There is a For Better or For Worse cartoon that shows Elly looking after her sick husband in bed. He says to her, "I’ve been lying here for two whole days, El. Strange how you become deeply philosophical when you’re incapacitated. I’ve been thinking: 'What is life?', 'What’s it like to die?’, ‘What’s man’s role in this infinite cosmos?’... ‘What’s for lunch?’” She looks puzzled and asks, "Lunch?” He replies, “...I like some of my questions to have answers.”
Well, don’t we all! During these past few months we’ve had many Big Questions and not enough answers. And Joan and I aren’t helping much, are we? We keep asking questions that require each of us to explore our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and ethics and to enter into conversation with family and friends and in covenant groups and with other friends and members of this church.
And even then we do not furnish you with a full-fledged guarantee that you will find a satisfactory answer to the Big Questions. But we do guarantee that you will get a lot closer than if you sit back and accept someone else’s answers.
So here we go again with a Big, Big Question: Why evil? Believe it or not, this question was chosen by the congregation back in the spring. But little did we know how relevant it would be at this time.
Why evil? has been one of the big questions since the beginning of humanity. Why are there people who commit atrocities, who kill and rape and harm others? If there is a God, why does he or she or it allow such evil to exist? And why do good people have to be the victims of evil?
But first of all, let’s ask what evil is. M. Scott Peck in his book, "People of the Lie,” uses his son’s definition of evil as being live spelled backwards.
Albert Schweitzer based his notion of good and evil on the reverence for life. He wrote that, "The essence of Goodness is: Preserve life, promote life, help life to achieve its highest destiny. The essence of Evil is: Destroy life, harm life, hamper the development of life..."
The most terrible image of evil is the Holocaust. In the novel called "Night” Elie Wiesel tells of what it was like to be a Jew during the Holocaust: to be herded into boxcars like animals with no food or water and freezing temperatures; to lose your family and friends as well as your own dignity; to have six million of your people murdered in just a few years for no other reason than your religious tradition.
Wiesel writes of being in a camp where all the prisoners were forced to watch two men and a boy hung by the SS for some trivial mistake. The two men died immediately but the prisoners were forced to watch the boy struggle between life and death for a half hour before he finally succumbed.
Wiesel writes, "Behind me, I heard a man asking, >Where is God now?’ And I heard a voice within me answer him: >Where is He? Here He is B He is hanging here on this gallows...’”
How many of us have asked countless times how human beings can commit such horrendous evil? And how could God allow it? Now once again, as we still mourn the death of 4,000 people in terrorist attacks, we ask those same questions but with even more intensity.
In Christianity the explanation for evil has been the existence of Satan. In Elaine Pagel’s book The Origin of Satan, she tells us that the concept of the Evil One began in that same land where hatred and violence are running rampant today -- the Mideast.
Today Satan seems to be as popular as ever. A poll shows that two out of three adults say they believe in the devil, and more than one-third say he has tempted them. The poll also states that among evangelical or "born again” Protestants, 85% say they believe in Satan; 59% blame the devil for crime; and 43% blame him for the gay-rights movement.
So who is this obnoxious fellow called Satan, and why was he invented? Elaine Pagels tracks Satan’s hoofprints back to his origin in the Hebrew Bible and then through the Christian scriptures which he uses as a portal into modern times.
Satan is no more than a bit-player in the Hebrew Bible. He never appears as the leader of an >evil empire’. In fact, his major scene is in the Book of Job where he plays the role of one of God’s servants. On the orders of the Most Holy, Satan tests Job to see if he is faithful to the Deity.
In the final centuries before the common era, a fundamentalist group of Jews called the Essenes charged that those who were insufficiently observant or pure were obstructing the purpose of God and in league with that demonic power who was in eternal opposition to God. In the process they turned this rather unpleasant angel into a far grander -- and more evil -- figure. As we come up on the beginning of Christianity Satan has taken on the role of God’s antagonist, his enemy, even his rival.
When the writers of the New Testament sat down to pen their sacred words, they incorporated Satan into their scripture as a way of demonizing the Jews who refused to convert to Christianity. The danger in such demonizing can be seen in what happened next in early Christian history. The Gospel writers had set a pattern of condemning their enemies as allies of Satan, and that pattern was to become a cruel characteristic of Christianity throughout the ages, even until today.
No one can deny that the Holocaust was a direct result of the anti-Semitism embedded in the Gospels like a time-bomb. As the early Christian church became more powerful, it shifted its attacks away from the Jews, who for the most part had fallen away from Christianity, to the pagans, who were the Christians’ direct competition.
But the worst cruelty was saved for their own heretics. Elaine Pagels gives us a frightening look at the early church’s view of heretics with these words about one of the most powerful Christian leaders in early church history, Tertullian, who:
...insists that making choices is evil, since choice destroys group unity. To stamp out heresy, Tertullian says, church leaders must not allow people to ask questions, for it is "questions that make people heretics” -- above all, questions like these: Whence comes evil? Why is it permitted? And what is the origin of human beings?”
So you can see that even to ask the Big Questions is an act of heresy. But by refusing to allow such challenging questions, Christianity never dealt adequately with one of the biggest paradoxes in its theology: the problem of evil. If God exists, and God is all-knowing, all-powerful, all good, then how could God have created evil B or failed to defeat evil?
Harold Kushner, the rabbi and author of "Why Bad Things Happen To Good People,” tried to solve that riddle by claiming God to be all good but not all powerful, and so unable to keep bad things from happening to good people. But then how can God not be all powerful and still be God?
Islam has not succeeded in solving the problem of evil either. By building on the foundations of Judaism and Christianity, Islam built a house that, like them, was fortified to protect the believers from the unbelievers.
Ironically, these three Religions of the Book have much more in common than they have differences, and yet many of their followers have learned to hate those from the other faiths. In the words of Blaise Pascal, "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
But it appears that the Islamic Satan is not quite as evil as the Christian one. Karen Armstrong, in her book "The Battle for God,” tells us that "In Christianity, Satan is a figure of overpowering evil, but in Islam he is a much more manageable figure. The Koran even hints that Satan will be forgiven on the Last Day...”
She goes on to explain that "Those Iranians who called America >The Great Satan’ (during the 1977 hostage crisis) were not saying that the United States was diabolically wicked but something more precise. In popular Shiism, the Shaitan, the Temper, (or Satan) is a rather ludicrous creature, chronically incapable of appreciating the spiritual values of the unseen world... For many Iranians, America, the Great Shaitan, was "The Great Trivializer,” intoxicated with materialism and modernity.
The crux of today’s crisis is that all faiths that come out of the biblical tradition C Judaism, Christianity and Islam C have built into their theology the exclusive claim to truth. These fundamentalisms, writes Karen Armstrong, "are engaged in a conflict with enemies whose secularist policies and beliefs seem inimical to religion itself. Fundamentalists do not regard this battle as a conventional political struggle, but experience it as a cosmic war between the forces of good and evil.”
We wept when the Taliban wiped out the invaluable Buddhist statues, reacting to what they see as a war against all other religions and cultures. We are shocked when the Israelis shoot down Palestinians and Palestinian suicide bombers murder Israelis. And we are enraged when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson blame abortion rights advocates, gay people and secularism for the terrorist attacks.
The opposite of religious fundamentalism is the ideology of pluralism C an ideology that embraces religious diversity and the idea that my faith can be nurtured without claiming exclusive truth. The reason America is hated by Islamic fundamentalists -- as well as by some Christian fundamentalists -- is that we are the Mecca of that ideology.
Even if we eschew religion altogether, we can’t help but be influenced by the dualism of We versus They. Just look at our books and movies, such as the ever-popular Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings B I love them all B and so many of the stories that entertain us. The vast majority reveal a clear line between good and evil, and of course we are on the side of good whose responsibility is to triumph over evil. In the words of Joseph Conrad: "The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness."
I’m certainly not saying that all followers of Biblical religions are zealots and fundamentalists, nor that our culture revolves completely around this polarity. There are many religious people who are inspired by a more compassionate theology, a deeper spirituality, and a tolerant pluralism. But those who grow up in any of these cultures must struggle to break out of this narrow, intolerant view and to open our vision to a more inclusive spirituality. In this church we challenge and support each other in this struggle.
As I mentioned in my first Big Question sermon, I can’t give you any Big Answers, but I can give you some Big Suggestions. I have these suggestions for ways to deal with the problem of evil.
The first way is to go deeper into our own religious heritage, seeking out those teachings that emphasize compassion and tolerance over bigotry and hatred. I am inspired by the life and teachings of the man Jesus as well as many other women and men in Christianity and in our own Unitarian Universalist faith who have dedicated their lives to affirming and promoting justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.
I am also inspired by other religious traditions, especially in the East. Though they too often succumb to their own version of fundamentalism, their teachings are based more in unity than division. I am convinced that most religion at its heart is a force for goodness and is in opposition to evil -- as our reading on "The Universality of the Golden Rule” this morning reveals. But we must be willing to find and embrace and live out of that center.
Another inspiration for me is the image of the shadow as presented by the psychologist, Carl Jung. In the book Spiritual Literacy by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, they quote the American poet, Robert Bly, who defines the shadow as A>the long bag that we drag behind us’ containing all the dark parts of ourselves that we would like to keep secret.
“The shadow may include our anger, selfishness, jealousy, pride, insecurity, wildness, or destructiveness.
“Although these qualities are an integral part of us, we want to hide them or deny them. Eventually, they get out of the bag when we project them onto others B husband, wife, child, friend, neighbor, coworker, or another race or culture.”
This “long bag that we drag behind us” is what we often call evil and perhaps even Satan himself. Instead of becoming aware of those demons we carry around in our bag and laying claim to them, our tendency is to sling the bag at others, demonizing our enemies and blaming our problems on something outside of ourselves. Nations drag their own bags behind them as do religions and individuals.
Our own nation certainly has its shadow: the millions of Africans who were hauled to America against their will under the most inhumane of circumstances; the annihilation of Native Americans; and a foreign policy based on politics more than compassion.
As the Russian novelist, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, wrote, AIf 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?”
Our spiritual task is to confront the evil that lives within us. AThe only devils in the world,” said Mahatma Gandhi, Aare those running around in our hearts.”
But I do believe we must struggle with evil in our world as well -- as did Gandhi. An inspiration for me are those who refused to let the terrorists fly the plane into the White House or the Capitol Building, even though it meant the death of all those aboard.
I believe that after we have wrestled with the evil within ourselves we are called to battle evil in our world, whether it is the evil of poverty, injustice, war or terrorism. Though I do not believe in evil human beings, I do believe human beings who commit horrendous acts of evil must be stopped.
Dietrich Bonhoffer was a German pastor and theologian executed by the Nazis after participating in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler. He believed in the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." But Bonhoeffer, experiencing the demonic force of Hitler, saw no alternative except to destroy him.
It is never right to kill, he said, but sometimes we have to do it. In this situation, Bonhoeffer saw murder as the most fitting thing he could do. In the same way, the greater evil for those in that airplane would have been to sit back and let the terrorists take even more lives.
Elie Wiesel writes that "We must be a witness, and never be silent, whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides -- neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormenter, never the tormented."
But I am uncomfortable with the way our President wields the word evil and evil-doers and the Evil One about like a saber. Though the acts perpetrated against our nation were horrendous, and those who committed them must be brought to justice, it seems that the administration is using Satan once again as he has been used for millennia: as a way to separate us from others and to make us feel more comfortable with violence and war.
I believe our task is to passionately resist evil both within ourselves and within the world, but to resist it not out of hated but out of love -- love for ourselves, for each other and for the Most Holy.
Our challenge is to reach out to those of all religions and cultures, learning from their wisdom and sharing our own, defending those who are persecuted and working hand in hand to bring peace and justice to the world.
Our calling is to not only preach goodness but to fill our lives and the world with such a quality and quantity of goodness that evil has no room to enter.
Boris Pasternak writes, AIf the beast who sleeps in [humanity] could be held down by threats C any kind of threat, whether of jail or of retribution after death C then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer in the circus with his whip, not the prophet who sacrificed himself. What has for centuries raised [humanity] above the beast is not the cudgel but an inward music; the irresistible power of unarmed truth, the powerful attraction of its example.”
May we follow that irresistible power and be an incarnation of its hope.
Readings: AThe Universality of the Golden Rule in World Religions”
BAHÁÁ'ÍÍ FAITH
It is Our wish and desire that every one of you may become a source of all goodness unto men, and an example of uprightness to mankind. Beware lest you prefer yourself above your neighbors.
Baha'u'llah, Gleanings, 315
BUDDHISM
Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.
Undana -Varga: 518
CHRISTIANITY
As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
Luke 6:31
HINDUISM
This is the sum of all true righteousness: deal with others as thou wouldst thyself be dealt by. Do nothing to thy neighbour which thou wouldst not have him do to thee after.
The Mahabharata
ISLAM
No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.
Sunnah
JUDAISM
What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow men. That is the entire Law, all the rest is commentary.
The Talmud, Shabbat 31a
ZOROASTRANISM
That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not goo for its own self.
Dadistan-I Dinik, 94:5
TAOISM
The good man ought to pity the malignant tendencies of others; to rejoice over their excellence; to help them in their straits; to regard their gains as if they were his own, and their losses in the same way.
The Thai-Shang, 3
CONFUCIANISM
Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindess: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you. Analects, XV, 23
