In one of the many scenes of carnage in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy of movies, one of the heroic characters asks, “How can men stand against such evil?” The band of heroes, and those they are protecting, watch as the maniacal horded of Orcs overwhelm the castle they are fighting from, and it seems to them that all is lost. I can imagine that this is a question that has been asked millions of times throughout human history. It was probably asked by those who fought the hordes of Genghis Khan and the Roman Empire – by those who battled the Nazis and their allies in WWII. In recent years, we have asked the same question about terrorism cloaked in fake religion. Israel probably asked this two years ago when Hamas murdered and kidnapped innocent people.
Evil is a word that is tossed around to describe a lot of behavior that is abhorrent to our sense of common goodness and equality. It is also misused, often to rationalize what one does in the name of country or personal gain. True evil is often easy to see, but some evil is cloaked in nationalism and tribalism. I think it is a term that is overused, and it loses some of its power when that happens. Most of the terrible things I see happening around us comes from selfishness and greed; are those things evil? The Apostle Paul and Jesus saw those attributes as forms of idolatry, something that God, we are told, hates. And yet, so many people of faith embrace them. Are they evil?
I was taught in Sunday school to stand against evil – to be in solidarity with those who are oppressed. I have known a lot of people who have benefitted from oppression, and I would not call them evil. For someone to be evil, they would have to reach a far higher – or lower – bar. Most of the bad behavior I have experienced has come from people who have not dealt with their own trauma and dysfunction, so they do to others what has been done to them. And some of their acts could be characterized as evil by the victims. When we see evil, we probably will know it, but we also need to stand up for those who need allies. Because evil doesn’t always start out that way but can easily become that. We all must be careful that that doesn’t happen to us.
Prayer – Holy God, You created us as good, but we also can commit evil. Deliver us from that. Amen.
Today’s art is “The Dance of Good and Evil” by Curtis Verdun.