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May 28, 2005
Evil
Back in Navy Nuclear Power School, which I attended during the Cold War, I had an interesting conversation with my teacher, a Lieutenant. Although we both agreed in the malevolence of the USSR's government, I suggested that given the same restrictions on the press, Americans would degenerate to the same types of actions. The Lieutenant felt otherwise -- somehow we were intrinsically better. (In fairness to him, I suspect if I bluntly asked him if Americans were individually "better" than Russians, he would have said no. But I digress.)
In a National Review review of Theodore Dalyrmple's new book, The Doctor Is In, David Pryce-Jones quotes a perfect summary of my thoughts:
I suppose that makes me sound like a glass half empty kind-of-guy, but I do feel that the lust for power aligns with the propensity for evil, so unaccountable human governments, regardless of philosophical foundation (e.g. capitalism or communism), will deteriorate into tyranny.
Those of us who believe in Christ can see past this negative world-view -- we have read the back of the book, and have seen that there is a happy ending. All pain and suffering, and the sin that leads to it, will go away...
And we don't have to wait until the happy ending to see glimmerings of how it will be. I subscribe to the RSS feed of RZIM.org's A Slice of Infinity. In her article, "The Course of Waterfalls," Jill Carattini writes:
Ernest Gordon may have at one time agreed. An officer of the British army during the Second World War, he was captured by the Japanese while at sea. At the age of 24, he was sent to work in the prison camp that would be constructing the Burma-Siam railroad.
...Treated like animals, the prisoners became themselves like beasts trying to survive. Adapting to their harsh captivity, theft was as rampant as disease among them...
Each night the Japanese guards would count the work tools before anyone was permitted to return to camp. One evening, when a shovel was found to be missing, a guard shouted relentlessly that the guilty man must present himself. When no one responded, he ordered callously, "All die! All die!" At this, a young man stepped forward, confessing to the theft, and was immediately killed before them.
...
After the incident with the shovel, upon returning to the camp, one of the guards discovered a mistake in their counting. There had never been a missing shovel. One innocent man had sacrificed his life to preserve the life of his fellow inmates.
Attitudes among the camp began to change dramatically. Instead of men in a detached game of survival of the fittest, they began to look out for each other...
Since my excerpts don't do Ms. Carattini's piece justice, please read it for yourself. And then think, if the voluntary death of one man for other prisoners who previously could have cared less about his welfare could have such a marked effect on the whole camp, what greater effect can the voluntary death of a sinless Son of God for a world that mostly continues to reject Him have on all of us?
Posted by alan at May 28, 2005 11:05 AM
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