In the current crisis we are facing in our nation, there are some principles that I believe will help us negotiate successfully; as we have negotiated through other major crises. I set them forth here:
1. Good and evil exist. There are ways of being in this world that progress us toward all that is good for humanity, and ways that regress us into unnecessary suffering.
2. The line that separates good from evil goes through the heart of every human. The primary responsibility of every human is to deal first and foremost with his/her own propensity for evil. No laws or systems of government can compensate for our failure to do this. Jesus pointed out that it is easy for us to see the evil “out there”, and difficult to see the evil that is “in here.” And He indicated that we would not be able to help our brother overcome his evil if we did not first expose and exculpate our own. [Matthew 7:3-5].
3. We all share the responsibility to stand together in confronting and overcoming societal evil, which may be thought of as evil that takes on a collective dynamic and is reinforced by the fact that many stand in agreement with it, benefit from it, and find ways to rationalize it---a sort of collective blindness. [Think of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time, the KKK, Nazi Germany and “systemic racism” in recent history.]
4. There is no person nor people group that is purely evil juxtaposed against a person or people group that is purely good. There is good in the worst of us and evil in the best of us, to varying degrees.
5. These principles take on a higher level of power and importance in the COLLECTIVE [vs. individual] battles against evil specifically because they are reinforced by the dynamic of what some have called “group think”--attitudes and beliefs that congeal and are reinforced by the number of people who adhere to them or benefit from them. In this dynamic those who are predominantly good but passive can be swept up in the demagoguery of those who are predominantly evil but loud and passionate. Historically, much unnecessary suffering has resulted from this human tendency.
6. Communism is an example of a political system that has capitalized [no pun intended] on this dynamic by fundamentally defining history as a struggle of the oppressed against the oppressor. This mindset is not exclusive to communism. When the human endeavor is fundamentally defined in this paradigm, the human tendency to overlook the evil in the self and demonize the evil in the other is maximized. Tens of millions of people have been murdered when this mindset has taken root in civilizations. This is a historical fact.
7. Judaeo-Christianity and the American Constitution and Democratic Republic that are rooted in its principles [partially stated above], properly lived out, have the potential of providing the enduring revolution that evolves the human family toward justice, equality, and peace at the pace at which these can realistically be attained. An accurate account of history reveals that this enduring revolution has indeed been happening. [The end of slavery; women’s rights and the elevation of womanhood; the success of the Civil Rights Movement, and now the progressive transcendence of “systemic racism”.] Patience and diligence are equally important in this process. Without diligence we stagnate in oppression. And without patience we fail to see our progress and face the tendency of over-reacting and destroying the foundations that provide us the platform for continued progress. This points toward the value of both the Conservative and the Liberal endeavors. The Liberal endeavor militates against stagnation and keeps us moving forward. The Conservative endeavor keeps us from “throwing out the baby with the bath water” so to speak. It works to “conserve” only that which has served all members of the human family well. Both endeavors are equally important and beneficial when lived out inside the parameters of the extremes on either side. But the benefits of both can only be contributed to the society in a context of civility in which neither side demonizes and rejects the other in a wholesale manner.
Mark Graham
[I hope you will share this]
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