People of the Lie
Click here to watch the video: People of the Lie; Knowing the Difference between Evil & Mental Illness.
They’re Not Broken. They’re Choosing the Lie.
I wrote this years ago… and I hesitated then—and I still do now.
Because this isn’t a casual conversation.
This requires discernment.
Not outrage. Not headlines. Discernment.
Years ago, I read People of the Lie by Dr. Scott Peck—a psychiatrist who said something most people aren’t comfortable accepting:
Not all evil is mental illness.
Some of it… is chosen.
Then the Jeffrey Epstein story came fully into the light.
A man with power. Wealth. Access.
A man who moved in elite circles… while secretly exploiting, abusing, and trafficking young girls.
And when most people tried to process it, the language sounded familiar:
“How does someone become this sick?”
“He must be disturbed.”
“There has to be something wrong with him.”
But when I looked at the pattern—not just the man—I didn’t see confusion.
I saw calculation.
I saw intention.
I saw evil operating with precision.
And Peck’s framework came rushing back.
“People of the Lie.”
Let’s walk through it—carefully.
Because this isn’t just about one man.
This is about recognizing patterns we ignore at our own risk.
First—control.
People of the Lie have an insatiable need to dominate others.
Epstein didn’t just seek relationships.
He built systems.
Networks designed to control, manipulate, and entrap.
Control wasn’t a byproduct—it was the objective.
Second—lack of empathy.
To repeatedly exploit vulnerable young girls… knowing the harm, the trauma, the lifelong scars?
That’s not a lapse in judgment.
That’s the absence of conscience.
When someone can look at innocence and see opportunity—that tells you everything.
Third—addiction to darkness.
This wasn’t a one-time failure.
This was a lifestyle.
A pattern sustained over years—protected, refined, repeated.
What you repeatedly return to… is what you’ve chosen.
Fourth—calculated harm.
This was organized.
Strategic.
Recruitment pipelines.
Grooming tactics.
Layers of insulation.
Evil, when it matures, becomes structured.
It learns how to hide in plain sight.
Fifth—moral separation.
People of the Lie often operate in a different reality—not mentally, but morally.
They justify what should never be justified.
They normalize what should never be normalized.
Epstein moved among the powerful while living completely disconnected from moral truth.
That kind of separation doesn’t happen accidentally.
Sixth—no genuine remorse.
Even when exposed—where was the brokenness?
Where was the weight of what had been done?
Image management is not repentance.
Silence is not remorse.
Remorse is one of the last threads tying us to our humanity.
When it’s gone… something deeper is broken.
Seventh—unchanged by consequences.
Legal pressure.
Public exposure.
Arrest.
And yet, no evidence of true transformation.
Because consequences only change people who still recognize truth.
When someone is committed to the lie… they don’t turn—they double down or detach.
Now hear me clearly—this is where people get this wrong.
This is not about casually labeling people.
This is not about becoming cynical or suspicious of everyone.
But it is about refusing to stay blind.
Because everything that looks like dysfunction… isn’t dysfunction.
Some of it is willful alignment with darkness.
Scripture is direct about this:
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” — Isaiah 5:20
And then there’s this:
“They have become callous… given themselves over.” — Ephesians 4:19
That phrase—given themselves over—that’s not confusion.
That’s a decision.
And Romans takes it even further:
“God gave them over to a reprobate mind” — a mind that no longer wants the truth, because it has rejected God and His ways over and over again (Romans 1:28).
That’s not someone who’s just lost.
That’s someone who has chosen the lie so consistently that their mind has aligned with it.
And that’s what makes this so sobering.
We’re not just talking about people who are “struggling” or “broken.”
We’re talking about people who have crossed a line in their own heart—again and again—until darkness feels like home.
And it forces a harder question—not just:
“What’s wrong with them?”
But:
“At what point did they stop resisting what they knew was wrong?”
We are called to love people.
But we are not called to be naive about evil.
Jesus showed compassion—but He also confronted darkness without hesitation.
Both matter. Both are holy.
So the real question is—
Do you have the discernment to recognize the difference?
Because in leadership… in influence… in proximity to power…
Missing it isn’t just dangerous.
It’s costly.
If any of this resonates with you- click the like button and share with someone who you care about.
Also be sure to check out the Making of a Strong Culture book that is helping leaders of corporations, organizations, churches and familes build better teams.
