"Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature." These were the words of President George W. Bush at the end of the momentous day known ten years later simply as "9/11." As one who had grown weary of the politically-correct soft-speak that had become, and still is the norm, I found the president's words very encouraging. The Commander in Chief's words swelled up in my chest in the same way I imagined the British people must have reacted to Winston Churchill's description of Nazi Germany as, "a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime." (http://www.winston-churchill-leadership.com/speech-blood-toil.html)
"Don't demonize your opponent." It is hard to find commentary on public discourse that does not contain such a warning, or rebuke. I fear that we have so deeply imbibed this bit of "universal wisdom" that we are now unable to identify the demonic. We live in a fallen world, and those of us who live here are fallen. I believe that the events of Genesis 3 are historical. The Theological truth established by this Biblical account, and many other scriptures is undeniable. It is called the Depravity of Man (see post for 8/31). Those of us who accept this doctrine drawn from the Bible and abundantly illustrated by observation of human behavior do not mean that people are incapable of acts of kindness, etc., nor that everyone is as evil as she/he could be. Among other implications, however, the Bible's teaching on the human condition is that people are capable of almost unimaginable evil. Technically, the kind of evil we are talking about is not "demonic" but "humanic."
Keeping that correction in mind, one of the great problems of our world is the opposite of demonizing our opponents; it is the failure to recognize the demonic. Incredible evil is at large in our world. It is a truth that we ignore at our own risk. When a leader has the courage to point to it and call it what it, power, resolve, and inspiration are communicated. When we allow the "very worst of human nature," to go unidentified, or when we act as if there is no "dark lamentable catalogue of human crime," that is still growing as we speak, have we not become part of the evil?
It's STTA.
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