Half-Measures and Heartache

This week we were all confronted by a grotesque vision of evil. It wasn’t a picture of rampant over-indulgence or self-absorption or some cautionary tale against loose morals; this week, we encountered evil in the raw.

I was driving to work in Greenville on Monday morning when I heard the news of the shooting in Las Vegas. At the time, 50 were confirmed dead and 400 injured in the mass shooting at a country music festival on the Strip. I felt a pit in my stomach and immediate sadness. The scope of the attack in itself is staggering – now 59 people fatally wounded and over 500 injured. It’s sickening. Perhaps the most dumbfounding and terrifying piece of it all is the naked glimpse of evil we all encountered. The immense, unfathomable evil in one man’s heart that consumed not just his own life at the end of the night, but led to the death of 59 people. But it doesn’t stop there – it ripples out into families, friendships, schools, workplaces, communities. The Las Vegas shooting was an act in which evil was on full display, consuming not just one man or several dozen victims, but all said and done, thousands of people.

As the shock wears off and the national grieving begins, we will collectively begin to ask questions: why did Stephen Paddock rent a hotel room and with cold calculation murder dozens? Was he mentally ill? Was this domestic terrorism? What can we do to prevent this?

That last question is the one that I am dreading in the national conversation. It’s the one we’ve heard after recent mass-killings. Aurora, Sandy Hook Elementary, San Bernadino, Orlando. I dread it because honestly, we all know where the conversation will go: guns. Gun control is the answer squawk the progressives. Exercising your second amendment right is the answer scowl the conservatives. And if the conversation goes nowhere from there, then sadly another 59 people will have died in vain.

I think Tolkien actually asks the same question in a better way. In The Two Towers King Theoden faces the utter genocide of his people. After leading a courageous fight with many casualties, he and his men brace for certain destruction. With the enemy breaking down the doors into the last stronghold, Theoden mused:

“So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?”

That is the question for the hour. But it’s the question we don’t actually ever answer. How can we overcome evil? Instead of answering, we twiddle our thumbs and occupy our time with questions of policy and regulation. Half-measures in moments of heartache. There is a political application to this question, but if we only see the symptoms not the disease itself we will misdiagnose cancer as a simple rash. We need chemotherapy. We prescribe topical ointment.

Once we realize we are confronted with evil it shouldn’t surprise us that our deepest, foundational answer will be theological, not political. Evil is not a political concept or policy. You can’t find it clearly defined in the Constitution, Bill of Rights, or federal or state laws. Law, at the end of the day, is a practical response to a theological problem: evil. We’ll spend weeks hung up on action items without answers to key questions we haven’t even considered yet.

In the upcoming debate, we are likely to miss these two core questions:

What is evil?

And

Who is evil?

If we answer these incorrectly, we will be wrong from the onset. If we consider and wrestle with them, it at least gives us a shot at answering the political questions with some accuracy.

What is evil? Theologically speaking, evil is active, willful, betrayal and rebellion against God. It is an absolute rejection of Him as the Author and Source of Life, the Lawgiver, and Creator-Father of all things and people. At its core, evil is destructive consumption – the objectification of women for sexual pleasure, over-indulging in food, self-centeredness, laziness that leads to exploiting the generosity of others, malicious gossip that gnaws away the reputation of friends and co-workers. Wherever there is evil, there is destructive consumption until, at the end, we ourselves are consumed: objectifying others leads to broken relationships, gluttony leads to embarrassment and health problems, gossip leads to lost friendships. Even if you reject a theological definition of evil as a person’s willful betrayal of God, you can still agree that at its core, it is destructive, self-centered consumption. Certainly there are more nuanced views and definitions of evil than this one. Evil may be more than destructive selfish consumption, but it certainly is not less.

Who is evil? Everyone. You. Your parents. Your spouse. Your co-worker. Me. Every human being at their core, is evil. Theologians call this the depravity of man (see Romans 1:18-3:20 for a lengthy treatise on it from the apostle Paul). Every man and woman is evil. We all rebel and betray God first, and our fellow man second. There’s no getting around it. Your evil and my evil typically go unnoticed because it is probably pretty subtle. A pornography habit. Drinking too much. Telling lies to look good. Pick your poison. Now, this does not mean that each of these evil actions is as morally weighty or repugnant as the shooting in Las Vegas – that would be ludicrous. It does mean that everyone does evil and is, at their core, bent toward evil (selfish, destructive consumption). Every person we ever come in contact with is capable of evil, minor and seemingly excusable, or monstrous and unforgivable. Everyone.

Now that we have answered these first two questions, we can actually engage and assess the political applications. Generally, I believe, we will see they are lacking:

Progressive, liberal responses to the Las Vegas shooting will follow a pattern somewhat like this: this man was (likely) mentally ill and in need of psychiatric intervention à He never should have been allowed access to guns or lethal firepower that put himself and others in danger à increase federal and state funding for mental health programs and pass strict gun control that limits access to (at least) mentally ill people and possibly mandate that certain types of weapons are categorically illegal.

Conservative responses to the Las Vegas shooting will follow a pattern somewhat like this: this man was a lone wolf (his mental status is irrelevant) à the crazed actions of one man (or a string of men over the past decade) does not take away the right of sane people to own firearms à “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” à oppose any gun control legislation in Congress.

Do you see the problem? No one is actually talking about the cause – evil. Progressives generally believe the answer is better mental health care and gun control. They ignore mankind’s massive capacity for evil. Conservatives generally believe the answer is not less guns but everyone carrying a gun if they so choose. They ignore the reality that when people, all of whom are capable of evil, have access to high-caliber, powerful weapons capable of killing dozens, some will use them for evil.

I’m not a Republican, and I’m not a Democrat. I, generally speaking, am an independent. I’m also not a policymaker, lobbyist, or politician. I am however a Christian and an American. While I have much to learn and I admit that readily, the tragedy in Nevada this week has solidified a few core thoughts in my mind:

·      We can no longer approach the theological, moral problem of our own evil with simplistic, political answers alone. To do that is to treat symptoms, not the disease itself.

·      The political applications of our theological problems should not be dictated by corporations, political affiliations, or the NRA. They should be decided by morals – this is more than just a mental health conversation or a legislative impasse, it is, at its core a theological problem that we can address practically, in part, through politics.

·      Polarized politics made another mass shooting possible. Progressives wrongly believe that the answer is simply restricting access to guns. Their answer ignores the reality that evil people will find ways to do evil things, legal or not. Conservatives champion the second amendment with zeal but never admit that the more guns we have, the greater the likelihood that some of them will end up in the hands of evil men.

·       There is no simple political answer to this difficult topic, but given every single person’s capacity for evil, perhaps, we should consider some moderate limitations. My wife and I happily exercise our second amendment right for sport and for personal protection. I’m not saying we should take everyone’s guns. I am saying that the right question to consider whenever a gun is sold is not “are they mental ill?” but rather “Are they capable of evil?” For all of us, the answer is an emphatic yes. That should cause us to shudder internally and consider some political policies to curb and counteract everyone’s bent toward evil.

In the final analysis, the true remedy for evil is, ironically, theological and political. Evil will be overcome when Christ establishes His kingdom on earth. And one of the chief hallmarks of His kingdom (an inescapably political term) will be: peace. “The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle disputes. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore,” (Isaiah 2:4). “He will be called…Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of His government and peace, there will be no end,” (Isaiah 7:7). The answer to our innate depravity is the gracious, glorious reign of Christ in His kingdom. We can experience it, in part, right now if we trust in Him for our salvation; and one day we will experience it in the full.

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In the meantime, we must work to confront and overcome evil in an imperfect world. It starts with our own hearts and then radiates out into society and politics in practical ways. But our political conversations must not stray from the foundational problem we are all trying to address: and evil is a theological problem, not just a political one.