Born-again Christian David Strein, 44, announced that he would appeal his 1998 dismissal from a New Mexico state government job for misusing his computer because he was powerless to stay way from Internet porn sites.
Saintly Strein contended that after he first stumbled onto online smut, "Satan told me to check it out some more."
The administrative law judge had ruled that Strein had visited too many sites and given them his credit card number too many times to have been blameless.
Here's a guy with a humdrum job. Just a cog in a huge bureaucracy. He's so bored that he risks losing his job by visiting porn sites.
When he is caught doing something that goes against his moral values, he puts the blame on Lucifer.
He claims to be "powerless" against the devil's wiles.
The battle between good and evil, is not fought in heaven and hell, it's fought in the heart and in the soul.
Our prayers to god are met only by silence, and our convenient scapegoating of satan is only so much static.
There is no god in heaven above, and there is no devil in hell below. There is only man here on earth.
Mr. Strein has only himself to blame for losing his job, and we only have ourselves to blame when we fall short of the mark.
© 2000 Robert Paul Reyes
