Interesting Piece on CE Today

I think the author is on to something, only I would say that hate is not the opposite of indifference but that one of the fruits of hate is indifference. Too many movies of Hitler have given us a lopsided picture of hate as a sort of theatrical screaming malevolence. "The banality of evil" is necessary to balance the picture. Very often hatred results in a staggering incuriosity and intellectual torpor. The most evil creature of all--Satan--is pictured in Scripture as, oddly, not really knowing or caring the first thing about the object of his hatred: "The light shines in the darkeness, and the darkness has not [here the word can mean either overcome or comprehended] it" say John. That speaks volumes. The devil, being the father of lies, speaks lies as his native language, says Jesus. He lies even to himself. As C.S. Lewis mentions in his Preface to Paradise Lost, when you say, as Satan does, "Evil be thou my good" you include in that proposition "Nonsense be thou my sense". When you throw away the good of the intellect you don't become less clever, you just deploy your cleverness to achieve especially stupid ends.

Humans who sell themselves to evil put themselves in exactly the same boat. It's not that bin Laden et al where indifferent instead of hateful. It's that they were so full of hate they were indifferent. It's a way of being that "wins" in the short run ("Mission Accomplished", says Satan, "I got Jesus crucified!" but tends of have long term shortcomings as Satan discovered three days later. However, Satan being an ass, he has learned nothing since then and the same Bullwinkle Strategy is employed by him time and again in the hope that "This time for sure!" it will work. Satan, and his servants such as bin Laden will fail. In bin Laden's case, we pray that his evil will be destroyed by his repentance. In Satan's case, the end of that story is described in vivid form in the Apocalypse.

And that's my 9/11 Memorial for today. He shall wipe away ever tear from their eyes. The devil will go into the lake of fire. All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well through Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has already destroyed sin, hell and death by his most glorious cross and resurrection. Praise his glorious Name for ever and ever.

Amen!