Good and Evil, Truth and Lies

I woke up this morning thinking about evil.  The reality of evil.  Last night I watched the HBO documentary about Joe Paterno which covered essentially six days in the Jerry Sandusky scandal during which Joe had to confront the child abuse that occurred under his leadership which led to his abrupt firing.

We watched him try to compartmentalize and for a while refuse to read about it because he had to concentrate on the next football game.  Finally he faced the enormity of what had happened and recognized ultimately his part in it.  It was a story about how people did not pay attention, chose a football program over young boys and dismissed horrific damage.

At the same time I watch our President mired down in the lies that he tells so easily.  The lie that he was not involved with Stormy Daniels set against the payoff that he supposedly did not know about is festering and is certainly weakening his presidency.

One of the pivotal books for me has been The People of the Lie by Scott Peck.  Evil is real and some of its characteristics include:

 1. Is consistently self deceiving, with the intent of avoiding guilt and maintaining a self image of perfection
 2. Deceives others as a consequence of their own self deception
 3.  Maintains a high level of respectability, and lies incessantly in order to do so .
4. Is unable to think from the viewpoint of their victim

He has more attributes than these to define the person who is evil in his construct - a character disorder.  But what I know to be true is that each of us is able to fall into these kinds of behaviors.  Alexander Solzhenistant wrote in the Gulag Archipelago:

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” 

And so i wake up thinking about evil and wondering what is the message for me this morning? What I know to be true is that I have and probably will again  have times of failing to see what is right in front of me, having distorted values and dismissing the pain of others.  Self deception is the easiest thing in the world for human beings as we like to see only the best in ourselves.  Kind of like what happens when I prepare to look in the mirror.

This spiritual journey is one of paying attention to everything.  It is about being fully alive - seeing, hearing, feeling and thinking. And it is in seeking the good and finding the truth about ourselves, others and the world.  The blessing - the inordinate blessing of being a Christian - is the reality of grace at the heart of our faith.  Grace means that we are loved by a loving God no matter what.  Grace means that we are able to see ourselves as we are and offer ourselves up - not only to be forgiven but also to be changed.  I always like the idea that we are on a journey to become more like Jesus.  And that happens as we have the courage to see everything God wants us to see.

Evil is a problem to understand, accept and see.  I decided to look at what Frederick Buechner had to say about it this morning and this is what he writes in Wishful Thinking:

"Christianity, ultimately offers no theoretical solution at all.  It merely points to the cross and says that, practically speaking, there is no evil so dark and so obscene - not even this - but that God can turn it to good."