Thailand's Real Religion

I've only been here in Thailand eight weeks so far. So what I have to say about Thai culture is inevitably half-baked. Also, it's a little dangerous to criticize in the way I'm going to, which is why I'm posting here, not on Facebook.

Riding my bicycle back from the Big C superstore yesterday gave me some time to think... "What is the real religion in Thailand?" I think the state religion here is spirit worship and king worship -- enforced by social pressure and fear. If you disrespect the spirits, you will get a curse on you. If you disrespect the king, you go to jail for maybe ten years.

I didn't put Buddhism as the state religion because I'm generalizing from my experience in Taiwan that Buddhism is a veneer on the outside, with only a few truly dedicated followers, while spirit worship is something that every family participates in, a tradition that started thousands of years before Buddhism came around. Buddhism is more prominent in Thailand than in Taiwan, as monasteries have been centers of education, the king is supposed to be some kind of Buddhist-Hindu incarnation, and every man gets to be a monk for at least a short time once in his life. But I think spirit worship runs deeper and is included in the Buddhist blessings and ceremonies.

So, if spirit worship and king worship are the state religion, what is the folk religion? The heart religion in Thailand? It's got to be romance. Romance, the kind that Thais, especially women, watch on TV every night on soap operas called Lakorns. Romance promises beauty, sex, love, and power... and maybe a happy, committed relationship -- things everybody really wants, to the point of idolatry. Even though these shows are horribly melodramatic, they also have every good thing that Thai Christianity lacks: passion, arguments, violence, truth, love.

These qualities have been banished from religion by Buddhism and syncretism, but not from the life of the people. People get excited when they see something worth fighting for. They will suspend their reason to follow the story because it picks up their emotions and slams them together again and again. It's because in these structured little stories, there is a good guy and a good girl who are destined for each other. And we know that by the end, they'll be together despite the third lovers who try to barge in. That's an absolute truth.

Would to God that we can rescue these elements -- passion, arguments, violence, truth, love -- and put them in their rightful place in the divine romance of his chosen people.

Review: Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung

Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will. Chicago: Moody, 2009. (Published on Amazon Kindle)

Kevin DeYoung’s purpose in writing this book is to challenge young Christians to make decisions more confidently, without waiting for a special word from the Lord. Instead, he wants us to get wisdom, and place more importance on the moral and ethical decisions than on the ones like marriage or employment, where either option could glorify God.  He speaks of two wills in God: the secret will of decree, and the open will of command. (Deut. 29:29) A third will of direction, which many Christians are desperately looking for, is not promised to us in Scripture.  The way of wisdom, by which God typically guides his people today, involves a lifestyle of earnestly “reading our Bibles (storing up God’s commands), listening to sound advice (turning our ears to wisdom), and praying to God (calling out for insight).”  (Cf. Prov. 2:1-6) 

DeYoung is careful to say that God can still speak to people directly through dreams or visions or small voices, but theologians from both the cessationist and the charismatic camps agree that we shouldn’t expect it to be normal.  According to Hebrews 1, the most reliable way of hearing God is through his Son: either by seeing and hearing him when he was on the earth, by hearing his apostles speak, or by illumination from the Spirit of Christ as we read the Bible and understand it in context.  DeYoung comments that when we give the stamp "God told me" to our mere impressions, then we foolishly put our decisions beyond the reach of sound advisers.

This is the first book I’ve read all the way through on my cell phone’s Kindle app. That’s partly because DeYoung keeps it short, steps on your toes, and tells personal stories. Although he’s a pastor, he doesn’t write just from his own life experience and scholarship; he also uses his two grandpas as examples in retrospect of trust in Providence, hard work, decisive action, and contentment; which he says were more common in the World War II generation than they are today.  

After reading chapter eight last night on “the way of wisdom,” I woke up and read Proverbs 1 and 2, with an ache in my heart to learn wisdom, that is, to think ahead and do the unpleasant things that are necessary because they are the right things to do, such as brushing my teeth when I’d rather go straight to bed, or writing a lesson plan for the week when I’d rather wait until ten minutes before class.  Because I’m called to glorify God, taking risks based on faith, and then being faithful in whatever job I end up (English teacher, professor, paralegal, Bible translator, tutor, etc.), is more important than finding my fulfillment in “the one right job”.  I wish more of my friends would read this book.

Dryden on Donne

 

Like high-hanging grapes, some people can't find it in them to love or understand complex wit. John Dryden thus wrote the above critique of John Donne, my favorite poet, in the dedication to his book of the enormous title, The satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis translated into English verse by Mr. Dryden and several other eminent hands ; together with the satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus, made English by Mr. Dryden ; with explanatory notes at the end of each satire ; to which is prefix'd a discourse concerning the original and progress of satire, p. iii (London: Jacob Tonson, 1693).  (The dedication was written to Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset.)  

When Dryden speaks of translating Donne into numbers, he means a regular poetic meter. When he speaks of translating Donne into English, your guess is as good as mine. But when he speaks of metaphysics, I can only hope that someone would say the same about me, and that someone like Janel Mueller would still appreciate my writing for what it is, because being clear and heartfelt is awesome, but being able to wrench a metaphor from the city gates and carry it to the top of a hill like Samson is clearly more awesome still. (See Mueller, Women among the Metaphysicals: A Case, Mostly, of Being Donne for. Modern Philology 87.2 [Nov 1989] p. 142.)

If you still have no idea what this is about, read the last sentence of the quote. The female mind should be given more credit than that.

How is the real story developing?

Read this first. Then this. I read them in the opposite order, but I'm afraid you won't last through the second one in time to read the first one, which is shorter and more edifying. Enough with the mystery already!

The first article is by Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz, and he talks about two of his favorite authors (Salinger and Hemingway) and how their books enraptured him with romantic lies about times and places that hardly existed.  A creator of wonderful imaginative literature can still waste their life. Miller urges us toward a better reality, saying, "the only story that actually tells the truth is the story you have lived, good or bad."  He calls his piece: "For a creator, there's no benefit to romantic preoccupations."

The second article is by Matt Thorn, a cultural anthropologist who studies Japanese manga and their fans. His article is called "Girls And Women Getting Out Of Hand: The Pleasure And Politics Of Japan's Amateur Comics Community." This article is a major step for me toward understanding gender phenomena in East Asia. Thorn talks about his observations at different amateur comic book shows in Japan throughout the 1990s, how idealized gay themes featuring pretty-boys have become the center of comics written by and for young women, how surrogates like this help wealthy girls escape from cultural expectations about their gender roles and relationships, and yet how either through or in spite of their manga obsession, these girls manage to develop normal relationships with people of either gender.

Don't expect me to start accusing at this point, because it was just such escapist voyeurism that brought me to Matt Thorn's piece. But I do want to let you know that I've woken up to the realization that it's my life that matters, and not the stories in my head that make part of its chapters. And it's not my life, if it's to be a life that matters.  Because the life I now live in this wonderfully earthy, preoccupied, and gendered body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Do you love performativity like Audrey Hepburn? Do you hate it like Betty Friedan? Do you just watch it to name it like Judith Butler? Either way, every action and the thought within it is the site of Relationships, human and divine, taking place in a field whose boundaries were created by Someone more imaginative than I. As long as I and my little brain can rattle around in that, it's all right.

Now that you've heard my take, I hope you'll live more consciously. But if you haven't yet got to the primary sources of this post, please read this first. Then this.

Schlatter on Nietzche's teaching style

"[As a college student, Adolf Schlatter] heard Friedrich Nietzche lecture on Plato. Nietzche was one of his professors. But the impression was not positive. Years later, he recalled chiefly Nietzche's 'offensive haughtiness. He treated his listeners like despicable peons. He convinced me of the principle, that to throw out love, is to despoil the business of teaching. Only genuine love can really educate.'" - Robert Yarbrough, "Adolf Schlatter and the Future of Christianity: Schlatter's Life and Legacy," 1995 Francis Schaeffer Lecture Series at Covenant Seminary.

THE WELL OF GRIEF

Those who will not slip beneath
the still surface of the well of grief
turning downward through its black water
to the place we cannot breathe
will never know the source from which we drink,
the secret water, cold and clear, nor find in the darkness glimmering
the small round coins
thrown away by those who wished for something else.

By David Whyte from Close to Home

I found this here.

A note on the teaching authority of the church

1 John 2:26-27 says, "I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as [Christ's] anointing teaches you about all things, and as that anointing is true and is not a lie, just as it has taught you, remain in [Christ]."

Colin Kruse, in his commentary The Letters of John (p. 111-12) deals with the following question: who or what guarantees correct belief among church members? "Is it the teaching authority of the bishops (so Irenaeus), or the inner illumination of individual believers by the Holy Spirit? Protestants and Catholics have been divided over this issue for centuries."  Kruse cites three good answers to this question.

1. Inner instruction agrees with outer instruction.

"One resolution of the problem, the conclusion reached by Augustine of Hippo, is that there are both inner and outer forms of instruction. Outer instruction, given to all by the teachers of the church, is not enough. There must also be inner instruction, given by the anointing of Christ, the Holy Spirit, otherwise the external instruction will be understood only externally, and that is not enough."

 2. Awareness of the truth unites the whole church.

"[Johann] Michl believes that such an approach is too subjective because it allows people to adopt whatever teaching impresses them. He argues rather that an awareness of the truth is given to the whole church, including those who hold the teaching office and the congregation of the faithful. These stand in an organic union and complement one another. The general faith consciousness of the members and the proclamation of the teachers, through the power and help of the Holy Spirit, lead to an infallible possession of the truth to which it bears witness without error."

3. The Holy Spirit confirms the Good News.

"Perhaps the question here is wrongly framed. As far as 1 John is concerned, the question is not between the Holy Spirit and the teachers of the church but between the Holy Spirit and the gospel message as it was heard from the beginning (2:24). The role of the Spirit is primarily as a testimony to the tradition, not as a source of new revelation. Admittedly the tradition is handed down by the witnesses, and to that extent the Holy Spirit confirms the testimony of (true) teachers."

Just think about what this means... although our pastors are there to teach us to abide in the truth, it is not their job to keep us in the faith... the Holy Spirit does it. And when we hear them preach something we've heard before, we don't just say, "I've heard it before," but we respond, "Yes! That's the same thing the Holy Spirit taught me! Let's do it."

What is a library for?

I just took a survey for a county library system in Oregon. The most interesting question it asked was "What are the top three roles of a library?" I put down (1) a resource to browse/borrow books for children, (2) a place to conduct research, (3) a quiet place to study.  What would you put?

The Birth of Christ in Greek

Yesterday I watched the Christmas story narrated in Greek. You can see it too; it's in a Youtube video called ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΓΕΝΝΑΤΑΙ ΔΟΞΑΣΑΤΕ. Don't be surprised by the interspersed chant... welcome to praise and worship as Greeks have known it for two thousand years. Read along with the subtitles and realize the phonetic variation of time and region that's possible in a language that's actually used. Also notice that you pick up more liveliness in the words than if you were poring over the text at your own pace.

Hagiographers and Iconoclasts and the Third Way

The following quote about A.B. Simpson, founding guru of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, typifies the response we ought to have not only to our higher life, holiness movement forebears, but also our fundamentalist or Restoration Movement forebears, and especially our fundamentalist, higher life forebear who lives in Oak Brook. Without our heritage, our prior experience and identity are uprooted. But without honesty and the will to reform, our brains and consciences turn to mush. Take and heed, take and heed.

Gordon T. Smith, Conversion and Sanctification in the Christian & Missionary Alliance (1992).

We tend to have two kinds of people within the C&MA -- the hagiographers and the iconoclasts. The iconoclasts see little if any good in the heritage of the C&MA when it comes to theology. [A.B.] Simpson and his contemporaries are viewed as incompetent in both biblical exegesis and in theological method, and thus as having little to contribute to a modern discussion. They are even, perhaps, a bit embarrassed by our founders. The unstated assumption is that the sooner we can move on and distance ourselves from Simpson, the better.

The hagiographers, on the other hand, feel the need to refer to the founder of the denomination as Dr. Simpson, which is the Alliance equivalent of saying Saint Simpson. In this perspective, Simpson did no wrong, especially when it comes to exegesis and theology. These folk would seem to have us defend every aspect and perspective that Simpson brought to the question of sanctification.

We need an approach to this discussion that affirms tradition along with the authority of Scripture. We need to affirm the strength and vitality of our theological and spiritual heritage, and the power and significance of Simpson's insights, while also acknowledging that Simpson was neither a good exegete nor a good theologian. He was a preacher, prophet, and leader. We can affirm his strengths, and recognize that he was a product of his age. He was a giant in the religious movements of the late 19th century. But he also had some glaring weaknesses, notably those that we find so difficult to accept: weak biblical exegesis and poor theological method.

Yet, it is possible to develop a theology of sanctification and of Christian experience in general, that reflects careful attention to Scripture while also affirming the insights of the heritage. This contemporary perspective on sanctification, then, will reflect the strengths, wisdom and insights of the denominational founders. We stand on the shoulders of giants. But it would also seek to formulate our theology with attention to biblical exegesis and theological method. Our contemporary statement will be with different language and probably a new paradigm by which we capture the biblical message and the insights of our heritage.

Study of sanctification

I've got a big-time intellectual curiosity right now on the topic of sanctification. It seems like the pietistic way I hear so often isn't satisfying enough for my mind. But I still need sanctification like I need a doctor. It's ugly.

I've been following threads in John Piper's book Future Grace and the various materials by Andy Naselli analyzing the Keswick theology of sanctification. I've made up my mind to read Phoebe Palmer's book from the 1840s, The Way of Holiness, which seemed to spark off the Methodist Holiness movement in the US, which spread to England and became the Keswick conference... the party includes Fanny Crosby, Amy Carmichael, Andrew Murray, and Dwight Moody.

Here's an interesting survey of some of these life-connections in the Higher-Life movement, which reached even C.T. Studd, Billy Graham and Bill Bright.

The things I'm disturbed about are anti-intellectualism, passive quietism, and unrealistic, superstitious assessments of self and spiritual realities -- in short, a stereotypically feminine approach to dealing with sin. It emphasizes faith (let go and let God), but the faith is the sort you need for falling, not for climbing.  I really don't know what to make of the accusations being lobbed back and forth, especially when I read about Phoebe Palmer's life and the emotional demands of revivalism that she was responding to. So... if you understand it well and it works for you, great. But I'm in search of a more comprehensive model. As I said in an earlier post, I'm looking for an openeyed faith that is realistic and robust. I'm sure others have gone in the opposite direction for equally valid reasons. I'm not.

It's been a worthy distraction, though. And I finally found the passage I was looking for, that both Piper and Naselli refer to: J.I. Packer's testimony of "deliverance" from an unrealistic pietist view of sanctification.

Read below, from Packer's introduction to Triumph over Temptation, an abridgement of John Owen (pp. 31-37).

Sincerity in evangelism

I rediscovered this essay from my blog of five years ago. I was probably even more of a scared, cloistered elitist bookworm then than I am now. But this piece amazed me, and the sentiment convicted me.  I even remember trying to narrate it to a friend. I can see images all mixing in from Phil Garvin, John Bunyan, "Jerry West", and G.K. Chesterton to be squeezed into the four corners of a reflection paper for philosophy class. Enjoy.

Sincerity in evangelism

How is the disciple to act as a “commercial fisherman” rather than a “sport fisherman” when spreading the good news? Most undesirable is the pushy salesman attitude who wants above all else to lead his friend in some fideistic “sinner’s prayer”. Also undesirable is the one who starts out with an intellectual apologetic, meets unbelief and turns into a small-mouthed apologetic intellectual. Both these lack a sincere, pure heart that is supremely interested in the interests of God and of his friend. Part of this is comes from self-reliance, not devoting oneself to prayer and the Scriptures. Another part of it is not being frank about one’s own sin.

Moving on from fishing, another analogy of the sea is the rescuer of a shipwreck. Bits of treasure, gold coins, fallen timbers scattered on the shore. The treasure is the problem of pleasure. Smashed shivers of timbers, the chill of the waves, are the problem of pain. The shipwreck is the world. It is civilization, nature, and the natural Mansoul. Drowning in sin. This shipwreck is the whole reason for the gospel.

And now, when I awake and find myself picking through debris on the beach, imagining if this might have been Admiral Drake’s galleon, forget both that it actually was, that his Patron is at this moment in Portsmouth, designing and financing a new vessel – and that my comrade is still unconscious, trapped in the sinking bilge.

This is the amnesia of the disciple. It is not that I merely believe the Resurrection; I am convinced of it. My weakness of heart, my iniquity, my amnesia, is as much a proof of the cause of the shipwreck and the certainty of my mate’s doom as is his own heedlessness to belief. He doesn’t see the danger because he cannot. I must remember what I was convinced of, so as to “rescue” him and myself for the service of the Patron, on the future Galleon. Don’t expect him to believe, expect to convince him of the danger.

Here we're at.

Worried as hell. Wormwood the result of worms of anticipation and dread slugging their way through my soul. Ugh.

I'm settled into a host family here, the Cai Jia. Last night I had beef hotpot with my host family and my coteacher Danette. Then played basketball with them and the neighbors. Mostly got whupped except for my height. I don't play hard against girls, and I haven't practiced making baskets in a long time.

The day before yesterday I cleaned a dorm room, read the first chapter of Millard Erickson's book on eschatology, and was taken out for hotpot with the KaiShiuan school staff.  I'm blessed.

I'm worried that my sister is going to die, and I can't do much about it.  I'm cursed.
Spending time researching her medical condition awakens my research gene and puts my teaching gene to sleep. Blink.
Help is on the way, and none too soon. Soon I can tell more. We can never rezar too much.

I'm worried because payday and transportation are not conveniently known and close.

I'm worried about what I can do to get my C1 class to understand and pay attention in class. Every time I teach them, I have them for multiple periods, and the first one their Chinese teacher is always gone. They don't listen, because they don't understand me. And because I start them out in the big auditorium, the ones in the back talk among themselves, and the ones in the middle fight or clown around, and the ones in the front get the brunt -- unless I walk around, in which case the ones in the front can't turn around and see me because the seats are so high.

This is the price I pay for acculturation. Those who wish for language immersion don't notice this price.  An openeyed faith is not part of this price, but it is the gratis sine-qua-non that I hope is rapidly growing.

I'm a little annoyed, too, that all my kids call me Naifen, a nickname that means powdered milk. Don't laugh, you'd be annoyed too, after a while. Guess I'll have to get used to it.

Every once in a while, my little friends trip through the office and cheer me up with "what's your name!"

How to make the jump from no English to enough English to converse? I've made it a principle not to use Chinese myself during class, unless it is to suggest something to someone, to talk to the Chinese teacher, or repeat something someone else says.  So, my expectations might be too high, and they might need to stay there. I will use lots of real objects, and tell some picture stories. I will go through the book as quickly as possible for them to pick up the vocab and still not feel lost. Do some games along the way... and mark out time for the following items:
(1) Telling stories with big-picture books.
(2) Free-writing. I "very very like" (in my host-sister Susan's words) this article on early EFL writing in Taiwan's 1st-grade classrooms.

My previous experience with English camps and the Taoyuan English Village has prejudiced me against noise and against understanding learner native-language talk in a positive way.  That has got to change a little bit. Read the EFL writing article above, pp. 5-6, to see what I mean.

I got encouragement today from Quin and Merv's posts. God is good.
It seems easier to find good things lurking when full of worry than when full of okness. It keeps me from imploding.

I saw my more prolific self in a mirror yesterday. (His name is J.K. Gayle) Stroll over and look before he quits blogging next month.

I have two new heroes:
Kurt Eichenwald, a New York Times reporter who persuaded a young webcam performer to leave his business and become a federal witness.
Lloyd Reynolds (1902-1978), a self-taught calligraphy enthusiast from Oregon who mentored Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay, who wrote the Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series published by Portland State University, the handwriting curriculum that I sort-of learned from growing up.

Goodbye.

Humboldt on Language Learning

I posted this on Facebook this summer while I was reading Noam Chomsky's Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (MIT, 1965). It's a strange, mystical quote with a lot of reassurance. It also humbly approximates the findings of psycholinguistics.

From page 51:

Applying this rationalist view to the special case of language learning, [Wilhelm von] Humboldt (1836) concludes that one cannot really teach language but can only present the conditions under which it will develop spontaneously in the mind in its own way.

Dropping some lines from Kinmen

Hi from Kinmen. 

I neglected to post that I was coming here, so now you know. I'm part of a new bilingual program at a small school in Kinmen, ROC. Basically, I'm here to teach first-through-sixth graders and give them the motivating conditions for learning to listen, speak, read, and write in English. Students who have exposure to only ten-or-so foreigners within a distance short of boat or plane. That's a big, and cool, task, which my friends who have volunteer-taught here for years have prepared them for in some ways, but such an intensive program of English (8-10 hours per week per classroom) is breaking really new ground here.

I just arrived yesterday about noon, settled in with my hosts, the Tsai family, within walking distance of the school. Most of all, I'm overwhelmed with the nice place they've got for me. It's a new 3-story house with granite floors, I have a good-size room on the first floor. The family has 2 girls and a boy... the eldest girl, Yicheng, and the boy, Bingcheng, are in Jr. High, and had a math tutor and an English tutor over last night from the college. The youngest girl, Susan, is one of my students. She's really outgoing, and is the most willing of any of them to communicate in English.  Mr. Tsai is a roofer and a carpenter; he builds roofs for temples and such, and he also makes or installs doors, and makes furniture out of wood.  Mrs. Tsai is really welcoming, too.

The kids at school don't speak hardly any English at all... most are at a first-grade level of English. They're a lot of fun in Chinese, though, once they know you understand some of what they're saying. Most of the girls are telling me I'd look more handsome if I shaved my beard. Hmmm.  And now they were just making fun of my because I was tilting my head to one side while I was typing. "Hold your head straight!" (in Chinese) haha

I visited Teresa yesterday afternoon. She, and everyone there on the team, was very sleepy from such a stressful week last week. She's looking pretty skinny, but she's eating and that's the important thing.  She was happy to get the health-food I brought in my suitcase, since she's become allergic to so many things. It was really natural, and still really a welcome thing, to see her for the first time since this spring.

I start teaching tomorrow, so I've got to get some lesson-planning done. Catch ya later!

Joe Dallas, Answering the "Gay Christian" Position. Christian Research Institute, Article DG238.
Highly, highly recommended. 

unknown | nwonknu

I just realized, thanks to an ad for American University's College of Arts and Sciences, the origin of "wonk".  The ad read, "wonks know art... wonks know education... wonks know social sciences... be in the know." Merriam-Webster's says the origin of "wonk" (1954) is unknown. That might be truer than they know.

Wonk is know spelled backwards.

David Brooks on California's golden age

David Brooks, in a New York Times editorial, recasts the California of 1911-1960 as a city on a hill for the state to follow today.  A restoration to pro-market progressivism in support of immigrant entrepreneurs is his way to prosperity and salvation from government bankruptcy.  He does a really good job of it, too, since most of his readers won't remember the old California except from the old Hollywood movies like John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, which he references in the title: Tom Joad Gave Up.  At that time, thousands streamed into California to find work. Now, thousands stream out of California to find work. What changed?

Conduit or liaison

Right now I'm taking an online course in ethics for paralegals. This question came up in one of the quizzes. Notice the similarity and difference between the two words "conduit" and "liaison", and how they are used to frame the issue.

What do you consider the difference between a conduit and a liaison?

Lyonnet on 1 John 3:8

Usually, when a good writer uses block quotes, it's for a good reason. I'm not talking about someone like Voline, who quotes chapters of another author because it's his only source. I'm talking about someone like Colin Kruse, who in his commentary on 1 John quotes the following paragraph from Stanislaus Lyonnet.


Colin Kruse, The Letters of John pp. 122-123.

Just as a Christian lives under the influence of God living in him, so do sinners live under the influence of the devil and allow themselves to be seduced by him. Consequently, just as he who is born of God and in whom God dwells does what God does, or concretely, 'lives the same kind of life as Christ lived' (1 Jn 2:6), that of a son of God, so the 'children of the devil' can only do what their 'father wants' (Jn 8:44), those very deeds which the Son of God came to undo. (1 Jn 3:8)

 1 John 3:8 says "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work."