The Devil is in the Detail

I was intrigued to read at the weekend of the Church of England’s proposal to banish references to the Devil and to sin from the Church’s baptism ceremony.

Apparently, in some of the key parts, the candidate now says ‘...Oppose the power of evil...’ instead of ‘Fight valiantly...against sin, the world and the devil...’ Also, the question ‘Do you reject the devil..?’ becomes ‘...Do you reject evil...?’

So, the Church wants to do away with the idea of the devil as a personal reality, and sin, the result of an offence against God, becomes the generic notion of evil, a moral category.

There are dissenting voices and I’m with the theologian and former Bishop of Rochester, Nazir-Ali, who writes ‘because of (the Church’s) anxiety to make everyone feel welcome and its desire not to offend anyone...(there is a trend to) ...minimise depth and mystery in its worship...(which may) reduce the fullness of the Church’s faith to easily swallowed soundbites.’ (The Mail on Sunday).

There is a similar unease at times in the Catholic Church. As a catechist, I’m familiar with the Rite of Infant Baptism which contains a Prayer of Exorcism followed by anointing with the Oil of Catechumens.

Following the 1973 horror movie ‘The Exorcist’ and its successors, the public associates the word exorcism with diabolical excesses and scary antics such as head-spinning and projectile vomiting. It is difficult to fathom why the cute infant being baptized should require a prayer of exorcism. What evil spirit is it that inhabits the child, requiring such a prayer?

The answer lies in understanding the intention of the prayer and of the anointing that follows it.

First, it addresses the ‘reality’ of Satan who successfully tempted our first human ancestors to disobey God the creator, thereby grafting the sin gene onto the DNA of the human race.

Almighty and ever-loving God,
You sent your only Son into the world
To cast out the power of Satan, spirit of evil,
To rescue man from the kingdom of darkness,
And bring him into the splendour of your kingdom of light.

Then, it invokes divine assistance in negating the inherited condition of potential for sin and prays for ongoing protection through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

We pray for these children:

Set them free from original sin,
Make them temples of your glory,
And send your Holy Spirit to dwell within them.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 Infant baptism is driven by the faith of the parents, godparents and community. Thus, the prayer references (what should be their common and key) beliefs including creation, the creator God, the only Son and the Holy Spirit, the reality of sin – the root of which is a lack of love, its origin in Satan, the need for rescue and ultimate unity with the creator of light.

This is echoed during the anointing with oil when the priest prays that ‘Christ may strengthen’ the infant with his power.

So, rather than expelling some demonic entity in the child, the prayer reflects on the origin and reality of sin or the lack of love. To remedy that omission, the eternal and loving creator sent His only son to teach, to demonstrate divine love and to die for us, redeeming us in the process. The prayer asks God to strengthen the infant so that he or she will make the right choices when, in future, there are difficult decisions and temptations to face, and the potential for sinning.

And who is the author of sin? Inspired scripture tells us it is the devil/Satan/Lucifer. In fact, it mentions him no less than 107 times (KJV according to an internet source). That’s not an accident.

We can apply a broad brush and chose many synonyms (sin-onyms maybe) to describe sin – but the Devil is still in the detail!