The debate over good and evil was intense. Message after message stated the belief that there must be a devil if there is a God. But many questioned how we as humans actually knew what the devil looks like. Perception is always the key.

We have grown up in a society that shows the devil with horns and a pitchfork. This image has been passed down through history, and unfortunately, enforced in our mind’s eye by entertainment and art, not to mention Halloween.

The fact that the image contains such a shape is inexplicable. It is smoke and light. One writer put it correctly, stating “maybe we are projecting that image mentally because we need to feel that there is some evil beyond our control. A belief in God necessitates a believe in the Devil as the evil force in the world and it does exist. Our eyes see what our brain feels it needs to see.”

Across the southern Bible belt, feelings are strongly skewed toward the belief that evil is the “Devil” and good is “God.” For myself, I can never forget the sermons at my Grandfather’s church in Graham County, North Carolina. There was never any question that the devil was evil incarnate. The devil seemed very real when you were eight years old.

All through my childhood the icon for the devil was the same. If I believed everything that I was taught as a child,  how can I question what the image contains?

I began to feel like I was trapped in an ongoing Baptist revival. Each new email was a religious sermon. 

“If I were you I would feel privileged (unfortunately) that the Lord used you to shed “the Light” on darkness,” wrote Beth P. in her email. “The faith of Islam is rebellion towards God that goes way back and what better way to divide people on this earth than to use “religion”. Thanks for letting Him use you !!!”

These same thoughts came to me as I talked to radio DJ’s and callers to their shows. Most Americans have very little contact outside of their religions. My father left North Carolina as an 18-year-old, joining the Air Force to escape the rural life of the mountains. His experiences during that time shaped a great deal of my own life.

Imagine going from Robbinsville, North Carolina, where God was defined by the fundamental Baptist religion, to Tokyo, Japan. My father’s eyes were opened to different possibilities. Upon his return, he met and married my mother in Chicopee, Massachusetts. Raised Catholic, my mother brought a totally different dynamic into my childhood. I often say, we tried them all – Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, Unitarian, Presbyterian, Catholic, and all christian.

All the religions seemed the same in a young child’s eyes. Only when I reached my teens and 20’s did I start questioning much of what I had learned within the system. Much like my father, I began traveling as a young photographer and discovered that there were many different religions than the Christian ones I had been a part of.

For the first time, I had contact with other religions. I never knew the differences, and there were many that I did not even realize existed. I had my first interaction with Judaism as a young staff photographer in Augusta, Georgia. I was 25. I did not know what Hanukkah was. I photographed a family on the first night and was transfixed by the beauty of their faith.

When I met Andrea Peyser in Florida, and we began dating, Judaism entered my life on a personal level. And now with a daughter, we are carrying on many of the traditions. Personally, I see no problem with combining multiple religions within one family.

When I visited Israel with Andrea, I will never forget walking the streets of Jerusalem and meeting people from each of the religions predominate within the city. I did not feel an undercurrent of hatred. I felt an acceptance that transcended the individual beliefs. Granted it was a simpler time, but Intifada had occurred. As an American tourist, we felt accepted by all.

Now, we are told that Israel is the devil incarnate by a left-wing movement in America.

The attacks of September 11 and everything that has occurred since have created a completely new world. Our generation was blessed with peace. My generation missed the Vietnam War and was too old for the Gulf War.

I travelled to many corners of the world and never came across the type of hatred that led to the attack on the World Trade Center.

In Israel and Egypt, people were always people. Shortly after Andrea and I visited Cairo, an attack occurred on tourists at both the hotel we stayed in and at the Cairo Museum. It was one of the first times I realized how the radical religions could affect my life. It struck home even more after the first attack on the World Trade Center.

We heard over and over again how “lucky” America was to not suffer from terrorism. We have had our share. The first bombing of the World Trade Center was a horrible event.

I was one of the few journalists allowed into the garage to see the devastation wrought by the explosion. It was a miracle that more people were not killed. The bomb destroyed four floors of the underground parking garage, leaving a hole that stretched wall to wall with crushed vehicles barely visible in the rubble.