They just want to watch it burn

How do you handle a wolf in sheep's clothing? Charisma magazine examines the question from the viewpoint of pastoral ministry.

Fairly recently I dealt with a wolf in sheep's clothing issue that was complicated and difficult. It amazes me that as I have talked with others I've learned that many people have gone through this kind of thing in the body of Christ, yet few people are talking about it. I think often we've all found ourselves experiencing the gash of a wolf, and because we genuinely want to think the best of the other people, we turn the other cheek. We think forgiveness means you keep staying vulnerable and rarely speak up.

Forgiveness doesn't mean allowing yourself to continue to be chewed on and devoured. Matthew 7:15 tells us to be aware that there are wolves in sheep's clothing seeking to devour the sheep. We also know from Scripture in the last days false prophets and these wolves will increase. People often have this misguided notion that these wolves will be obvious to recognize and would never dare set foot in church or on a platform. That's not true. There are wolves lurking in pews, sadly sometimes behind pulpits and out in the business arena. It's more common than people realize. This is not meant to make anyone fearful or paranoid, but it is meant to wake you up and teach you how to deal with these situations.

Anyone who is an adult and worked in the church, in business or in charitable organizations for a few years or more already knows that wolves are there. That has been true since, oh, 10,000 BC. But, as Charisma's writer indicates, wolves seem more numerous than ever. And Prof. Anthony Esolen of Providence College in Rhode Island, agrees. He writes of the Leftist dominance among student bodies at his and almost every other college in America.

... college students, a majority of them female, demand to be protected from ideas and utterances that somehow, as they claim, deny their very existence or would cast doubt upon what they claim are their incontestable experiences as members of some historically underprivileged group. Their critics laugh at them and say that such students, “snowflakes,” want to lock our colleges into an orthodoxy that is unenlightened and medieval. These critics are wrong in their diagnosis and inaccurate in their criticism.

It is also something of a mistake to point at the students and laugh at them for being weaklings. The students hold the hammer, and they know it. ... But in our world of inversions, power is granted to people who claim that they have no power and who resent the greatness of their own forebears. They do not seek “safety.” They seek to destroy. The strong man is bound and gagged, and the pistol is pointed at his head — the seat of reason itself. [boldface added]

"They seek to destroy." There are times I cannot understand the destructive actions of others in any way that makes sense. But this comes close:



There is a destructiveness at loose in our world, our country, our communities, our associations and even our homes that cannot be explained adequately by excluding the spiritual dimensions at play.

Such destructiveness always starts with or quickly moves to destructive speech. Usually (but not always) a huge dose of hypocrisy is involved as the "destructor" (to borrow a word from Ghostbusters) almost always conceals her or his slander or libel behind claims of only wanting a higher good. But in fact, their actual desire is self-oriented, selfish and significantly narcissistic: they frequently act as if they have been aggrieved or wounded and are in such psychological, emotional or spiritual pain that others rush to comfort. But the others are being played and only a few ever figure it out.

Understand that demands from destructive persons cannot ever be satisfied. For their real goal is not an actual solution to the putative issue, for as the old SDS slogan explains, "This issue isn't the issue." The real goal, very cleverly concealed behind aggrieved tones of voice and claims of how moral/spiritual/right minded/self-denying/unselfish (the list goes on an on) they are is always the same: "I must get my way, all the time."

But that's not the heart of the issue, either. These persons simply must have an enemy, someone or some group who opposes them. For the "my way" that destructors must get is inextricably linked to triumph over an opponent. That's why anyone who does not agree or assent to their demands is a target: the issue is not the demands, but the opposition.

Every issue is personal for destructors. It is not possible to hold a reasonable, contrary position. To resist a destructor's demand is not mere disagreement. It is to oppose the ordering of the world itself in some sense.

"The issue isn't the issue." Demands are only a pretense to evoke the fight. The fight itself is the goal. It is the only goal. Destructors never consider any issue closed for which they do not achieve total victory. They die in every ditch. Every fight is to the death because their very concept of self is woven into it.

His days of asking are all gone, his fight goes on and on and on. But he thinks that the fight is worth it all. So he strikes like thunderball.

Title song to the movie, Thunderball, referring to character Emilio Largo of Spectre

To yield to a destructor's demands is only to evoke others, more sternly expressed and more unreasonable than before.

Esolen continues with the impact this has on education. It wrecks it.

In such a world, it is insufficient to say that higher education suffers. Except in the most technical of disciplines, and perhaps even in those, the very possibility of higher education comes to an abrupt halt. If a professor must negotiate an emotional and verbal and political mine field before he opens his mouth, then he is no professor any longer. He is a servile functionary, no matter his title and no matter how well he is paid. He instructs his students not in freedom but in his own servility. That many of the students demand this servility of him and of themselves makes their capitulation all the worse.

This state of affairs is not confined to academia. You can substitute titles of any other leadership position for "professor" and it still makes sense:

• If a police chief must negotiate an emotional and verbal and political mine field before he opens his mouth, then he is no police chief any longer. He is a servile functionary ... . 
• If a department head must negotiate an emotional and verbal and political mine field before he opens his mouth, then he is no department head any longer. He is a servile functionary ... .
• If a pastor must negotiate an emotional and verbal and political mine field before he opens his mouth, then he is no pastor any longer. He is a servile functionary ... .

Here is the hardest part for targets to understand: Destructors are absolute masters in assessing within any organization two things essential for their success:

1. Whom the general membership considers expendable.
There's an old gamblers' saying, "at a poker table if you can't figure out who the patsy is, that means it's you." The corollary here is that to be targeted by a destructor means you are considered expendable by the general group, no matter your own official standing within the group. This is true about two-thirds of the time for your first targeting (which is often a trial run), but if there a second then it is absolutely true.

2. Who their own allies will be.
Destructors spend enormous time building alliances and coalitions among other discontented people. The old saying that "misery loves company" is true but incomplete. Misery does not merely love company, misery requires company. Destructors and any other merely unhappy person must have their discontent, anger or grievances validated by others. These persons are absolute experts at finding one another, and they do.

If you ever find yourself contending with a destructor a second or subsequent time, there are no positive potential outcomes. You will not be contending with one person or even a few, but an entire network that will support the destructor behind the scenes, and a few overtly. They understand that a small minority organized and oriented toward a common will almost always prevail against the vast majority caught by surprise, unprepared to resist. Furthermore, the majority, outside the fray, tends to think that the putative issue is the issue and is mostly accurate in thinking it trivial in itself. They don't see what the fuss is all about and just want the whole thing to go away. Some, but not many, see what is really happening but will not be willing to become targets themselves.

So when you are targeted, you will be alone and isolated. No one will be your ally, although you will get occasional expressions of sympathy. So what to do? Not much, I'm afraid:

1. Maintain your position but understand that the destructor will do his/her best to destroy your reputation as long as you oppose. And the destructor network is already leagues ahead of any defense you can mount.

2. Or just capitulate quickly enough, every time, so that there is no fight to be had with you and the destructor turns her/his attention to someone else. But of course, this almost always requires you to surrender some kind of authority that is rightfully yours. A destructor fights to gain power, so s/he does not target anyone of a lower or equivalent status or authority.

Either way, however, your time in the organization is coming to an end. The countdown clock starts when a destructor starts explaining why s/he is considering leaving the organization (always widely publicized and with as much woeful aggrievement as possible). If the destructor does depart, s/he will have poisoned the atmosphere and slandered your reputation enough so that your effectiveness in the association is permanently damaged. So understand that once a destructor starts threatening to go elsewhere, your time in the organization is coming to an end. The question is not whether you will leave (actually, you'll finally be told to leave by the larger organization), it is whether the destructor precedes you. But even if s/he doesn't, you will still leave.

There is such a thing as "creative destruction." But destructors don't know it. They set fires not to clear the way for something better, more useful or more beautiful. They just want to watch it burn.

End note: this helps explain: 'Everyday Sadists' Are More Common Than You Think

So does this: "Social Justice Syndrome: ‘Rising Tide of Personality Disorders Among Millennials’"