Evil - Part 1
The problem of evil is not merely about the events takes place or how evil befalls you, although that is a part of it. Evil is an entity, it has a persona, and it strives to sink you into despair. It has been presented in many ways, particularly with Hollywood. Movies such as the Exorcist, Children of corn, Chuckie and Village of the damned are but a few. These movies build up a picture of what evil looks like, an image of its nature, but these are not evil, these are the by-products of evil. There are also things we do that are called evil. Mass murderers, war criminals, praying on children and sealing from those in need, and so on. They may be described as evil in character, but they are not, in themselves the essence of evil.
The evillest people take the highest good and invert it. They cast dispersions on the existence of the highest good, they manipulate you with compassion and appeal to your senses, making that which is evil feasible and right. Recently I saw and interview with Jordan Peterson who argued,
“That's what Christ accused the Pharisees of. That's partly why he was crucified because he told the religious leaders of the time, the Pharisees claimed mosaic authority, and he said, you're religious only for what it benefits you in the public marketplace. It's complete hypocrisy.
Everything you claim to be moral is only for your own self-gratification and aggrandisement, and they weren't very happy with that, put it that way. So, and this does make things, well, so, you know, people like Dawkins, for example, they attribute to the religious enterprise a kind of psychopathy without understanding that the psychopaths manipulate the religious exercise to bring down what's highest and to benefit from its moral authority for their own devices.”
This is why Jesus would argue with the Pharisees when he said, “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So, you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”[1]
We do not even have a category for this kind of evil, the different prototypes of evil and what they produce. We do not see these people as evil and dangerous; we usually see them as heroes. This is why scripture says, “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”[2] When God spoke to Cain he spoke to his anger, “Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”[3]
Evil rarely arrived with sulfur and pitchforks, it prefers the subtle langue of the gentle. The serpent in Genesis never threatened, he reasoned, he did not curse God, he simply reframed God. Evil came well dressed, spoke plainly, reasoned well, then manipulated the outcome.
History is littered with benevolent tyrannies. Empires colonised “for your own good”, Churches controlled consciences “to save souls”, and parents crushed children’s spirits “out of love.” Control masquerades as care, protection becomes possession. Love, when unmoored from humility, mutates into tyranny and people fall. The road to hell, the old saying goes, is paved with good intentions, and hell is often built by people convinced they are constructing heaven.
[1] Matthew 23:1-4 NIV [2] Romans 7:21 NIV [3] Genesis 4:6-7 NIV
Shalom – Shalom,
Jim Varsos