Evil

Evil: profound immorality and wicked

²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter.

²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
    and clever in their own sight.

Isaiah 5:20-21

            The problem of evil is one of those issues that we can sit and talk for hours on and we will walk way more confused than when we started.  The problem of evil often causes us to question the goodness of God and if He is really all powerful to prevent it and why would He allow it.  This lead me to reread NT Wright book Evil and the Justice of God and it is one of my favorite books of all time and it will be a book I will revisit within the next couple of years.  This book isn’t the end all be all on the subject, mostly because the book would go on forever, but Wright did make a couple interesting points in his book that I have been wrestling with.

            The first observation is how often do we as people go with the ideology that people are essentially good, and when evil does happen, we are shocked, and our said response to the evil is blown out of proportion.    An example of this is could be the basketball player Magic Johnson.  All throughout the 80’s he was one of the best basketball players on the planet, always had a smile on his face and very personable and seemed to be well liked by everyone who ever met him.  All this came tumbling down when he came out publicly of having HIV/AIDS and he abruptly retired from basketball.  He did try and make a come back as a player, but he received a lot of backlash for having the disease and he was called many names that are not are not worth repeating. This doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t of faces any consequences, but how often do our reactions tend to be on either extreme.  There are times when we live in the extremes will get us into trouble and not be able to see the picture clearly or respond appropriately.

            How often when we hear or see evil, is our response appropriate to what is said or done, or how often do we blow things out of the proportion.  We tend to break out the pitchforks and gain the mob mentality against said evil and our actions become just as aberrant as the original sin.  Pick a topic any of todays topic that gets people blood flowing, whether it is mass shootings vs the 2^nd Amendment, or government sponsored health care, vs fiscal responsibility and small government.  Each side tends to pick up their pitchforks and attacks the other side like they are a bunch of clueless idiots who belong in a different century or just need to be voted off the island.  These issues need to be discussed and dealt with properly, but I was taught by my mom calling someone a poopy head or butt sniffer is not the best way to go about business.  Maybe we need to learn how to attack the argument and not the person, but so often we demonize the person for the beliefs they hold and don’t address the issues at hand.

            The flip side to NT Wrights observation is the idea that when evil does happen, we become so numb to it, that we just don’t care.  We become like Eeyore, and drudge along thinking that we can’t change anything.  As Christians, this often leads to the prayer for Jesus to return by the end of the day or for Him to take us home immediately.  This is essentially throwing in the towel and saying that my God isn’t big enough, strong enough or willing to change things here on earth so we want Him to get us out of this hell hole.  This often leads to apathy and not care about anything except for getting what is ours and what we deserve. 

            My third observation on evil is how often do we use the distraction factor.  As parents, how often do you distract the kids around Christmas time so you can go hide and or wrap Christmas presence.  I think we not only do this with modern day issues, but with the issue of evil itself.  How often do we avoid talking about what is really going on by talking about the weather.  Most of the issues we face today, whether in education, gun control, or health care, is not so much about how we educate, whether the 2^nd Amendment is applicable for today, or whether we have the right to choose what sex we are, the right to end life at any age or condition or any other number of health care related issues.  How often are our arguments based on how they make us feel or how they will benefit us somehow and not so much on whether they are right or wrong. 

           I would feel remissed if I didn't mention that there is such of a thing as abhorant evil. Whether it's concentration/internment camps, slavery, abortion, murder, racism among other things. These are often generational and affect several generations after. This evil often happen when we turn a deaf ear to God the Creator and we do what we want when we want. To use the famous quote, for evil to succeed, good men (and women) do nothing. Maybe we need a lesson from German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who stood up to the Third Riech when it wasn't popular and he need up dying in a concentration camp for his stance and actions. There is evil that needs to be dealt with no matter the skin color, nationality, or party line.

            To bring it home, evilness is an action, but more importantly, it is a condition of the heart. Do we aim to serve ourselves or do we bow down to and accept Gods grace and authority through faith.  Actions do matter, just because I cold caulked someone for a good reason doesn’t mean there isn’t going to be any repercussions. We can do wonderful things with bad intentions and vice versa.  Getting back to our Isaiah passage, what is our definition of good.  If our definition of good is not Gods definition, we are in trouble.  Isaiah tells us God does not look favorably on those who do good in their own sight because there will be consequences for our actions. Sometimes evilness is us turning everything on its head and living to our life by our own standards.  When we are left to our own accord, bad thoughts will lead to bad speech, which leads to bad actions which leads to bad character.  In essence evilness often prevails when become morally bankrupt and our definition of good changes like the sea.

            Full disclosure, we can not have a discussion about evil without discussing the devil.  Biblically speaking, He is a tempter, an accuser and a liar.  To paraphrase a CS Lewis quote, the devil doesn’t try and convince us that God doesn’t exist, but that God doesn’t matter.  This is where self-reliance and self-gratification comes in and takes the place of God.  We become the god of our own destiny and it is all about how I feel and what I want.  Feelings are important and we should pay attention to them, but making them the end all be all can lead to disastrous results. The devil realizes that he has lost, so he is bringing everyone down with Him that He can. By the way, to say the devil made me do it is just bad theology along with canceling out our free will and Gods power and authority. I think there are three responses to evilness that will be addressed later post.  The fist one is do we run and hide and pretend it doesn’t exist? Do we use humanism, and try and make better laws and work to better ourselves (or evolve) to deal with evil? Or do we submit to Gods authority and have His grace change our heart along with our attitudes/intentions and how we see things so that we can go out and change the world?