denied in our world today, and I even see it denied among the Christian community. For some strange reason, no one wants to talk about evil spirits, evil entities that exist in a world parallel to ours, permeating our reality every day. These are the spirits surrounding us, leading us away from God in subtle ways.
The devil is very crafty and creative. There is no one he will not attack and when he is trying to attack a good person, his attacks are subtle and masked as good. From my own experience, lived and observational, this attack can happen in two ways, among several others: entitlement and fundamental apologetics.
“Entitlement is a bastard” my spiritual director told me when I mentioned the word. It struck a nerve with him and he feels the same way about it as I do, but has felt it longer. Entitlement is a concept preached by the secular aspect of the world to those living in the world and of the world. To the Christian, it is the voice in your head whispering: “Come on, you deserve this. You are entitled to this. You’ve waited so long. God is always asking you to give of yourself, now it’s time you give yourself something”. It is what makes us unnecessarily hold onto anger, because we are entitled to that anger. A terrible injustice was committed against us, and it is our right, our entitlement to be angry, and hold onto it as long as possible, and hold things against people for as long as possible, to make them realise and regret their sins. The most practical example I can give is weddings. This concept of entitlement is weaved together with materialism, and what better way for Satan to attack our beautiful young Christian couples than to attack and poison their public expression of their love. Weddings used to be very simple because they were for God and the couple, and anyone who cared to share in the joy of the union. However, now, God seems to be forgotten, and weddings have become for other people, or solely about the couple getting married, not about the couple being united under God. God is being pushed away because a “religious wedding” is seen as lame, and the guests won’t understand it and so they won’t like it and will speak ill of your wedding. What was once a sacred ritual and sacrament has now been poisoned by materialism and entitlement. If a couple decides to have a very simple wedding, they are seen as weird, immature, and clearly not ready to be married. The more you spend on your “big day” is equated with how ready you are to be married. This line of thinking seems to ignore the fact that the more you spend on your wedding, the higher the chance of divorce. Now the couple is getting wrapped up in materialism, preparing for a party and not a marriage. They are getting caught up in material, inanimate things with no value, and if they ever want to have a more simple wedding, people jump all over them saying it isn’t “tasteful”, or it is “cheap”. Would it really be terrible for a couple to actually have a proper wedding, one that is about God and takes the focus off of the couple and the guests as much as possible? No, because I can guarantee you that these are the couples who will outlast all of the others, because they value that which is life-giving and not life-taking.
The other subtle attack I mentioned is fundamentalism and apologetics. Apologetics means to explain things (yes, I am aware of the irony in this statement), so for explain, one who is well versed in Church apologetics is good at explaining Church doctrine, what the Church believes. Apologetics in itself is not a bad thing, however, it is for a particular audience, mainly an academic one. It is certainly not meant for the emotional and defensive. From my experience, I notice that those who eat up apologetics the most are fundamentalists, because it lacks a sense of compassion and empathy. Lawyers are trained in apologetics, and that isn’t a stab at lawyers, it is saying that in apologetics, there is a lack of emotion because “these are the facts, it’s just business, and if you don’t like what you hear, well that’s too bad. Truth hurts”. Truth, however, doesn’t hurt. Truth is life-giving and sustaining. The delivery of truth, on the other hand, is what can and often does, hurt people. For fundamentalists, this is where I see evil spirits at play. I have a theory for why fundamentalists seem to be a big fan of apologetics, and it is this: I am doing my job in telling you the truth, and if you don’t like it, it’s your fault for being hard of heart and not listening to me. I am right, and you are wrong, and until you adhere to my view, the right view, you are at risk for going to hell. I have told you the truth, and you will not listen. That is not my fault if you ignore truth, therefore, I can now walk away guilt free. This is where I tend to disagree with pro-life fundamentalists, and those who deliver pro-life apologetics as their way of evangelising. Apologetics is not a legitimate form of evangelisation because it is not concerned with changing one’s heart or mind, it is concerned with making your opponent look stupid and ridiculous, and making them realise how much they don’t know about the issue at hand. For this reason, apologetics is not loving, and it is not evangelisation. Apologetics is emotionless. It certainly isn’t going to convert anyone, and will only result in getting people’s backs up. There is a popular phrase that states one must “know their audience”. If one is dealing with a crowd of upset and emotional people, how will apologetics help them? It is not a language they are able to understand given their state of mind, and rather than attempt to drag them up to your mindset, perhaps you should jump down to theirs and meet them on a personal level. And this is where the evil spirits attack us. They want to keep us away from meeting people on a personal level because that is the level to which one will encounter God.
Evil spirits are all around us, and we must be diligent in discerning them from good spirits, and recognise their movements within us. We cannot deny their existence, for in doing so, we are only giving them more power over our thoughts and actions.
My spiritual director told me an aboriginal story about a grandfather going out to the woods with his grandson. The grandson is excited by all the nature he sees around him, and is in awe when they come across a wolf. “Look Grandfather! It’s a wolf!” he cries with excitement. The Grandfather smiles and says “Yes, it is. Do you know that there are two wolves living inside your heart?” Puzzled, the grandson says, “Two wolves in my heart? Is that true?” The grandfather replies, “Yes, it is true. One is a good wolf, and one is a bad wolf. The good wolf brings peace, love, life and joy. The bad wolf is mean and deceptive and makes you do bad things. The two wolves are constantly fighting with one another.” The grandson pauses and thinks about this for a moment, and says to his grandfather, “But grandfather, if they are always fighting with one another inside my heart, how do I know which one is going to win?” The grandfather replies, “Whichever wolf you feed will be the wolf that wins.”