Under The Influence

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

David Kupelian's book The Marketing of Evil, published in 2005, is an eye-opening study of what we face today. I wish every parent would read it.

Does anyone here remember what happened to Robert Bauman in 1980? He was elected in 1973 as representative of the First Congressional District of Maryland, became chairman of the American Conservative Union in 1979, and, many thought, was on his way to becoming Speaker of the House. But he was leading a double life as a married man with four children while at the same time engaging in anonymous homosexual one-night stands. He got caught and lost his job, family and much more.

Looking back on his secret double life, Bauman engaged in some painful self-examination:

"How could any normal and moral human being do what I did? How could anyone, however callous, repeatedly be unfaithful to one's spouse (lying, evading responsibility, breaking solemn vows)? I have described how it could be done. Why I did it is the serious question. And I have no answer, even to this day. I do not know. In many ways I was driven by a force over which I seemed to have little control.

"Of course, my choice was conscious and deliberate. It could have been altered. But some compulsion drove me, blotting out all I had learned, diminishing in importance all that was most dear and important. I seemed willing to risk my marriage, my wife and children, even life itself."

What was working in Bauman's life? Ephesians 2 tells us that there is a spirit at work in the sons of disobedience. There still is. Who are we following and allowing to guide us in our words, attitudes, thoughts, and actions today?

You and I are under the influence of either God or the enemy. There is no neutral territory.