Good and Evil

For the past two weeks, I have been thinking about good and evil.   I was recently rereading a statement by St. Augustine that evil is not a creation in itself, but the absence of creation.

I know this sounds nerdy and philosophical but bear with me.  It has profound implications on how we view the world.  The way we understand good and evil affects the way we view ourselves and the world around us. 

Evil is a gap,  an absence in God's good creation.  Let's look at a couple of illustrations.

Imagine a new sweater with a prominent hole in the front.  It is a good sweater--the right color, the right material, and well assembled--except for the hole.  Most people would agree that the hole ruins the sweater, making it a "bad"  sweater not worthy of keeping.  Yet the sweater is a "good" sweater.  Only the hole makes it bad, and the hole is literally nothing.

Or imagine a car without working brakes.  It is a "good" car-- the engine works, the steering works, the air conditioning works.  Even so, it is a dangerous car, because of the absence of one part.  The fact that the rest of the car works is no help at all,  but  in fact makes the more dangerous.  Working engines and accelerators actually make it more dangerous, not less.  This is a "bad" car.  But the manufacturer did not make a bad car--they only left something "good" out.

People are the same.  God did not create "evil" people.  Only  the absence of something--a moral compass, perhaps, or clear senses or a sense of conscience--renders people evil or dangerous.  When people lack these things,  they are not redeemed by having intelligence, perseverance, or courage,  in fact those things only serve to make them more dangerous. They can be happy, healthy, and satisfied with life, and still lack these things. They can be good fathers,  kind friends,  and deeply religious. Yet if the wrong part of us is missing,  then we can and will do evil.  Our goodness only makes us more dangerous. 

I read in the papers about a man in his eighties who plowed his car into a school bus stop, killing several children.  He did not intend to do it, but he did it, nevertheless.  Was he evil?  Not  really.   He probably never did anything seriously bad in his life.  He may have lived an exemplary moral life. But was missing something--an accurate view of his own diminished capacity. He knew who he used to be, but lost sight of who he was. He was a good man, but because of this lack of self-awareness, innocent children died.

You don't have to be evil to do evil. You just have to have one small piece of you missing. In fact, it is easier for a man who is essentially good to do more damage when he is lacking one thing that it is for a man who was thoroughly evil. Our good qualities contribute to the evil we can do. 

Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."  Jesus is not saying that rich people are evil. Far from it--most of the Bible heroes were rich.  Jesus himself was greatly helped by people like Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and other rich people.  When he entered a town, it was only the rich people who could afford to have him and His entourage for dinner!  No,  what Jesus was saying were that in general, the rich were missing something--a knowledge of their own spiritual poverty. They lacked humility, and that's what kept them out of heaven.

All this has some far-reaching implications.

First,  that God is not the author of evil.  God did not create evil, because evil is not created.  God temporarily allows these gaps in the creation to exist.  Free choice needs the possibility of such holes in goodness to exist. But God did not create it.

My son-in-law works at a donut shop.  Over the years, he has made thousands of donuts.  He has however not made a single hole. He cannot make a hole, only make the donut around the hole. God can only create good things--things that are valuable, useful, and beautiful.

Second, all that is, is good.  From the tiny simplicity of the virus to the vast complexity of stars and planets,  everything is valuable, useful, and enjoyable.  Some ancient mystics believed that we live in a world that was created evil. What a wretched, terrible thought!  If we believe, however that everything God created is good, then the possibility of beauty and delight exists in everything and every one.  We can appreciate the beauty of the sunset and the hurricane. We can admire the mosquito and the shark, along with the lamb and the butterfly.  All things in their place are good. Only the flawed state of fallen creation that makes things appear ugly.  Yet there is nothing ugly in the world--only the gaps are bad.

Third, there are no evil people.  There are only flawed people.  The essential nature of us--the image of God--still exists.  This does not deliver us from the guilt associated with our free choices, but is does keep us from  discounting the value of our lives and others.

This explains two puzzles. First, how can a good man do evil? We do evil things, because there is a flaw in us.   We are still good generally, but our flaws render us dangerous. 

This causes problems for character witnesses in court.  If we think that because a man is generally good,  he could not perform an evil act,  then we fail to understand that evil is simply the condition of being flawed.  Anyone who is not absolutely perfect is capable of performing an act of evil.

Secondly, how can bad people do good things? This perplexed the Bible writers more than the first.

Al Capone ran soup kitchens.  Mussolini built a church in Israel, which is still used.  Hitler built the Volkswagon.  Bad men donate to charity,  act kindly at times to their neighbors because they are not bad. The stuff they are made of is goodness.  Nevertheless,  goodness becomes the instrument of evil, when pointed in the wrong direction. 

The thought of evil as something missing is actually an optimistic thought. It means that everything I see, and everyone I see, every day of my life is good. Satan cannot take the good out of anything. He can only twist it.  But if we look , in everything, every circumstance, and in every person,  there is the indelible stamp of God's love and beauty.  All of life is good, and worth rejoicing.  Instead of complaining about what is wrong with the world, we should be enjoying what is right with it.  When we enjoy what God has created, we are after all enjoying Him.  

Drive-By Gifting

There are several ideas about how Christmas presents began.  One thing that appears constant with all of them, though, is  that Christmas presents were  originally mainly for the poor, not for family members.  Whereas children might get some candy or a toy, the bulk of Christmas giving was charitable gifts. We still see this in Christmas customs such as caroling, where the poor would go door to door and receive gifts,  or in the yule log tradition, which began with slaves who would be set free as long as the log burned. 

One theory is that the change from charity to children began in New York in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, about the same time as Santa Claus became popular.  After mobs of poor people threatened the wealthy in the draft riots during the Civil War,  the wealthy changed what had been a tradition of charity, choosing to give to their own children as well.  These children grew up expecting presents on Christmas, and became both givers and receivers.  In a generation presents became something that everyone gave to everyone.  So the cycle of giving began.  And Christmas has been a pain ever since. 

I love Christmas, and especially giving, but Christmas giving often doesn't feel like giving, but obligation. One tries to outdo the next on giving.  Every year we seem to  be driven to spend more and more and more. 

There are two reasons for this.  One is  our competeive nature, driven by our ego. The other is guilt.  We spend money for gifts for one person,  and feel the obligation to spend for another.  We have become so involved with gifts that we have come to accept the premise that how much we give is somehow connected with how much we love.  Giving has become more commerce and guilt than joy and receiving.

This year,  my wife received a gift from one of her student's parents. It was a handmade, hand embroidered Christmas stocking. She apologized, saying that she could not afford a book she wanted to put inside.

Please understand--this was a very poor woman.  So instead of spending money, she spent time and effort to make a beautiful Christmas stocking for a woman who only tangentially touched her life.  It was an act of great honor and beauty.  In some ways, it was the one of the most extravagant gifts my wife has ever received, considering the time and effort involved.  It was an astonishingly beautiful gift.

I give gifts to those I love at Christmas.  But not just at Christmas. I give them gifts whenever I can.  After this gift, though, I have decided that this year, I will be a "drive by gifter" on every occasion I can. 

A drive by gifter is one who gives without warning or expectation. It is giving a gift to people who  do not expect it, and sometimes do not deserve it. A gift is best given without expectation of receiving, and with no expectation of return. It is that sudden,  unexpected gift that comes out of nowhere,  often anonymously, which has the greatest impact upon us.

A woman recently told me of being at a fast food restaurant and having someone in front of her pay for her meal, and just drive off. That's drive by gifting.  A landscaper in one of my churches set me up with plants for my yard, and then refused to take my money. That's drive by gifting.  Drive by gifting is any gift we give that isn't deserved or expected.

When I'm in a crowded restaurant and see a waitress mess up my order because she was being overworked and underpaid,  instead of stiffing her on the tip, I try to increase it. I could make a statement to her about my displeasure with a penny tip, but where's the fun in that?  I don't enjoy it, and it ruins her day. But a generous tip brings a smile to her face, and mine.   A compliment given with wit to a person having a bad day is a drive by gift. 

The best gifts at Christmas are not the gifts that are expected, but the one that are unexpected. It s a shame that the traditions of Christmas seem to make it obligatory, and hence take most of the fun away. 

This year, if you want to have fun,  give some drive by gifts. Brighten the days of a few people who do not expect it.  I promise you, your day will go better as well.

Not-So-Silent Night

Whoever called the night of Jesus' birth  a "silent night" did not know what they were talking about.  It was neither calm, nor silent.

 First came a long, grueling one hundred and fifty mile uphill journey of a pregnant woman and her fiancé to along a busy, bumpy road to a town she had never seen. Eventually,  they arrived at a busy caravansary, or inn on the southern road into a major urban city.  It was the First Century equivalent of a truck stop, filled with cursing men and noisy animals. It gives you a little idea of what that in must have been like, if you think that a weary woman would rather sleep with the animals outside than the people inside the in. 

Then came the shepherds,  standing over their bleating flocks, suddenly visited by an angel,  followed by a whole choir of angels. It is the only time in the Bible that anyone was visited by an army of singing angels.  It must have been like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir hovering over your back yard.  The Bible describes their utter panic and amazement. 

Once the angels left,  the shepherds went to the inn--probably with their sheep in tow.  There the met the rowdy guests at the end,  waking them up, and the whole lot of them probably descended upon the manger, which was now full of sheep, camels, donkeys, drunks,  shepherds, and who know what else.  There, in the center of their goggle-eyed attention lay a young girl and a little baby.  In the center of it all there is Mary, pondering in her heart the wonder of the miracle. 

There, as Luke records, Mary sat silent, pondering the wonder of it in her heart. 

And oh yes--she was also tired. 

Does Christmas ever get you down?  Do you ever feel that it is a lot of fuss and bother?  I do.  Maybe we ought to follow Mary's example. 

This year, do not allow the busyness of Christmas to put us off the real function of  the holiday. Christmas is a time of rest and contemplation, a holy season,  celebrated by Christians for centuries as a time to be still and ponder the miracle of the Incarnation.  It isn't a time of endless shopping and feasting, but a time for restoration, to gaze upon the glory of Christ and  ponder it in your heart.

Don’t let the parties, shopping, or even the church activities pull you away from experiencing the peace of God which passes all understanding.

is Christmas a joy or a burden? Is Christmas peace on earth to you, or push, push, push? 

The quiet coming of Christ in our hearts is  powerful and profound than all the trumpeted commercial voices.  We cannot understand how profound He is, unless we, too contemplate In quietness the  newborn King. 

This year,  don’t let the noise get to you. Take a moment to get still and ponder Him.

A blessing for Christmas

Since it is a week before Christmas, I wanted to share some articles regarding the holidays.
One of the things I have learned in the past few months is the power of blessing people
Here is a blessing I wrote for the Christmas season. I hope you enjoy it.

May you not be trapped

by gaudiness and feasting.

May you sleep well, knowing

what does and does not matter

May you delight in the lights and laughter.

May you hear the singing of carols

and the ringing of church bells

and know their meaning and message

May you stand outside

the circle of obligation

and give up following the crowd

finding solace in the season.

May you gather under starlight,

invited by God’s angels

to stand beside the manger

to partake in the Gift of infinite love.

And may you (if only

for this one evening)

experience stillness and beauty

of this singular and silent night.

Tragedy in Connecticut

 I was going to write a couple of Christmas blogs,  when I got a call from my secretary. She just informed me about the big news of the day--the school shooting that left 26 people dead, mostly children. 

I do not know any details yet. I do not want to know any of the details. I do not need to.  Frankly, it seems to me that our voyeurism drives u to know about such things, not our concern or sympathy with victims. The news trucks parked outside the victims houses are not there to express concerns , but to get a story so  their company can make money of the tragedy.  We listen because  we are often as bad as they.  People deserve their privacy.  I  do believe that man of the madmen who do such things are motivated by the knowledge that they can count on the media to tell their story over and over, giving the criminals the notoriety their pathetic, twisted souls seem to crave.

But I do want to make one comment before I am asked, about how God  can allow such a thing to happen?

The short answer that God had nothing to do with it happening.

God did not make evil.  As St. Augustine put it,  evil is the absence of all that God created. Evil is like a hole in your sweater that causes  you to have to throw it out. The sweater that is bad-- it is the absence of the sweater in one  place that ruins  it. 

God created good things--good people,  good animals, a good world.  It is only when some part is missing--some inner control or restraint, that what God made good turns to bad.  Whether this perpetrator did this as a result of some inner madness brought on by a missing piece of his reason, or brought on by temptation rom a demon who itself was missing a piece of wholeness, I cannot say.  But I do believe could not have happened except there was an absence of all God had created.  It was not God's fault, but that of a broken world. 

God is present in the midst of it, to be sure. He is there with the policemen, counselors, clergy,  helpers,  sympathizers , investigators , and grieving parent.  He is with the victims,  comforting, embracing and weeping at what his world has become.
I grieve for the loss of these children.  My prayers are with the family. But I will not  waste one minute  seeking to know more about it.  There is nothing we can do in response to either prevent or comfort this outbreak of evil. All we can do is look to ourselves, our families and our communities to see where we can mend the brokenness of the world around us, and perhaps repair a breech in the goodness of creation, and prevent it from happening again.