Recently, an acquaintance showed me a photograph of an old painting portraying a darkly handsome man with seductive eyes.

The title of the painting was “Satan, the Most Beautiful of all the Angels.”

It startled me for a moment to see the image of the Devil conceived in such a way — I’ve grown more accustomed to thinking of him as that horned guy with the pitchfork.

Popular culture has developed the frightening, monstrous image of Satan so thoroughly that it’s easy to forget Ezekiel 28: “Satan lived first as Lucifer, created as a beautiful, perfect angel.”

When my acquaintance showed me the photograph of this painting, she said, “I must get my hands on a print of this. I’m going to frame it in a big, gaudy frame, and when people come over for dinner and ask me who he is, I’ll say, ‘It’s the Devil! Isn’t he beautiful?’ Wouldn’t it just be hilarious?”

“No. They’ll only think you’re a little weird,” I told her.

It was a tacky idea, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone in the decade of Marilyn Manson.

According to a recent CBS News/New York Times Poll, while 64 percent of all Americans still believe in the existence of Satan, 32 percent of Americans believe only in the red-horned silhouette on those tins of deviled ham at the supermarket.

Millions of people don’t believe in hell anymore.

Even among followers of Christianity, there are many people who no longer think the Devil exists.

According to the poll, fewer Catholics believe in Satan than Protestants.

Among those who still think the Devil exists, a large number of young people believe in demonic possession, and this same group believes in the rituals of exorcism.

However, the poll shows that a belief in the power of exorcists is far more prevalent among young people than among older people.

Apparently, young people who accept the notion of Satan’s existence really buy into all of the most popular and sensational ideas about him.

For heaven’s sake, America, turn off your televisions!

What none of these Americans realizes is that they’ve been brainwashed by “Those Amazing Mysteries” and “That’s Incredible” and all of the badly-produced Stephen King miniseries (Remember the one starring the actor who played John Boy on “The Waltons”? — Ew!).

Many Americans have been jaded by television and horror movies to the point where they just don’t believe in Satan anymore. Popular culture has transformed him into a fairy tale “Big Bad Wolf.”

But America should be afraid — very afraid. The Devil is alive and well in Washington D.C.

His name is Newt Gingrich.

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Tom Owings is a graduate student in English from Ames. He is the opinion editor of the Daily.