Evil

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.                            Matthew 6:13 (MEV)

If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.                                Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I am not one who sees the devil under every rock when it comes to ascribing the basis of evil actions in the world. I try to pay very little attention to Satan, or devils, or any other manifestations of evil that we understand to be in this world. The old expression “give the devil his due”, does not sit particularly well with me, because I want nothing to do with the author of evil.

There is enough evil present in the world without ascribing it to Satan. Quite frankly, in my opinion, there are some evil people in this world. Evil is the determination to “get what I want at the expense of others”. Taken to extreme, it means killing, starving, torturing, and trying to exterminate others (such as genocide), for the gratification of personal or political power and gain. We saw it personified in Adolf Hitler.

I think evil is still alive and well, unfortunately, in 2023. When I see the terroristic targeting of churches, schools and hospitals in Ukraine by the Vladimir Putin directed Russian invaders, I see evil. Unfortunately, this perpetration of evil is now on page three or four of the daily newspaper, not the front page. The news cycle these days simply moves to the stories that will get people’s attention. The atrocities in Ukraine are now 17 months old, so they have been shifted from the headlines. When that happens, people tend to forget the horrors of the situation. We become inured to evil, the suffering of innocent people, and the threat of unchecked evil.

So, this is just a reminder- if you need it. Evil lurks in this world in the hearts of people. Let us be mindful of the statements of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as cited above, we cannot sit by and watch evil play out- we must call it out.

Prayer: Lord, deliver us from evil, Amen,