Thursday, December 7, 2023

Not To Oppose Evil Is Itself Evil

American Baptist minister Nathaniel Manderson (whose podcast is humorously entitled “The Beached White Male”) recently wrote an opinion piece for Salon in which he confesses to believing in a literal devil. He says, “Now, to be clear, as a minister who believes in God, I am compelled to believe in the devil. But I see him much more at home within the evangelical movement than in most liberal causes.”

After giving a list of historic church-sponsored terrorism (“the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the history of American slavery, the attempted genocide against Native Americans and the oppression of women”) he says: “All these evils are or were firmly backed by biblical theology — at least, as many Christians understand it — and, in my opinion, are all fully endorsed by the devil himself. This is now true of the evangelical political movement, which I believe is led by the devil and his followers.”

Wow! Why not tell us what you really think, Nate? The truth is I have been thinking along the same lines recently. It seems clear to me that Evangelicalism no longer follows Jesus. Yet I am not ready to say that its complicity with anti-democratic authoritarianism rises to the level of evil. But I can see how it could lead to evil. Evil never looks like evil when it is starting out. This is how good people are drawn into evil. At the beginning evil appears as good.

That is how the serpent sold Eve on the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He said the fruit was good, and it looked good to Adam and Eve. The apostle Paul said that the devil comes disguised as a messenger of light, and false apostles masquerade as apostles of Christ.  Religion does not help the matter. As Steven Weinberg said, “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.”

The Salon article caused me to consider anew what we mean by the word evil. It is a concept that is misused and misunderstood. Some see evil as a personal force in the universe, in the form of the devil and his demons, which are understood to be real entities. That is how Reverend Manderson experiences evil. Others see evil as simply the absence of good.

I see both good and evil as aspects of the dualistic realm of human existence. Yin and yang. Before the universe existed there was no evil. Indeed there was no good either. There cannot be good without something to contrast it with, namely evil. There was only Nondual Reality, which for want of a better term we call God. There is still only this Nondual Reality now for those with eyes to see.

God is beyond good and evil. Yet we call God good and not evil. We equate God with light and not darkness. That is because we have no adequate word for the unicity that transcends and includes duality.

Good and evil came into existence with humans. Christian mythology says it began earlier with a fallen angel named Lucifer, who became known as Satan. But who made the angel? The Creator did, of course! The buck stops at the Boss’s desk. As the Lord says in the Book of Isaiah, “I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create evil. I the LORD do all these things.”

Regardless of the origin of evil, we cannot avoid moral choices in this human lifetime any more than we can avoid light and darkness, pain and pleasure, high and low, right and left. Even when we become conscious of our unconditioned Source, we still live in the human condition. Every day we choose between right and wrong, good and evil. To decide not to choose is itself a choice. Inaction has as many consequences as action.

I wish it were not so. I wish I could wash my hands of the whole matter and deal only with spiritual matters. Not vote, not opine, not think of these matters. I wish I could transcend the dualism of the political and moral landscape and remain blissfully neutral. But neutrality is an illusion. There is no such thing. If we decide not to be involved in political or social causes, that choice has consequences. When neutrality benefits evil, then neutrality is evil.

Life is messy. According to Genesis even the Creator got dirty when he knelt in the soil of the Garden and formed humans from humus. As much as we wish it were otherwise, we cannot remain on the sidelines. Not even by retreating to a monastery. Hence the monk Thomas Merton named his book, “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.”

That reality is what led clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer to join the German resistance movement against Hitler. He became part of the plot to assassinate the Führer. He concluded: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” 

Not to oppose evil is itself evil. But the action must be done from that divine Presence that is beyond good and evil. That is how I approach social ethics from the perspective of Christian nonduality.

 

10 comments:

  1. Thank you so much, Marshall! That is a question I ponder now and then. I always respect your viewpoint.

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  2. Thank you Marshall. That is an issue I often ponder. I always appreciate your wisdom, ever since Carterville!
    Jennifer Samuel Shakir

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  3. I'm puzzled as to why you write "Every day we choose between right and wrong, good and evil. To decide not to choose is itself a choice. Inaction has as many consequences as action. I wish it were not so." Yet on YouTube you have at least 2 videos in which you declare that there is no such thing as free will. Have you changed your mind or am I missing something here?

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  4. Thank you for expanding on this. If it is a paradox, then no wonder I can't get it straight in my mind !
    But would you agree then, that ultimately we have no control over even such things as :
    - Whether or not we choose to believe in Jesus, or follow him?
    - How we interpret his teachings?
    - Whether we accept that the world needs changing?
    - What particular ideas we hold as to what actions are moral?
    - Whether we even believe in free will or not ?!
    😵‍💫

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  5. Free will is an age-old and unresolved philosophical debate. I have always found it difficult to understand. If one is a scientist looking at the results of an experiment, how can one determine what is true about it without the freedom to distinguish between true and false? If the choices are made unconsciously, how can we know they are correct? We had no actual choice in the matter. We can't refer to logic because that just moves the question to how we determine whether logic is true.

    Certainly this debate has raged for aeons, and my tiny brain is probably not equipped to offer anything new. But that question of how to know what is true without the ability to free assess true or false is confounding for me.

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  6. Who/what exactly would have control? Does a fictional character have control over the decisions that his/her character makes in a novel? Yet when one recognizes the presence of the Author who has control over the whole process and recognize our oneness with this One - that the character is just an expression of the Author - then we are free. "When the Son sets you free you are free indeed!"

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  7. Thanks for your response. Indeed, the question of who or what is in control is important, but that was not what I asked. Don't feel bad though. I've asked the same question in other contexts when someone claims we do not have free will. No one denying free will has ever answered me. The problem of choice in evidence assessment persists.

    The simplest answer is that something in us has some form of free will. It is limited (I cannot fly without a machine) but within the sphere of the intellect, it can make choices. Sometimes the choices are incorrect and reassessment is needed.

    One possible way to look at that is in keeping with your comments about the One is that Its will is indeed free. To the extent that we are each a reflection of it, perhaps we are each participating in that free will.

    Or maybe I'm completely wrong! :-)

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  8. What about asking forgiveness for sins.
    It seems nonsensical, if the so-called sinful actions originated from the one who is being prayed to.
    And if the individual being is both fictional and automatic, how can "it" give thanks, and to whom?

    - Rene

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  9. Sorry, EricR. I hadn't seen your previous comment, and hadn't meant to ignore you.
    My questions were meant to be directed at Marshall, in response to his post about the Author.

    Rene

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  10. Hi Rene. No problem at all. I did think you were addressing Marshall. Thanks for being considerate enough to clarify.

    Eric

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