Good cop/bad cop

Good cop/bad cop is a routine police sometimes us when interrogating suspects.  The bad cop is hostile toward the suspect.  The good cop is sympathetic and sometimes even restrains the bad cop.  The suspect comes to accept the good cop as his friend and sometimes will give him the information the police are looking for.

The suspect comes to think of the two cops as being opposed to each other and he naturally sides with the one who is friendlier to him.  In fact they are working together.  From the suspect’s point of view they are both bad cops because they are trying to get him to give them information they need.  From the point of view of law abiding citizens they are both good cops because they are trying to enforce the law and fight crime.

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Are you a Satanist?

Are you a Satanist?  The answer most people would give to this question is “No!”  The popular conception of a Satanist is someone who meets at midnight with other Satanists to perform Black Masses and other Satanic rituals.  There are probably some Satanists like this but the vast majority of Satanists are unaware of the fact that they are serving Satan and many of them even believe they are serving God.

In his letter to the Ephesians Paul describes the condition of Christians before we were saved.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Ephesians 2:1-3

Before our salvation we were dead in our sins and followed Satan, the prince of the power of the air.  God and Satan are moral opposites so there are different requirements for worshiping them.

The sons of Abraham

Moses was a descendant of Abraham.  He gave the world the Torah, which he said was based on revelations given to him by God.  Judaism is based on the teachings contained in this book.

Muhammad was a descendant of Abraham.  He gave the world the Koran, which he said was based on revelations given to him by God.  Islam is based on the teachings contained in this book.

The similarities between these two aren’t just a coincidence.

A curse in disguise

When someone bad happens to someone but  good results from it the experience is sometimes called a blessing in disguise.  But often people experience something that at first seems good but has harmful results.  One example of this is people who have won a large amount of money in a lottery and then found their lives ruined as a result.  I have never heard anyone call such an event a curse in disguise but it would be an accurate description.

One time Jesus encountered a curse in disguise but wasn’t hurt by it because he recognized it for what it really was.

Westboro and Equality House

You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
Deuteronomy 5:32

God doesn’t simply say we must obey but warns about turning to the right or to the left.  That is because there are two opposite ways in which we can disobey each command.