In one way, we religious liberals are sitting ducks for fundamentalists.
Essential to religious liberalism is a firm faith in the inherent goodness of all people, and a rejection of a creative force in the universe which could create anything close to eternal damnation.
With such a foundation for an optimistic approach to life, we are too easily labeled “bleeding hearts,” and we are portrayed as people who think that if we only smile, the whole world will be better.
Beneath such glib attacks on our liberality is a much more serious charge against us - that since we have no theology of sin we cannot speak to the evil in the world. The fundamentalist argument is that people are essentially sinful and that a force exists in the world, seeking to recruit that sinfulness to the cause of evil. It’s the old God versus Satan dualism.
So, let’s set the score straight!
Liberals, both religious and secular, believe that people can do things which are bad, which are unjust, cruel, unfeeling. We also believe that people, by their inaction, can allow bad things to happen. We believe that people are not essentially defined by their failures, but that they can learn from their failures about their potential for good. For us, people are not sin-full, just at times error-prone.
Then, what about evil?
For the fundamentalists, evil is a force alive in the world which must be confronted and contained until an ultimate victory over evil ushers in the eternal age of perfection.
For us liberals, evil is not a force in the world but rather the effect of collective human indifference or an accumulation of human mistakes. The small, seemingly insignificant deeds of individuals amass into a temporary force which reaches the level we would call evil. With the demise of its central personality or the cessation of the pattern that energizes it, the evil dissipates back into individual acts.
The dictator dies and the regime soon falls. Few dictatorships survive a generation after the leader is gone.
Deep fears are resolved and the movement dies. Mass movements of prejudice have dissolved in the face of personal contact with the hated, when discovery that “they” are just like “us” turns fears into memories.
Individuals are differentiated from the whole and the mob loses its appeal of anonymity. Remember that scene in “To Kill a Mockingbird” when young Scout names a member of the lynch mob, inquires about his son, and soon the mob withers back into individual lives.
Evil actions - Yes; evil force - no!
So, what the fundamentalists are saying is that because we see evil as a temporal expression of human actions which can be changed, we will never adequately address the issues of evil.
To which I say: because we see evil as a temporal expression of human actions which can be changed, we are poised to most effectively address the issues of evil.
Let me tell you how -
There are three central qualities to evil as experienced in the modern world, and there are three central responses to that evil which arise from the liberal point of view.
Evil is pervasive. By its very definition evil must stand in some larger human context. When evil is present, we find its implications in nearly all aspects of life. It does not have easily defined boundaries. Since evil has an insatiable appetite for energy from external sources in order to be sustained, it moves outward in search of more energy. The horizons of inclusion are enlarged. Hatred for blacks soon found itself enlarged with hatred for foreigners, hatred for Catholics. As we remember, in Germany in the 1930's, persecution began against the Communists, and then spread to the Trade Unionists and the socialists, and then spread to the Jews and beyond. Such a pattern of unending need for expansion of action against something or someone is a defining quality of evil, such as perpetrating the invasion of one country and then claiming the need to invade another along the same lines.
Evil seen as the collective effect of individual action and even inaction becomes evil by its ability to become pervasive. When Joseph McCarthy questioned one or two people about their political affiliations, that may have been mean-spirited. But when his intimidations became universal and were abetted by large groups driven less by his own appeal and more by an amorphous fear of Communism, they became something more. In the end, the ripples of his mean-spiritedness reached into almost every area of American life in a way that can only be called evil.
Just like bacteria- standing alone, they do little harm and some very necessary good, but when bacteria become pervasive, we become sick.
But, what can stop it?
With bacteria, we know that antibiotics can stop them in their tracks - but only if used in a certain way. Remember those instructions on the prescriptions - do not discontinue use until full course is completed, even if symptoms disappear.
With anything which is pervasive, occasional, half-hearted response will not do.
Where evil is pervasive, it is stopped by persistence.
Remember Edward R. Murrow? He was persistent.
As McCarthy attempted to spread his shadow over this country, Murrow became relentless in speaking to the evil of fear-mongering.
Some would say that persistence is just another name for vigilance, but it is not. Vigilance is reactive mode, in which we keep alert for the indicators of energy being sucked, of fears being spread, of power being assumed. When our vigilance alerts us that something is wrong, we then need to spring into action. Persistence implies that we never spring into action because we are always active.
Persistence is a sustained approach to life, not a series of periodic reactions. Against actions which are pervasive, only the sustained will be effective. Remember, “do not discontinue use until full course is completed, even if symptoms disappear.”
For those of you old enough, and for those younger who have read about it, can you remember about 50 years ago in this country?
Before the landmark civil rights legislation of the 60's and 70's, racism was much wider-spread than today. It was, in fact, pervasive and it was only with the persistent efforts of civil rights activists that change has slowly come about. While we still have the legacy of many systemic aspects of racism, it is not as pervasive as it once was.
Ironically, at the same time that racism was pervasive, it was also diffuse. The evil of racism was here, there, everywhere, but it was also hard to pin down. Try to attack it in the work place and it would seem to falter only to pop up in education.
That is the second characteristic of evil - as a collective expression of many different actions and inactions, it has multiple identities and often has a presence without having a shape. Like trying to get a good grip on a handful of Jello®, getting a handle on evil can be hard.
But you don’t have to go back 50 years to know what I mean. For example, take the recent Medicare Part D Drug Manufacturer and Insurance Company Enhancement Plan, o, wait, its called Prescription Drug Coverage. You hear the name, and you think “Good,” but have you tried to figure the many options out - and each option has its own problems. You come to believe there is something wrong with the whole thing, but you can’t get a handle on why.
This diffusion is both a defining quality and a tactic. Don’t take over the whole school board but rather promote the agenda with members on the school board, the library board, the village board, the precinct committees. Don’t concentrate too much obvious influence in any one place, but let it be a diffuse influence which builds a covert persuasion more than an overt program.
If pervasive evil tries to fly below the radar by being diffuse, the liberal response is simple: focus.
Diffusion only works when we allow ourselves, in our persistence, to be taken off track.
Diffusion only works when we get distracted from our message.
Focus.
There’s a wonderful training exercise in which a person tries to keep focus on a simple, main message. In the demonstration case, that message is “My dog has three legs.”
Now picture a person being confronted by questioners who want to take the conversation in their own direction but who manages to frame her answer so that the fact of her dog having only three legs is always stated.
That’s what we need to be able to do. If we are only persistent but we remain unfocused, the diffusion inherent in evil will win the day.
I think you know exactly what I mean - haven’t you attended meetings called around a single concern, a meeting in which everyone attending has made a commitment to engage in a sustained response to a situation, but a meeting which no-the-less goes nowhere because the discussion wanders from this passion to that passion from this anger to that anger about too many aspects of the whole situation.
Harkening back to the 1960's, one of the rallying phrases was “Keep your eyes on the prize.”
Focus.
And such focus becomes confusing and ultimately destructive to the diffusion of evil. Focus is an abundance of energy which cannot be co-opted, diverted, or subverted, and evil as a collection of energy-seeking nodes of action and inaction has nothing that can match it.
As much as evil is both pervasive and diffuse, it also relies on specifics, not universals.
Actions and inactions which rise to the level of evil are not targeted to achieve some positive end as much as to destroy or eliminate something which can be labeled as bad. The third hallmark of evil is that it defines classes of people or specific situations as evil.
Ironic, isn’t it. Usually only evil empires call anyone evil.
In the name of fundamentals, evil deals mainly in situations.
And since we are all fallible, as individuals, as communities, as institutions, it is easy for someone, anyone to point a finger and assign a fault. But, to build a system of actions and inactions based on fault-finding in others is another definition of evil.
Think to all the situations you would define as evil. Wasn’t this the case? What was called for, which became the evil deeds, was some kind of action against a specific group of people or a specific situation. Action against, not towards anything.
And the response is again simple - persistence, focused expression of those values which uphold the worth and dignity of every person. Not an attack on evil people, not a plan of action against evil, but a promotion of all people, a plan of action toward the good. Universal principles always trump personality and situation. Focus on those things which are most universal, most inclusive, most affirming, and don’t be tempted to fall into the same camp.
When some person represents what we think is evil, we need to promote the good, not attack the personality or the situation of evil.
Sure, things will get our goats, we will find that we cannot tolerate even a look at some people - but that’s when we need to be able to know and show what we affirm, not what we dislike.
Yes, we liberals have a hard road to follow. We can’t rely on dogmatism of any nature to give us simple answers, and we can’t rely on the energy of others to feed our needs.
But what we can do is persistently focus on those universal values we would affirm for all people.
In the face of pervasive, diffuse, personalized manifestations we would call evil -
We can be persistent, we can be focused, we can be filled with affirmations of larger values.
Persistent
Focused
Affirming Universals
That’s how a religious liberal can speak truth to evil.