How evil operates
What a weird topic I find myself thinking about. Evil.
Evil can be a variety of things – individual or systemic. It can cause destruction and death. It can also be a source of chaos. Evil can be manipulative, oppressive, greedy, exploitive, and more.
And for some people, it’s appealing. Although I don’t understand why. In the evil, no one actually benefits from evil – even those who use it and somehow benefit from it. They really don’t benefit from it – they are used by evil and rewarded for a time. But that always ends. Evil doesn’t see the humanity of anyone. People are just tools to be used and discarded when they become inconvenient or unhelpful.
So how does evil operate? I’m playing around with the idea that evil can only do something if it gets permission. Let’s flesh that out a bit because I’m sure just about anyone can point to an example of how evil did something without stopping to ask for permission.
Permission doesn’t have to come immediately before an action. But I wonder if at some point permission needed to be granted to go forward.
The most famous example of evil is probably Hitler. He is responsible for the death of millions. He didn’t ask for permission to do that. However, could it be argued that he was granted permission to pursue his evil path because he was elected to office and then given the chancellorship? That set things in motion for him and his party to take over and carry out their plans.
The question would be, how far back does one have to go to find where permission was granted?
If you want to play with a Scripture story, take the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4. Throughout the story, the devil interacts with Jesus and it is always in question format – seeking Jesus’s permission. It’s in the If x, then y. If Jesus complied, then he would be affirming the premise that the devil had, thereby giving consent. But Jesus doesn’t do that. He doesn’t give consent to the false premises of the devil. This is different than Adam and Eve in the story of the Fall in Genesis 3. In that story, the serpent makes statements based on premises and Adam and Eve accept the premises presented, thereby giving the serpent permission.
These are simple examples of course. Things get much more complicated when we are dealing with contemporary examples and people not set out in a story intended to teach something about God or humanity.
Was there permission granted at some point before a war started? What would it be? How about before a murder? Or the breaking of a relationship? Or the stealing of money? What would that look like? And the better question is this – is permission necessary for evil to act? In which case are we just searching for some point in history in a person’s story that verifies the premise?
Evil exists. That I feel I can state. But why? Evil is complex because people and systems are complex and messy. There often isn’t a nice straight line connecting the dots.
Here’s another question to consider – if evil needs to have permission granted in order for it to act, then could that permission be pull away? Or is it a once in motion, always in motion kind of thing?
Does evil begin to end when we no longer accept evil and its ways? How many people does that require? It is a beginning of the end type of thing? Or do we need to have something to put in its place – a type of replacement? After all, if there is a vacuum or void, it will be filled. The question is with what.
Why do we accept the existence of evil and its ways at all, almost assuming that these things are normal and that we can’t do anything about them? Are we just settling for the situation? Why? There is no benefit to this. Why not accept and move towards something better? Why not reject evil and its ways?
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Your post interests me. But sorry. I get interrupted trying to read it so much, I feel I might miss something. (Not your fault, btw)
Anyway, I think on EVIL sometimes too, and I hold that view which says evil is like a parasite on GOOD. It is not equal and opposite to GOOD, but less than and actually requires GOOD to live so that it can live. EVIL, then, depends on GOOD just like the rest of us.
SO…
Your thoughts on PERMISSION are not that far off. I can entertain that idea quite easily.
So, in the case of Hitler, did not Germany give his evil permission as he rose to power? Did he not promise Germany power and more and more good Germans either signed on and devoted to him or turned a blind eye and ALLOWED him to take power?
Did not the US and allies turn a blind eye and allow the evil to grow? We punished Germany mercilessly (which arguably unleashed evil to begin with) meaning we did more than allow evil there to start with. Then as it festered, we became isolationist and even turned Jewish refugees away from our ports (permitting evil) as we tried so hard to live in denial of our own complicity (permission).
Burying our head in the sand and hoping it will go away is effectively giving permission too. No?
And then we went to war killing hundreds of thousands (millions?) ourselves using EVIL to fight EVIL. Did we not?
We might have been the lesser of two evils (I can easily believe that), but we were not righteous crusaders innocent of evil when we won that war.
Amen to all of that.
Yeah, I’ve been in that rabbit hole, too. It goes on and on. It may seem simplistic, but evil is around because we are human and have the power to make choices. And we do every moment of the day, in small ways, in grand ways, and in endless ways. I was talking to someone about my recently develope theology of the fittest: Jesus doesn’t come back until more of us get a grip on what weilding strength and power over the weaker (choose a category – mind, body, spirit) actually means as a disciple of Christ. It can feel utterly hopeless at times to have clarity on the yuk and not have clarity on how to resolve it. I try to remember that Jesus holds the big picture – not always easy, often difficult, the world is chaotic. Lord, I let me trust that the big and small work I do today will somehow honor you and bless those around me. God bless your ministry, Matt.
good thoughts. Thanks for adding them here Holly.
I would add the story of Job, and God giving the devil permission to mess with him.
Some things to consider:
1) Augustine says that evil is not ugly. It is attractive. That’s why we do it. If the devil really had recognizable features (horns, pointy tail, evil face) would we even be lured? Eve at the fruit because it looked good and doing so promised her that she would not die and be like God. Sounds good.
I am reminded of a baptismal font I saw in Italy. Carved in the marble was the the Garden of Eden temptation story. The serpent had this beautiful woman’s face. If the serpent looked like a rattlesnake would Eve have been tempted?
2) “Permission” assumes some level of restricted will, rather than free will. As part of creation, does evil have free will? (This, of course, is an ‘origin of evil’ question.)
3) Luther, and Lutheran theologians after him, point out that temptation to acts that we adjudicate as evil are the works of the “lord of this world”, the devil. The devil pokes at us, but has no power over us. The heaviest cudgel of the devil is fear. The devil uses fear, not evil, to draw us away from God. So, what is evil, really?
I actually thought about Job. There are so many examples and Job is certainly a great one related to this.
Great point about evil not being ugly. I remember reading somewhere that evil is good taken to the extreme, thereby losing parts of itself because it is no longer complete and whole. Evil in that sense is the rejection of shalom. Evil is always saying – it’s not enough, or you need more in order to be complete and whole. Temptation is suggesting that the good that exists is not complete or whole.
Great question on the second point – does evil have free will? Maybe to some degree, since we just got done saying that evil has some goodness as a foundation, but it has taken it to some extreme and distorted it. But it no longer has the full ability of free will because it chose to go beyond what was whole and complete.
And yes, fear is what evil is about. Fear is the engine of evil and its fuel. Without fear, what is evil but something ridiculous to be laughed at and ridiculed. But even fear can be something useful and good in certain circumstances. Again, evil takes something good and stretches it beyond what it is about.
Great additions Liz. Thanks for adding these.