Tuesday, November 18, 2008
As a Christian, who, if anyone, would be on your "Axis of Evil" list?
As Christians, do we have a list of people or countries that we would consider evil and if so, who would they be? The phrase, "Axis of Evil" has been recently used by our president to indicate those countries or organizations who are a "threat" to the United States. Non-politically speaking, who might "make the list" of individuals, groups of people, countries, faith communities perhaps, or "the other" as a Christian? Are we supposed to have a list, an "Axis of Evil" and/or how does our faith dictate who or what is really evil? Do we start with ourselves or do we look at others or abroad to fill in our lists?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Good question - Rich!
One of the great privileges of my earlier life was serving with the National Council of Churches, in a job whose focus was bringing church folk to what was then known as The Soviet Union. "The Evil Empire" is what Ronald Reagan dubbed it in his famous speech of 1983 (which I'll cite in a following entry). We brought over 500 Christians to visit the USSR, hosted by the churches there, from 1984 - 1988.
One of the persons I came to know through that experience is a man named Bruce Ridgon. Dr. Ridgon was at that time Professor of Church History at McCormick Theological Seminary. In one of the lectures he gave to prepare the group for one of those trips, he said (and I'm paraphrasing from memory here): "Evidence of human sin holds that human culture, which binds people together, requires an evil 'other' to serve as a negative image in which to see and reinforce our own sense of goodness."
To array our might and power against an enemy is an excuse not to deal with our own evil. Such an understanding of sin also works on the very interpersonal level that Jesus describes in his the familiar image he uses in the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, "How can you say to your neighbor, let me take the speck out of your eye, when you cannot see clearly to take the log out of your own eye."
That said, I mean not to completely distance myself from the ideas contained in that Reagan speech. There's the familiar T-shirt that reads, "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, refused to take a stand." I find that it's variously attributed to Kennedy or Dante. (Both are wrong - the reference is indeed to Dante, but it's not the hottest place in hell - but could be said to be the worst. The place for "the indifferent" is neither heaven nor hell - neither wants them, because they refused to choose in life. But alas, I digress).
To be extreme and provocative here, then, I might say that first I need to place *myself* along the "axis of evil." I share the same humanity as those Germans who shoved Jews in the gas chamber. I can't say I stand outside of that dynamic! At the same time, the good that has found me (which we call God, and whose will is most clearly revealed by Christ) calls every person to moral accountability - to say NO to every form of evil, wherever it's found, knowing that the good at work in me is not mine, but comes from the one who has redeemed me from death.
So, we should be cautious about labeling anyone - whether a person or a nation - as "evil", so as to cover our own complicity with that force. But just as much, we need to fight, humbly but passionately, against what our conscience indicates is antithetical to God.
Others??? Anyone out there???
Jeff
...brief follow-up to the above. Here's the excerpt from the Reagan "Evil Empire" Speech of March, 1983. He's addressing a group of Evangelical pastors. It makes for interesting reading. Full text is at: http://www.hbci.com/~tgort/empire.htm
"...It was C.S. Lewis who, in his unforgettable Screwtape Letters, wrote: "The greatest evil is not done now in those sordid 'dens of rime' that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration camps and labor camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do no need to raise their voice."
Well, because these "quiet men" do not "raise their voices," because they sometimes speak in soothing tones of brotherhood and peace, because, like other dictators before them, they're always making "their final territorial demand," some would have us accept them as their word and accommodate ourselves to their aggressive impulses. But if history teaches anything, it teaches that simpleminded appeasement or wishful thinking about our adversaries is folly. It means the betrayal of our past, the squandering of our freedom.
So, I urge you to speak our against those who would place the United States in a position of military and moral inferiority. You know, I've always believed that old Screwtape reserved his best efforts for those of you in the church. So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride - the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.
I ask you to resist the attempts of those who would have you withhold your support for our efforts, this administration's efforts, to keep America strong and free, while we negotiate real and verifiable reductions in the world's nuclear arsenals and one day, with God's help, their total elimination.
While America's military strength is important, let me add here that I've always maintained that the struggle now going on for the world will never be decided by bombs or rockets, by armies or military might. The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith....
It's not quite Reagan, but he did use the name.
I'm going to talk about Star Wars.
The Star Wars movies show us two truths that are relevant here:
1. Nobody is all good or all evil.
As movies IV-VI showed, inside all of that evil (and a really black costume) Darth Vader was truly good in the end. Translate that to religion, and it means that nobody is beyond salvation. Now it's not very Reformed, but the movie also showed that salvation requires taking a step away from evil and towards good.
As movies I-III showed, everybody has the potential for evil. Anakin Skywalker had evil taught to him and it grew into Darth Vader. Senator Palpatine chose to nurture his own evil and grew into the Emperor. The movie also showed that evil is easier than good - that good requires hard work and resistance while evil is the slippery slope.
So all of us have at least a little evil (very Reformed) and all of us have at least a little good (not so Reformed). I will submit that some are more evil than others.
For me the key is whether or not the evil is used to harm others, unrepentantly, and with glee. Do you become one of the Most Evil when you choose to intentional create evil in others?
2. It's easier than we think to be on the wrong side.
The Jedis in movies I-III were doing exactly what they felt was the right thing and the good thing. In doing so, they fell into Senator Palpatine's trap and were unwitting supporters of what would become the Empire. (NOTE: By playing both sides against each other, Palpatine fits my definition of Most Evil pretty well.)
Sometimes evil is only seen in hindsight. A few examples are: slavery, Japanese internment during WWII, torture for intelligence gathering. What seems like the wrong thing to do was seen by the people of the time and place as the right thing for the greater good.
So back to the question.
For me, the definition of an axis of Evil is this:
1. You are doing something that harms others.
2. You are doing it intentionally.
3. You are doing it with the intention of causing harm. (not the same as 2)
I fear that this definition covers a lot more people that I'd be happy with.
Mark, I know nothing about Star Wars, but your analogy is awesome. Well done.
As for deciding who belongs on an "axis of evil" list, I think Mark's guidelines are spot-on. And I agree that there are way too many people/nations/groups who would be included, according to those criteria. So what are we to do? It's not like we can change the ways of people who are fundamentally evil... I suppose the only thing we can do is try to live our own lives as responsibly and lovingly as possible. Sometimes, though, that's harder than it seems.
Post a Comment