Whatever happened
to good vs. evil? Do you know what I mean? Where one side was good
and the other was evil, and you knew which side you wanted to root for.
Old Westerns are known for having good vs. evil. Some villain comes into
town, and the good sheriff fights for justice. There's always a showdown
(tumbleweeds blowing across the dirt road of main street). The viewer was
left with very little question about which side was right.
Real life is not always completely cut and dry like that. There can be very complex issues. However, I think we have often lost our sense of right and wrong, good vs. evil. We want to be "fair" to the person who is clearly in the wrong, so we don't take a side. Or we try to demonize the person in the right in order to make the sides more equal. Recent movies have done a great job of this Just for an example...
Did you ever see the 1959 animated Disney movie Sleeping Beauty? This is my favorite Disney cartoon movie, because it has such a clear sense of good versus evil. Maleficent, the evil fairy, is intent on destroying princess Aurora, and having control of the kingdom. The three good fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather, are doing all they can to save Aurora, and enable the prince. They even give him the "shield of virtue" and the "sword of faith", which remind me an awful lot of the Armor of God in Ephesians 6.
Now fast-forward to 2014. A live-action movie came out, based on this classic. The movie is entitled Maleficent, and stars--you guessed it--Maleficent. I will say I actually enjoyed the movie. However, I also think it odd that it would take the most evil of all Disney villains and make her into this sweet, hurting girl the audience is supposed to feel sorry for. It paints prince/king Stephen as being treacherous and hurtful, and therefore starting the whole problem to begin with. It blurs the lines between good and evil.
I am not putting the movie down. As I said, I enjoyed it. My point is simply to illustrate that between 1959 and 2014, we came a long way from the absolutes of good and evil, and that continues now in 2018. We try to minimize the evil, and demonize the good, so that they're more on the same footing. Excuses are made for destructive behavior. This isn't just in movies. The movies are merely a reflection of where we are as a society. I had a professor at community college (in 2000) who had the gall to say, "Hitler would never have killed all those people if he had taken a power nap every afternoon. That's all we need. Hitler was just tired and cranky." Really? History would disagree with that!
I have dealt with this minimizing good and evil in my own life.
Last summer, my husband was working a short-term job in a thrift store. The people he worked with were sketchy. Some very unsavory things happened while he was there. Things that are a matter of public record now. During this time, one of these coworkers (who is a criminal, according to the public record I mentioned) threatened to kill my husband, and physically attacked him. The boss was another problem altogether. She got a kick out of this, and more or less took the attacker's side. My husband was made very uncomfortable. A second attack and threat on his life happened, again, with no action from the boss. My husband was given contradictory information daily, and then he was severely reprimanded for not following the directions (but he could only follow half the directions, because the other half contradicted the first half). He was ultimately fired for asking for clarification about what he was supposed to be doing. These people tried to withhold money from him as well. It was a mess. A hurtful, dehumanizing mess. We suffered financially, and my husband also suffered mentally/emotionally. I could prove these people are wicked, because, as I said, some of this is a matter of public record. Anyway, having said all of that, I tried sharing this with a trusted friend in a Bible study I was attending. This friend completely surprised me. She told me I was "judging" the people in the thrift shop. She said she felt sorry for them because I was talking about them that way. Let's be clear. I wasn't talking about them by name, or using mean-spirited phrasing. It wasn't gossip or hearsay. I was telling how their sinful actions had hurt our family. I needed support. All I got was criticism. Those who did evil got the sympathy from my Christian friend (who didn't even know them). I shared my story with others, and a few people came out of the woodwork to thank me for sharing, because they, too, had been hurt by these people. I had validated hurting people, and that was redemptive. Why was my friend so intent on siding with evil? Why was she so into demonizing my husband and me? Forgiveness has happened, but our friendship was never the same again, sadly.
Around the same time, a student I worked with was being very difficult. This seven-year-old boy had a fit in front of his mother, and kicked me in the leg as hard as he could. The mother's response was to smile at her son and say, "I'll buy you a present if you try to stop doing that." I was outraged. I was his teacher, and had spent all day dealing with this, and he was basically being rewarded for it? I had shared this with some Christian friends (not using names or anything), and this same Bible study friend I mentioned above overheard. She told me that I offended her, and that my outrage was "judging" this poor sweet little boy and his poor sweet mother. My friend asked me, "What if I did that? Would you judge me too?" Okay, wait a minute. I get the bruise on my leg (one of my coworkers had gotten hair ripped out of her head by this boy's brother, but that's another story entirely), and this child and his negligent mother are the victims? What's wrong with this picture? Why was my friend putting herself in the place of these people who hurt me, instead of sympathizing with me, her Christian friend? Galatians 6:2 says to bear one another's burdens. She certainly wasn't doing that for me.
A couple years ago, I was leading a Bible study with another woman. There was a woman in this study who was struggling with substance abuse. Long story short, this woman, being influenced by the substance, completely attacked me (verbally, not physically). She screamed insanely terrible things at me. It was completely humiliating. My co-leader in this study just sat there, interjecting, "You're both equally at fault here." A higher-up had to get involved, and asked this co-leader why I was supposedly equally at fault with this screaming addict. She fumbled for a response, and finally said, "Well, her face turned red." My face turned red as I was being shouted at, and that made me equally guilty? Can you imagine telling a Holocaust survivor that he was as guilty as Hitler because his face turned red when he was being abused in the concentration camp? Of course not! That would be ridiculous, and perhaps even using this as an example is disrespectful to Holocaust victims. I only use it to make a point.
I was once listening to Dr. Laura Schlessinger on the radio. Someone had called into her show and asked for advice. The gist of their situation went something like this: "My uncle lives with us, and I just found out he's molesting my five-year-old, but I'm afraid it will hurt his feelings if I ask him to stop." Dr. Laura really came down hard in righteous indignation at this. She told this caller, "You have compassion on evil instead of on innocence." That's how so many people have gotten. Even Christians. Sometimes especially Christians.
I have heard a lot of people misuse Matthew 7:4-5. The passage says: How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. It is absolutely true that we need to be examining our own lives before we attempt to correct or help others with their own problems. But this verse does not mean that sin is acceptable or should be ignored. It also doesn't mean that seeing a problem with someone's behavior means I have a bigger plank to deal with. Maybe I do, but not always. When my husband's coworker threatened him, this was not a "speck". My husband didn't have a "plank" he needed to get out of his own eye in this instance. The attacks and threats were uncalled for, and were wrong. The people perpetuating them were sick-minded. Many seem to want to use Matthew 7:4-5 as a smokescreen to turn the attention away from their sin. Also, what a lot of people ignore about this passage is that it ends with the person with the "plank" still helping the person with the "speck" after he has dealt with his plank. People don't go into this part. They often use it to be synonymous with: "Mind your own business! I can do whatever I want!" That's not at all what Jesus meant. Also, this passage really isn't about dealing with interpersonal conflict. It's about seeing something amiss in a fellow believer's life, and making sure your own life is right before you try to help them in love. If someone is attacking you in some way, you don't have to stop and see if you have a plank in your eye before you can respond to the situation.
The Bible is full of examples of Good versus evil. David and Goliath is familiar to most. Nowhere in scripture are we encouraged to sympathize with Goliath. Nowhere are we told that David shouldn't have "judged" him. How about Sampson and Delilah? Sampson made a lot of mistakes, but he was clearly still God's instrument. He is named as a hero of faith in Hebrews 11. Delilah, on the other hand, is never painted as anything but a deceiving traitor. We're never told to feel sorry for her, or think, "Poor girl. What made her do that to Sampson?" We know the answer to that. Her own sinfulness. God never leaves room to us to justify sin. He does offer redemption, but people must choose to take it. Goliath and Delilah did not. Some in the Bible did. Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, put her faith in the true and living God, and was made a part of God's people (she is also listed as a heroine of faith in Hebrews 11). Saul of Tarsus (later the Apostle Paul) chose to receive God's forgiveness and grace. However, even after these people received redemption, they never made light of their past sin, or minimized it, or claimed it was acceptable. Paul reveals in Philippians 3 that what he did before he was a believer--persecuting the church--was wrong, something he would live with for the rest of his life. He never says, "Don't judge me!" He knew God was his judge, and fell on God's mercy.
The Book of Revelation tells how it will all end. Complete justice will be served. Evil will be punished for all time, and only those who are forgiven by the Blood of Jesus will have eternal life. In chapter six, we are told of some martyrs who were killed for their testimony and faith in Jesus. They are in Heaven, and beg God to judge and avenge their persecution. They are assured this will happen. These believers are in Heaven. They have been slain for the testimony of Jesus. As they are dead and with the Lord, they are no longer capable of sin. And, in this sinless state, they beg God to judge their persecutors. This should show us that not all "judging" is wrong. There is a righteous judgment against evil. God makes no apologies.
I am not saying that people in the wrong shouldn't be loved or shown compassion. God often works in their lives through loving and compassionate people. It just shouldn't be done at the expense of their victims. As long as there is life, there is hope. There is hope for my husband's former coworkers at the thrift shop. There is hope for the little boy who kicked me, and his mother. There is hope for the drug-addict who screamed at me. There is hope for us all in Jesus Christ. But we have to turn to Him in faith and repentance. Sin is never acceptable. There is good, and there is evil. Right and wrong. We don't need to handicap right to make the wrong feel less "judged". Maybe those in the wrong need a little judgment to bring them to their senses.
I close with this story. In 2001, I was on a mission trip to Boston, Massachusetts. It was a wonderful time, as I have shared in other posts. My teammate Kirstie and I taught Bible clubs all over the city. We did one in the Salvation Army day camp. Some of the kids were really rough. They were disruptive while we were trying to teach. One day, this little girl was just completely over the top with inappropriate and disrespectful comments while Kirstie was telling the Bible story. After several warnings, Kirstie sent her out of the club, to the director's office. I walked the girl down as Kirstie continued teaching. I explained to the director what happened, and he supported our decision to kick the girl out of the Bible club. I returned to club. Kirstie finished her Bible lesson, and I did the next segment of the club. As we were wrapping up, I noticed this rude little girl reenter the room. She looked different, though. Contrite. She approached Kirsite, and the two of them started talking. I knew that this was important, and so I kept the rest of the group occupied so they could talk. I found out that this girl told Kirstie she realized she was a sinner, because Kirstie had asked her to leave the class. She realized she sinned, and needed a Savior. Kirstie was able to lead her to a saving knowledge of Christ right then and there! This would not have happened if Kirstie had ignored this child's sin. But she dealt with it righteously. She dared to call it wrong. She dared to enforce consequences. The result was the saving of a soul!
