Evil Is as Evil Does - The VT Murderer

Spirituality Column #25
May 1, 2007
Current! In Carmel (IN) newspaper

Evil Is as Evil Does
By Bob Walters

I’m thinking of the Virginia Tech murderer.

We are each of us, every human being, made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). We are inherently good.

We are also each of us, thanks to Adam and Eve, possessed of a heart that is “desperately wicked” (Genesis 6:5, Jeremiah 17:9). We are inherently evil.

Modern psychology describes complex social and behavioral patterns, externalizing our individual behavior and removing blame from our actions. Secular psychology endeavors to locate blame either in the past, outside of the self, or both; the media searches for blame where psychology leads it.

The Bible describes good and evil in absolute personal terms, locates Good in God and Evil in our hearts, and makes us personally accountable to God and to each other for our social and behavioral manifestations.

Pull God out of the equation and psychological description melts into a stew of non-absolutes. Psychology doesn’t like the E-word. Neither does the mass media.

Evil is a hard word to say. It makes Satan real. It makes God real. It gives voice to the truth of the Bible and the truth of our hearts. It makes that church stuff nearly everyone used to learn – Christ, crucifixion, resurrection – real.

It makes the inadequacy of our secular-dominated society real.

It’s sad to think that our individual destiny is determined by our capacity for evil, or that our thriving for goodness can be defeated so easily by the evil of a gunman bursting into a busy classroom.

Current national statistics indicate 90 percent of American teenagers are “unchurched.” That is frightening because they are missing exposure to immensely important concepts like, “do unto others as you would have them to unto you,” “love your neighbor” and – critically, a Bible exclusive – “love your enemies.”

Mankind’s great capacity for goodness is revealed when we use our freedom to seek God. Our wickedness and evil is when we use our freedom to define ourselves as God (Genesis 3:5).

Seek God, or Be God? Which do you think was in Cho Seung-hui’s black heart that day?

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a Carmel resident, grieves for the unspeakable loss of young lives at Virginia Tech, and cries for their parents.