The seeds of evil
(Note: I actually wrote this blog back on March 17 and then in Quaker fashion “sat with it” for a while. I’m glad I did there have been more incidents of hate since then – not the least of which is some of the reaction to the passage of the health care reform bill. The March 28 Sunday Gazette had an insightful editorial on this topic. Click HERE.)
What does evil actually look like anyway? In the last decade I have often wondered, what was the culture like in Germany before Hitler took over? What were the jokes being told, what was being written in the papers and said on the radio, what were the pressing issues of the day and how did people react to them? What were the bumper stickers like? I know they didn’t really have bumper stickers – I of course am referring to their cultural equivalents – whatever they were.
Likewise, I wonder about Herzegovenia and Bosnia before people started to slaughter their Muslim neighbors (and let’s be clear here there is no such thing as “ethnic cleansing” – the correct term is “genocide” – and “slaughter” is even better. “Ethnic cleansing” makes it sound like every one is getting a shower or a bath. “Today we’re washing the French!”) Any term that obscures the reality of what is really happening to people is a perpetuation of the evil it purports to describe.
I have wondered if the same things are, and have been, happening here in the USA.
After the last two weeks, with members of Congress who voted for health care reform being threatened, and a very prominent politician, who very publicly and vocally claims Christ, deriding those who would ensure that people are given health care: I know they are.
One of our cultural “bumper stickers” (besides actual bumper stickers) is the Internet. It may even be a better measure of what’s happening because people will forward things on e-mail that they would never put on the public space of their cars. I have received two things from nice people (really they are) that both saddened and frightened me.
Back in January I received from some dear friends (who are devout Christians) a message about the stamp commemorating Eid, a Muslim holiday. The subject of the message was “This stamp is NOT for me.” It asks the reader to “Adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp when you are purchasing stamps at the post office. All you have to do is say, ‘No thank you I do not want that Muslim stamp on my letters.’ ” (I don’t know about you but I’ve never been offered a particular stamp at the post office. They always ask what stamp design I would like.) It goes on to say, “to use this stamp would be a slap in the face of all Americans who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors” (grammar not withstanding). It then lists the bombings of airplanes and buildings done by people who were Muslim.
Yes the individuals who did these terrible, evil attacks were Muslim. The Muslim people as a whole did not participate in or condone the attacks listed in the message. Therein lies the difference and the evil.
In fact, the majority of Muslim people were horrified by the attacks listed.
It ends with: “Pass this along to every patriotic American that you know and get the word out! Honor the United States of America!”
This particular message gets in a “twofer” in the racial slur category. It starts out saying that President Obama authorized this stamp to honor and celebrate this holiday. Not only is this is incorrect; so what if he did? We honor Christian and Jewish holidays with stamps.
Again, the people who sent this to me are not “bad” people. You’d like them as your neighbors, you’d love them as your friends.
I thought for a couple of days about what to do. I consulted with a dear friend who is a mutual friend of the people who sent me the message and asked her advice. How do you confront evil? I asked myself if I had been alive during the Nazi era in Germany, would I have torn down the posters that depicted the Jews as evil? What would I have done to save my Muslim neighbors in Sarajevo and Bosnia?
New Stamp – Hoax & Evil
President Obama did not authorize this stamp.
I’m not sure why this was sent; I hope it was to educate us about the kind of evil that is being said about all Muslims. This looks frighteningly like the kind of propaganda that the Nazis sent out about the Jews. This denigrates us as a nation.
Yes there are some extremists who preach America as the “Great Satan” and wish to do us harm. But that is not the vast minority of Muslims. And we do need to address that situation.
I would be devastated if people judged all Christians and Americans on the basis of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. The Muslim people could make a list not unlike the one that appears at the end of this message that is a direct result of the foreign policies of BOTH the Bush and the Obama administrations.
There are many of us in these difficult times who are trying as best we can to be followers of Christ and The Gospel of Peace Building and Compassion. I am glad that this was sent to me so that as a Christian and an American who loves her country, I can do something about this. I truly appreciate the opportunity.
I not only sent it to my friends but to everyone that had been copied in on the message and to all the people who were listed on the previous forwards.
I did not receive one single reply.
The second one I received from a member of a civic club I belong to was titled “Read It And Weep.” I had actually received part of this message from the aforementioned friends – after I sent the above reply.
It is reportedly from an ER physician in a Florida hospital who describes treating Medicaid patients with expensive nail jobs, gold teeth and cell phones, who have children to make money off of welfare. It gives incorrect amounts received from the government for each child, making it look like people are raking in $1,500/month per child. It goes on to bash immigrants using the same formula – they get government grants that total way, way more than people who worked for years get from social security.
It ends with a rant about kicking all of elected people out of office come November (OK, I confess I could agree with that part) and then “SEND THIS TO EVERY AMERICAN TAXPAYER YOU KNOW.” (Notice the capital letters?)
Again, this is a nice guy. (He at least sent this out correctly – he sent it to himself with everyone else blind copied.)
Here’s my reply to that one:
“People should really check these things out before they send them on. This kind of inaccurate information can, and in fact does, do lots of damage to all of us.
Makes me appreciate Rotary’s Four Way Test at a much deeper level. Here’s the link:
(As an aside – before you pass on messages that state “facts”, check the alleged facts first. A great Web site for checking these kinds of messages and urban legends is snopes.com)This person emailed me back thanking me and said “Good point.”
“I apologize if I sounded “holier than thou” — I truly didn’t mean to. In the last decade I’ve been seeing things that I find really frightening for us as a nation and sometimes my emotions and fear get misinterpreted. Thanks for understanding.”
I think I’ve learned that the best evil is subtle and seductive. Photos of dead bodies piled up in camps or in ditches show evil in all its glory. You can’t miss it. But in a poster or an e-mail, distributed during times when people are frightened and lost, encouraging you to see other human beings as the problem – evil can be harder to see.
I think the first question about evil to ask is: “Am I being recruited?”