Dear Members and Friends,
Recently we have had to hear the sad news related to the terrible events surrounding the kidnap-killings of two people similarly named. So different demographically, yet so alike in vulnerability, we as a nation mourn the passing of young Danielle van Dam and Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. As a husband I cannot imagine the anxious worry of having a spouse held captive, nor can I fathom any worse grief than that of parents losing a child so senselessly.
This past year, while we have endured many tragedies so reminiscent and reflective of our broken history and humanity, we have also heard a resurgent use of a very old word intended to describe these events: evil.
To some who apparently wish to intellectualize or “relativize” fanatical or maniacal treachery, using the word evil is much disparaged and discouraged. It is said this term is dispensed too casually upon those who simply differ from us in beliefs or politics or temperament. Certainly while I agree we must articulate extreme sentiment with the greatest of reluctance and hesitation, I think in certain circumstances evil is not only a necessary label, it is the only one that will truly suffice. The parents of Danielle van Dam and the wife of Daniel Pearl are entitled to the clarity and implicit moral assessment that their loved ones inexcusably perished at the hands of very evil men who deliberately perpetrated unspeakably evil deeds.
Yet as quickly as it is asserted that those who committed these crimes are evil, it must also be completely accepted that they are human – broken, twisted, indefensible versions of humanity, yet human all the same.
As Christians, perhaps it is assumed we are only to be experts at recognizing good. Yet at the heart of our Gospel lies an event so incredibly iniquitous it defies complete articulation in mere human terms. For what could be worse than intelligent people deliberately conspiring to eliminate the One who was God with us, rejecting him with a horrible death on a Roman cross?
Much as we might like to turn our gaze or stretch our minds to slip past the more unseemly and repugnant aspects of our world, the truth is if we don’t acknowledge evil, we can’t appreciate good. If we won’t fully decry Sin, how can we truly proclaim Grace?
Our whole experience and celebration of Good Friday and Easter is predicated on the faith that God did not minimize evil or redefine it in lesser terms. In Jesus Christ, evil was seen and absorbed by the Divine Presence, even unto death. Yet through this worst of human tragedies came the best of human hope – salvation and eternal life, particularly for a dear child and a beloved husband.
From Reverend William J. Keane,
Senior Minister of First Baptist Church of Branford
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