The Problem with Evil

The problem with evil is that it absolves good people of responsibility. Decrying society’s ills as the result of “evil” in the world renders us helpless.

What power does a good person truly hold in the face of “evil”?

We can pray.

But that’s about it.

Evil, after all, is God’s domain. Only the Trinity is equipped to head off true evil. The kind of evil that leads a kid to stockpile ammo and assault weapons in order to slaughter the masses.

Only a truly evil person would do such a thing – right?

Or a truly mentally ill person, which has always been one in the same in a society that stakes its salvation on the power of patriarchy.

Once he slaughters, his name is stripped away, replaced with labels of the mentally ill, the truly evil: psycho, maniac, “this mass psychopathic murderer.”

Yet, mentally ill people exist in other nations. Nations that limit access to guns. Nations that provide universal health care as well. Yet there isn’t a nation out there with as many mass shootings as the US boasts. That sort of “evil mentally ill” appears to exist primarily in the country where Congressional members are beholden to the militant NRA.

It’s true. We are the best at killing. Bring out the tanks. Let’s have a parade.

What can we do in the face of such evil?

Nothing except pray.

Right?

Because only God can defeat the kind of evil that leads to mass slaughter of our nation’s finest and best, our children. Merit scholars. Potential Gold Medalists. Innovators. Activists. Good-hearted kids and teachers and coaches, all slain.

And those who lived to tell?

They testify to the terror of those moments when their classmates and teachers, coaches and friends were gunned down. Right there in front of them as they fled the evil, crying out “Dear God, Dear God.”

And I know God heard their cries. Heard them screaming. Witnessed the shooter. Saw the blood pooling.

God saw it all.

I bet God is crying still.

I bet God has heard every single prayer after every single mass shooting.

The prayers for God to stop this evil that is spreading throughout our culture like a summer wildfire.

So why doesn’t God stop it?

Why didn’t God strike that shooter down?

Make him trip over his own gun? Blow his own head off?

Why didn’t God inflict the shooter with an aneurysm sometime before he ever pulled that fire alarm?

What is wrong with God?

Why doesn’t God stop evil in its tracks?

Could it be that God is wondering the same of us?

Wondering why we keep acting so powerless in the face of so much evil?

Wondering why we keep absolving ourselves of any responsibility to protect the children?

When we give the label of “mentally ill” or “evil” or worse yet “evil psychopath”, nobody expects us to do anything to fix the problems. Everyone knows you can’t fix crazy. And only God can overcome evil, right?

Yet, what was that directive God gave us?

Flee from Evil.

And Do Good.

Wasn’t that what we were told to do?

We keep running from the gunmen.

But we never get around to doing the good required to stop the evil.

To banning the guns.

Prayer can’t help us fix what’s broken.

But legislation can.

Yet, the sorry truth is too many of us love our guns more than we love our kids.

We love our guns more than we love our God.

All those folks telling us to pray as a way to overcome evil, they don’t really trust God.

They need their guns to protect them from evil.

Karen Spears Zacharias supports the First Amendment and fights for a regulated Second Amendment.

 

 

 

 

Karen Spears Zacharias

Author/Journalist/Educator. Gold Star Daughter.

5 Comments

Rose Blackwell

about 7 years ago

This is powerful Karin! It breaks my heart. We are destroying ourselves from within . Love you !!

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AFRoger

about 7 years ago

Every event seems to leave us more frustrated and hopeless. It's like attempting to hop a train that is moving but also accelerating. I suggest all readers of this blog begin with one simple step. Go to Wikipedia and read the piece ['assault weapons ban' gets you there] on the ban of 1994 that expired in 2004. Get some background. Here are a few excerpts from near the end of the article: 'A 2004 critical review of firearms research by a National Research Council committee said that an academic study of the assault weapon ban "did not reveal any clear impacts on gun violence outcomes". The committee noted that the study's authors said the guns were used criminally with relative rarity before the ban and that its maximum potential effect on gun violence outcomes would be very small. . . (A study by the University of Pennsylvania) found no statistically significant evidence that either the assault weapons ban or the ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds had reduced gun murders. However, they concluded that it was "premature to make definitive assessments of the ban's impact on gun crime", and argue that if the ban had been in effect for more than nine years, benefits might have begun to appear. . . Little research is available utilizing data from more recent years, which may be beneficial, as fatalities from mass shootings in the United States have escalated.' NOW, in order to help settle our thinking a little more, consider two other questions before deciding what to do next: 1) How have the world and weapons changed since the Second Amendment was ratified? 2) How have weapons and culture changed even since the Assault Weapons Ban expired in 1994? More tomorrow.

Reply

AFRoger

about 7 years ago

Correction: since the ban expired in 2004.

Reply

AFRoger

about 7 years ago

Terminology. It's difficult to change thinking. Sometimes it can help to replace inadequate terminology with something more accurate and descriptive. 1) Simply put, assault rifles are not 'guns'. They are not defensive weapons either. We don't issue concealed carry permits for assault rifles. These weapons were conceived and designed to be offensive weapons with the express purpose of inflicting maximum human casualties in war. As configured today with high capacity magazines, and especially with bump stocks or trigger cranks, assault rifles are this: WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. 2) Let us also set aside the term 'school shooting'. The school in Parkland, FL did not shoot. A shooter did. He carried out a STUDENT AND STAFF EXECUTION. That's what happened at Sandy Hook. At the little church in Texas, it was a CONGREGATION EXECUTION. In Las Vegas, it was a CONCERTGOER EXECUTION. At the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando we might as well call it what it was: an EXTERMINATION. That's what weapons of mass destruction do. Name the weapons for what they are! 3) Jesus' way of responding to the adversary at Mt. 5:39a was not to respond in kind but to be more creative and throw the opponent off balance. Sometimes an effective way of doing that can be to repurpose the terminology of the other side. Hence, I have adopted a new slogan for T-shirts, bumper stickers and posters: REPEAL AND REPLACE THE 2nd AMENDMENT. Subtext: SECOND AMENDMENT IS NOT SACRED. OUR CHILDREN ARE. Comment I will post tomorrow: Two Things to Ask Your Representative in Congress Today. Thanks.

Reply

AFRoger

about 7 years ago

Two things to ask your representatives in Congress today: 1) Do you know the difference between symptoms and causes, and do you understand what 'root causes' are and what it takes to identify them? 2) When will Congress finally authorize funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study gun violence as a public health threat in order to identify root causes?

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