The trouble with reading those little rectangular things with all the flat dealies bound together, you have to find the exact one in order to come up with the quote. And I'm not finding it (the book, that is; I could find the quote if I could find the book) so you'll have to trust me. M. Scott Peck, in People of the Lie, talked about how evil people hide where you would least expect to find them.
The BTK killer was a house inspector and church warden. Another fine Christian businessman was merely counseling women in trouble. And the priests... well, no links necessary. Please understand, I'm not saying the church is evil. Rather, it represents the perfect hiding place for evil.
Failing finding my quote, here's a paraphrase of Peck's point:
Human evil is that which destroys human life. More telling, however, is what characterizes evil. According to Peck, it is the persistent and accumulative refusal of the evil person to face the truth about himself. He may admit publicly that, of course, he is a sinner just like everyone else. But deep down inside he does not believe it. So rather than face up to his own sin he is constantly scapegoating: laying it on other people, making his faults theirs. Evil people are masters of disguise, morally. They are constantly dodging their conscience. In other words, evil people are liars. Hence the title of the book.
Minvolved found the appropriate quote for today's sermon:
"It's vile," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach [speaking of Pres. Clinton]. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."
Foley, who went after child pornography in Congress (and we mean that in the best way) went after children in Congress (in the worst way).
Not every moralist is an evil hypocrite. But if you were evil, where would you hide?
