We have been warned about...
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We have been warned about evil in many ways. Some of you know about Procrustus, the Greek god who guarded the gates to Athens. Athens was the center of culture, power, and beauty in the ancient world, but to get there you had to pass by Procrustus and his bed. Whatever part of you didn't fit on his one-size fits all bed, he chopped off. If you were too tall, your legs went. If you were too short, you were stretched. Procrustus is a form of evil called conformity. Conformity says we are all to be one size and one shape. Walter Lippman, the great journalist, defines procrustean behavior as a determination to make the evidence fit the theory. Isn't that what we do when we deny evil in our lives? Don't we become procrustean, and chop off part of what we know on behalf of what we hoped would be true? Mary and Joseph trusted their dream and its announcement. They weren't willing to fit in. They fled.
