When was the last time you were in the workplace, and you overheard a coworker on the phone having an honest, earnest conversation about whether or not somebody was possessed by the devil?

For me, that was today.

What’s more odd about this is the fact that this is the second time in my life that this has happened, but it was a different place of employment and different people talking about it on the phone.

What’s even more curious to me is that I’ve had it happen while I was in the room, too. One time, this Vice President for a giant corporation had a gangster setup where he was an on-site “point man” to a giant customer. He operated with complete autonomy, and so he had several side businesses running. One of these businesses was a dedicated day trading facility for him, his sons and a couple acquaintances. This seemed to be his profession, even though he was collecting big dollars from his corporate job. Additionally, there were many business dealings I heard about or witnessed that seemed not only sub-ethical, but, quite frankly, could have bordered on criminal.

Since I was serving as a contracted IT Manager for him and his gangster enterprises, I had helped set up this day trading facility and was called in to do support one day when his trades weren’t executing. I was under the desk, checking some connectivity, when his Spiritual Advisor walked in for a discussion about one of his sons. I offered to leave.

“No, Scotty. Please stay and get me working again.”

They then went into depth about all the terrible shit his son was doing and debating whether or not he was possessed by the devil. In the end, they decided that the devil was simply tempting him and that he needed to get to church more and develop his relationship with Christ.

“How do you protect your family from the devil, when your son seems to want to reach out and grab his hand?” he asked.

Months later, after the market crash and after his professional domain began to unravel, I was riding in a truck with said corporate gangster, who explained to me that he had confessed his sins (to God, of course, not to his work) and seen that greed had driven him to neglect his responsibilities and behave like a criminal.

I’ve found that people who believe they are right with God, but not right with the World, are a dangerous sort.