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GRACE NOTES: Let's come right out and call killers evil
Lorraine V. Murray
In the wake of the Virginia Tech killings, the public was deluged with explanations from the experts trying to figure out the killer's motive.
The young man was severely depressed, some suggested. He was a social misfit, said others.
It is tempting to blame guns for this nightmarish event. But without a gun this young man might have gone online to discover how to create a bomb. So shall we ban the Internet?
In a moving book, "Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust," Immaculee Ilibagiza recounts her bloodcurdling experience of being hunted down in tribal warfare during the 1994 killing spree in Rwanda that left nearly one million people dead.
She survived, but her parents and most of her siblings were killed. And when she met the man responsible for their deaths, she did not offer psychological excuses for his behavior.
"He had let the devil enter his heart," Ilibagiza writes. "And the evil had ruined his life like a cancer in his soul."
Unfortunately, society is wary of using the "e" word. Psychologists are more comfortable talking about differences rather than sins.
And in our postmodern world, TV shows flaunt behavior that was once considered sinful. Out-of-wedlock pregnancies and adultery come to mind.
Moral relativists claim there is no absolute good or evil because in the absence of God who would define the terms? Relativists embrace the mantra "You do your thing and I'll do mine," and heaven forbid that one of us points a finger at the other.
Still, when something like the recent catastrophe at Virginia Tech occurs, moral relativism crumbles. Because what this man did was absolutely evil.
Many experts aren't comfortable with that term, so they come up with mental illness, depression, paranoia. In other words, it was not really the killer's fault.
Most of us recognize good actions, intuitively. We don't have to argue whether Mother Teresa's taking care of the dying poor in India was a good deed or not.
When it comes to evil, though, many get antsy. It sounds so judgmental to use that word.
Goodness has the word "God" imbedded in it, because the root of the words is the same. Evil, you will note, is a shortened form of "devil."
In 1864, Baudelaire suggested that the devil's best trick was convincing the world that he did not exist. Today, the devil often is depicted as a harmless cartoon character in red tights.
"The devil made me do it" is a ridiculous statement because in traditional Christian theology the devil cannot force anyone to do anything. God created us as free agents.
The devil merely dangles the bait.
In truth, killers are responsible for their actions, just as saints are. You will notice that no one tried to explain away Mother Teresa's virtuous behavior by talking about her mental state or upbringing.
Evil is real and it exists. Some people invite the devil into their hearts, while others refuse him entry.
There's a lesson there for all of us.
This article, reprinted here with permission, was published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on May 5, 2007, copyright Lorraine V. Murray.
Lorraine V. Murray is the author of "Grace Notes. Embracing the Joy of Christ in a Broken World" and "Why Me? Why Now? Finding Hope When You Have Breast Cancer." E-mail: lorrainevmurray@yahoo.com
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Comments on this Entry:
While I continually recognize the presence of evil in the world, I also recognize that those who sit on the fringe of society are not the only persons responsible for atrocities like the shootings at Virginia Tech.
In this story, we find a disturbed child from a Christian home moving with his family from South Korea to the United States to find a "better life." (AP) He and his family living in a 3 room basement apartment while struggling to make a living, with a Christian mother contiually praying for her son in the hopes "for him to snap out of his unhealthy taciturnity." (Free Republic)
Just as we must look at this horrible act and call it evil, how then do we as clergy or those called to be Christ in the world minister to the family of Cho Seung-hui, and how would we preside over the funeral service of a disturbed young man who clearly saw something (evil ?) in the humanity around him that we clearly cannot understand.
I pray for those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech, I pray for those who continue to find healing and hope in the midst of such horror, I pray for those who were on scene and those who have worked to help during and following the shootings. My prayers rise to God for the family of the perpetrator.
Posted by: Rev. Jaime G. Olson at June 6, 2007 08:45 PM
I am a Virgina Tech graduate 25 years ago and have had personal responses to the news from there. I found my reaction to this article mixed. I agree that evil is a part of the picture in this and other cases. I also believe that personal responsibility is also a legitimate venue for conversation. However, the answers posed here leave systemic questions unanswered - the state of the mental health system in this country unquestioned (which are at the very least underfunded and ineffective at a level that is sinful and perhaps evil as well and do share some of the blame in this and other situations like the number of homeless on the streets). Yes, evil is at work and a part of the reason things like the Virginia Tech shootings happen - but sin and evil is not dumb enough reside in just one place or person in the system and the danger of the argument is that it lets the rest of us off the hook, perhaps even self justifying our own "goodness" while safely blaming the world's problems on someone else.
Posted by: Dave Daubert at June 7, 2007 06:13 PM
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