Beware Beauty

 By Cale Gressman

    The devil is often depicted as being ugly, cruel and, well, plainly evil. Beginning around the Middle Ages, anyone playing the Devil in the play would come up on stage dressed in horns and carrying a pitch fork. This is for the simple reason that it is easy to tell when something is evil when it looks very plainly evil. This is the practice of physiognomy, which is simply the practice judging the character of someone (or something) by its outward appearance. A king was noble if he had a “noble” visage. 

While this was taken very seriously back during the Medieval Millennium, there has been a contemporary attempt to “not judge a book by its cover.” However, as we all well know, this is much easier said than done. We still judge people by their appearance. To a certain extent, this is for good reason. If someone looks like a meth head, then it's possible, even likely, they are a meth head. If someone looks like he would stab you for the last bag of gummy bears (that’s me) then he just might. 

However, this can also be dead wrong. So often, what is wrong looks right. Revenge begins to look a lot like justice. Pride begins to look a lot like self-esteem. Lust looks like love. Lies look like my truth. As 2 Corinthians 11:14 states, “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” The worst problem is that those around us will attempt to convince us that we are wrong. That what seems right to us is indeed right. 

We pursue what seems right, not what is actually right. This is because, so often, what seems right is really what we want to be right. This quickly transforms into terrible arguments and results. “It was fine for me to cheat on him, because he was not giving me what I needed in the relationship.” 

This brings us to where it is the opposite that happens. We are often told, what is right is wrong. Now, this sometimes feels muted or disguised on most issues. We are often told to lie, that you are a fool to tell the truth. This is often disguised as being polite. We are told to be selfish, that you need to take care of yourself. This is in turn disguised as finding yourself or self-care. We are told to not be firm and passionate in our principles. This is disguised as being open-minded. Worse yet we are told to hate, that is, we are told to hate those who stand against these principles. This isn’t disguised. 

So how do we fight this? This isn’t new of course. Humanity has always done this. We all worship gilded images without checking to see what lies underneath, nor really wanting to for fear of what we would find. I think the answer is tough self-reflection and (ideally) listening to those around you that you can trust. This isn’t easy but it is necessary. We must ask ourselves “why am I doing this?” And most of all, stand firm.