Monday, October 12, 2015
The Reality of Evil
Christianity Today's media critic, Alissa Wilkinson, discusses how evil is handled in TV and movies.:
More amazing is how small evils add up. Most small evils are little petty acts and often we forget them, until that person has done so many little petty things that the total picture starts to change. Suddenly someone moves from forgetful to selfish, and things that we were willing to dismiss before begin to really, really hurt. That's a real evil too.
Of course, Christ calls us to keep forgiving when it is someone else. The point of examining evil in this way to so we can see it plainly in ourselves. What are our small, petty evils. I do know that one good place to look is the person that has moved away from us for some reason that we don't fully understand.
evil relationships
It seems to me that the reality of evil isn't so much an either/or as a both/and. Evil comes from beyond us. It also comes from within.Fair enough, but I think she misses the real problem with modern concepts of evil. Media requires "big evil," murder, rape.... It is a function of storytelling. What I would love to see is that evil is also in the little things. The sorts of things that Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment...." You see, evil is not born big, it starts small and grows. Even serial killers start with small animals.
More amazing is how small evils add up. Most small evils are little petty acts and often we forget them, until that person has done so many little petty things that the total picture starts to change. Suddenly someone moves from forgetful to selfish, and things that we were willing to dismiss before begin to really, really hurt. That's a real evil too.
Of course, Christ calls us to keep forgiving when it is someone else. The point of examining evil in this way to so we can see it plainly in ourselves. What are our small, petty evils. I do know that one good place to look is the person that has moved away from us for some reason that we don't fully understand.
evil relationships
