At every baptism in the Lutheran church an old question is asked. A question used at countless baptisms all over the world. A question that is almost as old as the church itself. Just before water is splashed in the threefold name, I look at parents and sponsors and sometimes adult candidates across the pool and ask: Do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises? 

To tell you the truth, I've been waiting for somebody to laugh at the question. Who really believes in the devil anymore? We've left him behind with the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, relegating "evil" to more manageable and explainable psychoses that can be named and catalogued within the human heart. There's nothing wrong with Hitler, Pol Pot, Timothy McVeigh, Osama bin Laden, and even the fi…