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YOUR DUTY IS TO RESIST EVIL EVERYWHERE

A lot of things happen in the world, some great, some good, and some bad. And some so bad that no matter how many “very’s” you put in front of it, it still falls short in describing it.

In those instances, only the word “evil” suffices.

EVIL COMES IN MANY FORMS

Evil exists in many forms, and doubting that is like doubting the existence of your own nose.

Evil wears many faces. Ted Bundy. Jim Jones. Anders Behring Breivik. Charles Manson and on and on it goes et, el.

Evil flies many flags. Germany under Hitler. The Soviet Union under Stalin. The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot. Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-un, North Korea.

Whether you admit it or not, only the word “evil” can capture the moral gravity behind ethnic cleansing, serial killers, and torture.

IDENTIFYING EVIL

How do we identify what is evil and what is not? The examples above are easy, but evil goes beyond the extreme examples above and includes the unjust use of force, fraud, or coercion.

Actions such as government officials abusing their power or a mob of people committing an attack are evil. Evil includes sins of commission (doing these acts) and sins of omission (failing to stop these acts).

Most believe everyone inherently knows evil when they see it, because most believe everyone has a conscience, which means “with knowledge.”

But what of evil that goes beyond your personal circumstances? Evil at the macro level doesn’t merely include serial killers and genocidal dictators, but also acts or omissions by other levels of government or society.

EVIL IS THE OPPOSITION TO GOD

God gave Man the Ten Commandments, which outline the beliefs, thoughts, and actions that honor and dishonor God. Actions such as stealing, murder, and lying are in opposition to His laws, are unjust uses of force against others and therefore, evil.

Because Man has fallen and is prone to evil, it is safe to say wherever you find mankind, you will find evil. Man, however, does not always commit evil alone. They act as part of institutions, and one institution capable of evil is government.

Most feel there is absolutely a place for government in civilized society, (excluding me. READ: Anarcho Capitalism) and most will never argue otherwise. But when federal, state, and local governments overstep into areas protected by the Constitution, which codifies our natural rights as given to us by God, it becomes our moral duty to resist those actions.

Government, however, isn’t the only institution that employs the unjust use of force; society does as well. When mobs lash out and commit violence against others, this is also a form of evil. When companies in the marketplace purposely defraud or injure people, that is evil.

RESIST EVIL WHEREVER YOU FIND IT

Identifying evil is only the first step, as acknowledging an issue without taking corrective action changes nothing. So how do you resist evil when you come across it?

With questions
With truth
With just use of force

Like the nose on your face, evil is always there, even if you don’t think about it very often. The extreme examples of evil are what usually capture our attention, but we must be ever vigilant that the many forms of evil always surround us. Fighting evil is not easy, otherwise everyone would do it.

But it is our moral obligation to resist evil wherever we may find it.

To do otherwise is, itself, evil.

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”