Over the next week, something strange happened: I learned several pieces of information about my boss that gave me insight into his personal and professional life. Nothing major—no scandals, nothing earth-shattering. But those few pieces of information transformed how I saw him. Suddenly I understood where he was coming from. I still didn’t agree—far from it. But I found I couldn’t be angry with him anymore. In fact, I found myself wanting to work harder, to do what I could to take stress off his plate.
Nothing changed that summer—except my perception of my boss. A little empathy changed me.
There’s no such thing as monsters.1 When we look across the aisle or across the city or across the world and declare others to be monsters, there’s no surer sign we’ve misunderstood them. My favorite of the glut of young-adult, postapocalyptic novels is the Pure trilogy by Julianna Baggott. We interviewed her on the StoryMen podcast about the process of writing, and she spoke specifically about one of the series’ most popular characters, El Capitan:
I really wanted El Capitan to be a bad guy. When I really dwelled in his existence . . . he could no longer be a bad guy. . . . When you look at someone’s full humanity, what they truly fear, what they truly desire, what they’ve been through, you can’t help but know them. And once you know them, forgiveness is just a breath away.2
We make villains out of what we don’t understand. We insist they could never be like us. But a closer examination reveals we are separated by degrees, not kind. We all have the same sickness. Evil queens and femme fatales, murderous brothers and crazy kings, betrayers and devils live among us—and they are us.
I hope this journey through the lives of some of the Bible’s most infamous villains has been as surprising and enjoyable for you as writing it was for me. Again and again as I dwelled in the existences of these devils, I found Baggott’s words to be true. The more of their humanity I saw, the easier it was to understand them, to hurt for them, to feel compassion and love. I found myself rooting for them, even though I knew their stories ended in tragedy. I found myself heartbroken rather than angry or self-righteous.
Most of all, I found myself in these villains. I saw how easily I could become them and how I was often already following in their footsteps. These are the great gifts of empathy: compassion and understanding.
We desperately need empathy in our world today. The next time you come across someone you don’t understand, ask why before you rush to judgment. When others reveal themselves to be monsters (and therefore a threat to you), remember they are just like you. They bear the image of God. They love someone. They are hurt. Remember they have walked a path to get to where they are, just like you have walked a path to get to where you are.
May this journey into the hearts of the Bible’s worst villains ultimately give you a clearer picture of the God in whose image both you and they are made. May we all be quicker to listen and slower to speak. Let us rush to show mercy and be slow to anger. Let us learn to see the full humanity of the other. And as we see, may the Spirit grant understanding, that we may find forgiveness just a breath away.
As we learn to see the villains lurking within ourselves, may the Spirit breathe new life into us. As we become whole, may we become a people able to love even the devils we meet and to find them transformed into friends by that love.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, to my wife, Amanda. Usted me ha apoyado en cada paso del camino, y siempre supo que este libro iba a existir. ¡Te quiero hasta la luna y más allá! Vamos a bucear con tiburones para celebrar! Además, ¿es esto correcto? Probablemente no. Utilicé el traductor de google.
To the StoryMen, Clay Morgan and Matt Mikalatos. This book would definitely not exist without you. You coached and prodded me every step along the way, letting me bounce ideas off you, reading drafts, and celebrating with me. I can’t wait to see what’s next for us.
To my agent, David van Diest, who thinks I’m a better writer than I actually am and proved it by pulling this idea out of me.
To my editor, Al Hsu, who tolerated frantic emails and phone calls, and who made this book several factors of ten better than what I turned in to him initially. You’re a wizard, sir, and this Slytherin has nothing but respect for your Ravenclaw awesomeness.
To my best friend, Tom Fuerst. This book has your fingerprints all over it. No one else has so shaped how I understand God and how I pastor.
TO MY AWESOME PODCASTING COHOSTS
Bryne Lewis, thank you for always pushing me to think more deeply and clearly. We need to karaoke again, obviously.
Tara Thomas Smith and Heather Gerbsch Daugherty, you’ve been huge encouragements since day one. I’m thankful to think theologically with you. You make me a better pastor, and I can only hope the converse is true to some degree.
Mo Zahedi and Stacey Silverii, thank you both for reading and giving me honest feedback and insight. There’s definitely no one else I’d rather explore an abandoned cabin in the woods with—especially because I’m pretty sure I’m faster than Mo at least.
Elizabeth Glass Turner, your perspective and insight are endlessly fascinating. Thank you for your honesty, wisdom, and vulnerability.
TO MY BETA READERS, WHO GAVE ME ENCOURAGEMENT AND INSIGHT
Lorie Langdon (check out her books; they’re awesome!), Blake Atwood, Guy Decalmbre, Sara Kay Ndjerareou (they all have books; check them too), Jennifer Cho, Darryl Schafer, Tim Brooks, Amy Dennis, Abby Walls, Elijah Bender, Mikey Fissel (of the Reel World Theology podcast), and Jonathan Sprang, your insights and encouragement have been invaluable.
Tom Oord, you are one of the kindest and most generous people I’ve ever encountered. I pray one day I live out my theology half as well as you live out yours.
Da MAC, thank you for sharing in this journey with me and for letting me be part of yours. I’m so proud to support your dreams. Thank you for supporting mine.
Marissa Decalmbre and the whole Art House Dallas community, it is a rare privilege to create with you. Special thanks to my incredible Art House Dallas writers’ group, Rachel, Baily, Amber, Ryan, Amanda, and Julia, who have been a constant support and encouragement. Thank you for reading, critiquing, and cheering.
Ashley Williams, thanks for your friendship and wisdom in getting the book launched into the world.
Wendell Simpson, thank you for your wisdom, insight, and encouragement.
Paul and Jamie Kepner, thanks for the excellent book trailer.
TO THE ARTISTS WHO PUT SKIN ON MY CHARACTERS
Lars VanZandt (he’s also our tattoo artist; check out his stuff), you’re one of my oldest friends and a constant encouragement. Thank you for sharing your art with this project.
The always amazing M. S. Corley—I’m glad our love of horror brought us together.
Tye-rannosaurus Wrecks Lombardi, is there anything you’re not awesome at? Thank you for being my friend.
Katie Fisher, I find your skill, insight, and creativity challenging and inspiring.
J. Todd Anderson, your artistic vision has long inspired me. I am humbled and proud that you agreed to be part of this project.
AND TO MY COMMUNITY, NEAR AND FAR1
My amazing Catalyst Church family, thank you for giving me the space to write this book and the space to explore these ideas. You are an incredibly special congregation, and I can never quite believe I have the privilege to be your pastor.
My leadership team—Tim and Pam Moriarty, Doug Booth, John Hewitt, and Brenda Spencer—you made this book possible. Thank you for your love, encouragement, and support.
My preaching team—Sue Sweeney, Tim Basselin, Tommy Cash, Joshua Morris, Debbie Reese, and Amy Dennis—you teach me so much, and I’m honored to minister with you.
Beavercreek Nazarene congregation, I’ve been gone a little over three years, but it seems like yesterday. Thank you for giving me space to work out a lot of the material that ended up in this book.
My housemates, Jeff and Sue, Stella, and Clara, thanks for put
ting up with me holed up many evenings as I wrote and blasted music.
Michael Hughes, you listened to a lot of complaining about my process of bringing this book into the world—and a lot of complaining about triceps. Thank you for your friendship and encouragement.
Jesse Clark (AKA the King of Dayton), I know you were already a fan of these characters, since they’re the bad guys. I hope this book helps you connect with all the folks who live north of four. I’m so glad our initial suspicion of each other transformed quickly into a lifelong brotherhood.
My family, which has shaped me and let me write about you, I hope by this point in the book you still claim me. Rich and Kerry Morrell, Marshall and Jan Madill, Rick and Lois Kohnen, thank you for love, support, and encouragement. Corrie and Rusty House, Aaron and Alison Madill, Brandon and Amanda Kohnen, Mike and Lindsey Morrell, Jenni Morrell, and Heather and Scott Souther, I have more wonderful siblings and in-laws than anyone should reasonably expect in one lifetime. Laurice Madill, thanks for showing me what it looks like to always have an open door and a hot meal ready.
My grandmother, Helen Barnes, you showed me what empathy looks like when I didn’t have a clue. Thank you for your constant, faithful witness. I don’t think this book would exist without you.
Keven Wentworth, JC and Sheila Slone, Anthony and Leah Mako, Jonathan Odom, and Ty Walls, thank you for incubating these ideas, challenging me, and loving me.
Kathleen Morgason, not only did you send me to the principal, you also saw something worth cultivating in that clueless sixteen-year-old kid.
The awesome team at InterVarsity Press, you’re the textbook definition of “above and beyond.”
I wrote a lot of this book at the Book Club Café, Opening Bell Coffee Shop, and the Pearl Cup. Thanks for letting me hang out, drink excellent coffee, and write my heart out.
I hope it’s not a cliché to thank you, the reader. This book has a lot of challenging stuff in it, and if you made it this far, it means a lot to me. The process of cutting myself open and pouring it all out onto the page—then having you read it—well, it’s scary and exhilarating all at once. I hope you’ve found the reading of it life giving. I pray you’ve heard the Spirit whispering to you in these pages.
Notes
INTRODUCTION
1. The showers at Dachau were created and perfected at other camps. Though they were installed at Dachau, the camp was liberated before they could be used.
2. “Ein Konzentrationslager fur politische Gefangene,” Munchner Neueste Nachrichten, March 21, 1933, 1.
3. “Timeline of Dachau,” Jewish Virtual Library, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/timeline-of-dachau. Accessed February 24, 2017.
2 YOU WOULDN’T LIKE ME WHEN I’M ANGRY
1. Andy Crouch, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 55.
2. Like Cain, many of us inherit our identities from others—particularly our families. We’ll address this when we reach Herodias.
3. Stephen A. Diamond, “The Primacy of Anger Problems,” Psychology Today, January 18, 2009, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evil-deeds/200901/the-primacy-anger-problems.
4. Cain’s inability to understand affected his relationship with God as well as his neighbor. As theologian Miroslav Volf reminds us, pride disrupts our praise of God and therefore our sense of who we really are: “God doesn’t need our praise to be God or to ‘feel’ like God; we need to praise God to be truly ourselves—creatures made in the image of God.” Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1996), 95.
4 I’M NOT LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE
1. Interpreters as early as Pseudo-Philo—a rough contemporary of Jesus—focus on Samson as the true villain of the story, as does Judges itself. Josey Bridges Snyder, “Delilah and Her Interpreters,” in Women’s Bible Commentary, 3rd ed., ed. Carol A. Newsom (Louisville, KY: John Knox, 2012), 138-42.
2. See Melissa Jackson’s excellent analysis in Comedy and Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible: A Subversive Collaboration (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 116-42.
3. Fun fact: the Hebrew in Judges is ambiguous enough that it can be read as though the angel is actually Samson’s father. Some scholars speculate that Samson might be one of the Nephilim, the race of heroes created when the “sons of God” mated with the “daughters of humans” (Genesis 6:4). Goliath is also said to have been one of the Nephilim.
4. In the epilogue of the book, Israel basically devolves into civil war. They had wandered so far from who God called them to be that they didn’t need an outside nation to oppress them. God raised up no judge in the war, because no judge could save Israel from herself. Talk about bleak!
5. Assuming our enemies are animalistic, uncultured, and less than fully human says a lot more about us than it does our enemies.
6. For an in-depth analysis of current scholarship, see Eric Cline’s excellent book 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed.
7. Three of those cities feature prominently in Samson’s story: Ekron was closest to his home. He killed thirty Philistine lords of Ashkelon for the thirty garments he owed for losing the riddle wager at his wedding. He tore down the gates of Gaza after sleeping with a prostitute. The other two cities are Ashdod and Gath (hometown of Goliath).
8. Judges 1:19 tells us, “Judah . . . could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron.” Similarly, 1 Samuel 13:19-22 relates that the Philistines prevented the Israelites from building forges so they could not craft iron weapons.
9. This was unthinkable in Israelite culture. The notable exception, Deborah (Judges 4), is still identified by her husband (wife of Lappidoth) and works in concert with a male general.
10. For a fuller exploration of Genesis 1 as a cosmic temple text, see John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009).
11. Though most English Bibles translate torah as “Law,” a more faithful rendering of the word is “instruction” or “way.” The torah is a path that leads to God, as Paul observes in Galatians 3:24.
12. See Mary Douglas’s landmark essay “The Forbidden Animals in Leviticus,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 59 (1993): 3-23, for insight into how the Torah extends the creation logic of Genesis 1 into the dietary code.
13. In recent years, we’ve begun to modify many of these rules to allow for more liberty. So “don’t dance” has become an injunction to avoid “all forms of dancing that detract from spiritual growth and break down proper moral inhibitions and reserve.” See Dean G. Blevins, Charles D. Crow, David E. Downs, Paul W. Thornhill, and David P. Wilson, Manual 2009–2013, Church of the Nazarene (Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House, 2009), 50.
14. See David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, Unchristian (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2007), for a challenging exploration of how American evangelicals are perceived by the larger culture.
15. I explore this concept of contagious holiness more fully in JR. Forasteros, “A Contagious Holiness: Jesus, Dexter, and Walter White at the Super Bowl,” in Renovating Holiness, ed. Josh Broward and Thomas Jay Oord (Nampa, ID: SacraSage Press, 2015), 109-14.
16. There’s nothing wrong with T-shirts and music. They just don’t make us holy.
6 HOUSE OF CARDS
1. We’re seeing the rise of the corporate empire today. It’s companies like McDonald’s, Walmart, Google, and Apple that are colonizing the world, shaping practices, beliefs, and behaviors, and promising their subjects customers life if only we’ll buy what they’re selling.
2. The church has a long tradition of this. John the Revelator referred to a woman teaching heresy in Thyatira as “that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet.” He warned she would be thrown onto a bed with “those who commit adultery with her” (see Revelation 2:18-28).
3. Commandment 1 (Exodus 20:3) is nonnegotiable.
4. To put that in perspective, Washington,
DC, won’t be two thousand years old until the year 3790.
5. This was the same period the Philistines arrived on Israel’s shore.
6. Baal was a fertility god. He slept during the winter, which is why nothing grew, and so had to be awakened each spring in a fertility festival.
7. Ahab’s elder son, Ahaziah, ruled only two years. He died because he fell off a balcony. Ahab’s family really should have avoided two-story structures.
8. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, trans. Noel Malcolm, digital ed. (Chios Classics: n.p., 2012), location 1367.
9. The irony is that they have no idea what they’re asking for. Two rebels will be crucified at Jesus’ right and left at his moment of glory.
10. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
11. This is one reason the doctrine of the Trinity is so primary for the church. Because God exists as three in one, God can give and receive freely within the Godhead. God can be fully God—a giver—without anyone or anything else. God doesn’t need us. God is free to create us out of love.
12. You absolutely should read Neil Gaiman’s contemporary fantasy classic American Gods.
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