Responding to Evil

RESPONDING TO EVIL Four Actions to Teach Our Children – and Ourselves – as We Encounter the World’s Deep Brokenness

INTRODUCTION So much good surrounds us. It comes in each sunset and moonscape, kind smile and shared meal.

Every day carries ample reason for thanksgiving.

Yet right alongside these gifts, our world holds such evil and brokenness. COVID-19’s ripples touch every sphere of life, heavy with isolation and anxieties. We are freshly pierced by the pain of racial injustice and conflict, grappling with the significance of protests and riots. We see the perennial hurt of our world in so many other forms, too– AIDS and cancer, famine and civil war, human trafficking, addiction, broken families, parentless children, and so much besides.

The book of Romans distills it all simply: “Creation groans…and we groan inwardly.”

Indeed, we do. And we ask, “How ought we respond? What can we do in the face of great evil? And how might we cultivate peaceful hearts in an age of anxiety?”

Parents, teachers and caregivers ask these questions also for our children. “How can we best guide their thoughts and feelings in this moment? How can we help them not be overwhelmed by evil in its many forms – disease, racism, exploitation, rage and many others – but rather overcome evil with good?”

We are unlikely to find answers to these questions on our social media. They are there, perhaps, but float in a sea of envy and anger. Our technology may numb our anxiety temporarily, but mostly leaves us only more keyed-up and fearful.

Rather, we must draw wisdom from beyond the echo chamber of our day. This is not the first time humanity has faced what we face or felt what we feel. God’s people have encountered -- and overcome! -- both evil and anxiety in every age. As always, God’s Word and the faithful witness of His people across time, can guide us true.

In simple terms, Scripture invites us to four concrete actions in response to evil. They have been foundational to the response of God’s people to evil in every age. Like all things, these actions begin in our minds and hearts, and rise upward from there, springing into words and prayers, and ultimately into bold doing, both private and public.

Over the pages ahead, we’ll explore these four actions together:

one

Lament

two

Repent

three

Ascent

four

Advent

To name and mourn the brokenness of our world.

To name and turn from the sin in our own heart and life.

To name and turn toward the goodness and strength of God.

To name and live into the coming of God’s kingdom, both now and yet to come.

(1) Lament

To name and mourn the brokenness of our world.

Christians sometimes fail to mourn evil, particularly when we’ve not felt its impact personally. The Bible never does.

From start to finish, and especially in the Psalms, the Bible names and mourns all that is bent and broken in our world, from hidden thoughts of the human heart to the affairs of nations.

“How long, O Lord?”

“My God, why have you forsaken me?”

“Creation groans…and we groan inwardly…”

“Jesus wept.”

If we do not see evil, we do not see the world as it is. And if we do not mourn with those who mourn, we fail to love them.

Yes, all around us are so many blessings, too. This is the beauty God intended from the start, when He first spoke over all creation, “It is very good.”

These evils all begin in the human heart. Greed. Self-centeredness. Arrogance and superiority. Lust.

Contempt.

But things that live long in the heart never stay there. They always grow upward and out, rising into actions. Exploitation. Adultery. Racism. Abuse. Murder.

Evil rarely stops there. The sins of individuals eventually take shape in the communities people form, from small organizations to entire societies. Systems marked by corruption. Oppressive governments.

Cultures that give advantage to some and repress others.

One way this mushroom cloud of sin is expressed is racism, the mistreatment and diminishing of others

because of their race or ethnicity. All throughout history, racism has allowed otherwise decent people to feel okay about trampling the humanity of their neighbors. It defined Jews’ view of Gentiles in Jesus’ day. It infected the relationship of Ladinos and Mayans in Guatemala and of Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda. It played a driving role in Europeans’ enslavement of Africans beginning in the 1500’s, and in slavery in North America before, during and long after the founding of the United States. Even after slavery was brought to an end at the cost of more than 600,000 American lives, the tentacles of racism kept fierce hold in many hearts and laws and institutions. Both its presence and its consequences echo to this day.

Certainly, racism is but one of evil’s many forms. But whenever and wherever we observe it, we must treat racism for what it is: an abominable sin that savages the beauty God intended in the marvelous variety of humankind.

Our first action as we confront this evil, or any evil, in our world is to name it and mourn it – to lament.

We do this before God first, laying before Him all that we feel, just as the Psalms. And, when possible, we lament together – mourning with those who mourn.

Lament is the first action we must teach our children to ready them to confront evil, to prepare them for the world as it is. To teach our children to lament, we must learn to lament ourselves.

to read

Psalm 55:1-10 & 22-23

to explain

Share with your children how God created all things good and beautiful, and yet sin has twisted all of creation. Explain how God calls His people to lament this brokenness and pain, including “mourning with those who mourn.”

to discuss

Where do you see pain and evil in our world? What do you think it means to lament these things?

to do

Join together in a prayer to lament the pain and brokenness of our world, including specific expressions of evil you see in your community and around the globe.

For further exploration: “Recovering Lament” – Workshop from CAFO2019; “Raising Black Children (in a Multi-Racial Family)” – Workshop from CAFO2019

(2) Repent

To name and turn from the sin in our own heart and life.

Many of the world’s great philosophies deny that evil is present in every human. The Bible never does.

“All have sinned,” lands the verdict. Alexander Solzhenitsyn knew this well. He experienced firsthand the brutal repression of Russia’s communist government. That included eight years of forced labor in a Siberian prison. Yet somehow he saw that the very evil that had so profoundly wronged him was rooted not only in the people and systems that had wronged him and millions of others. It had roots in his own heart as well. He famously confessed, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart.”

If we know ourselves well, we know this to be true. The ways we seek advantage for ourselves, even to another’s loss. The ways we see others hurting but do nothing. The ways we subtract value from a human soul due only to their race or wealth or any other external marker. The ways we gnaw upon resentment.

When it comes to visible acts of racism, the trail is much the same. Brutal acts and bent systems always spring from sins of the heart. This is not to say that every American overflows with subtle hatred, as much current commentary seems to imply. Rather, for most of us, at least, sin creeps in the subtle devaluation of neighbor that, when all is said and done, ultimately concludes, “It does not really matter if they suffer or die, because their life does not matter as much as mine.”

That conclusion is whispered, without words, in most hearts every day. Of civil wars in Africa. Of orphans in Latin America. Of Dalits in India. Of the unborn in Europe. Of foster youth. Of the poor and destitute in every corner of the globe. And yes, very often, of people of color here in the United States. Certainly, we cannot respond to even a fraction of the pain in this world. But when our heart feels toward the one person we pass on the street, “She matters less,” we see roots of the same evil that crushes entire people groups.

Jesus’ brother James addressed this directly. He describes a church scenario. A man strides in bearing all the symbols of worldly success and value. A woman slips in as well, a scarecrow hung with ragged clothes, smelling of the street. We welcome the man with gleaming smile and seat him near the pastor.

The woman gets an awkward nod and a seat near the door.

James describes this response with the same word that Jesus used to describe Satan as “the evil one.”

“Have you not become judges with evil thoughts,” asks James? We have. We do. In the scales of our minds we conclude, her soul weighs less. We would not express that, of course, even to ourselves. But the truth is, we have hardly seen her.

When we realize this, even a glimmer, the Bible calls us to repent – to name and to turn from our sin.

Both the obvious and the subtle. What we have done and what we’ve left undone.

As with lament, our repentance is first before God. Then we repent before people, too – those whom we have wronged and others whom we need to help hold us accountable (James 5:16).

Yes, God has promised forgiveness and new life. But repentance comes first.

This repentance carries one more vital gift as well. It readies our hearts for action. Without repentance, even the most noble labor for justice swiftly becomes self-righteous and smug. It peers down in judgement upon all who do not see what we see or do what we do. The work of justice can advance with humility only when begun with repentance. Only then can it be marked by grace for even the adversaries we must confront.

As a young man, John Perkins was brutally mistreated by police in a jail in the deep south. Horrific. Yet somehow, even before he recovered from his wounds, he came to this conclusion: “I saw it there in me.

I had that same hatred for those cruel men in my heart that they had in theirs. If I had me a grenade in the room with those men, I’d a’ pulled the pin on all of us.”

Beyond what any human could ask of another, Perkins committed to turning from darkness in his own heart before he could seek the transformation of others. In a choice Perkins describes as “more God than me,” he did just that. And for the past 60 years, he has been a transforming presence in virtually every life he has touched — offering unflinching prophetic challenge alongside breathtaking grace, even for his enemies.

to read

Psalm 51:1-12, James 2:1-4 & 8-13

to explain

Share with your children how the Bible teaches that evil is not just “out there,” but also inside each of us. Remind how the Bible calls us to admit our sin and repent by turning away from it.

to discuss

In what ways are sins that you see in the worst of people and institutions subtly expressed in your own heart and life? How have you been calloused to others’ pain? Where have you withheld good that you could have given?

to do

Either join in a prayer of shared confession or quietly confess your sins to God. Later, at a time of your choosing, share your confession with another person as well.

For further exploration: Justice and the Inner Life Podcast interview with Dr. John Perkins. Song of repentance from Shane & Shane, “Psalm 51.”

(3) Ascent

To name and turn toward the goodness and strength of God.

Life can leave us feeling that there is no hope, that nothing can change. The Bible never does.

Yes, Scripture is brutally honest about evil. But then, always, it lifts our eyes. It calls us to ascent. Like the ancient Hebrews on their yearly pilgrimage, we are invited time and again to a Godward journey.

Like them, we set the direction of our feet and our songs toward hope.

In ascent, we choose — often with great effort — to lift our eyes. We raise them from the raging tumult that surrounds us to the skyline of eternity. We feel, blessedly, our own smallness. We notice again the vast expanse of the universe and of time. And we remember that the Creator of all this is also our loving Father. He has both our times and all time in His hands. So our anxious thoughts can calm like a fading storm, knowing that He is God. The Jewish pilgrims’ path rose from the lowland of Baca, the Valley of Tears, to the heights of Jerusalem. Perhaps the entire journey – theirs and ours – can be recounted in three simple pairs of words from Scripture.

Creation groans. (Rom 8:32). Jesus wept. (Jn 11:35). But God… (Eph 2:4) Creation groans … under the crushing weight of the sin, from arrogance and greed to injustice and oppression.

Jesus wept … at the tomb of Lazarus, and he mourns with us even now in the hurt and sorrow of this moment.

But God … is at work, always, to rescue and restore, and in the end, He will make all things new.

And so we hope. We do not hope in hope itself, but in the One on Whose strength and goodness hope stands.

Without this hope, the brutality of evil – of racism and child abuse and human trafficking and one thousand other things – has the final word. Without hope, we have no reason to try. Our sole relief is simply this: to stop caring.

But if the Creator of the universe cares deeply about these things, we have reason to care, too. If, as Martin Luther King famously quoted, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,” then we indeed have reason to seek hard after that justice. If a loving God has promised to set all that is wrong to right in the end, then we have every reason to join Him in that work today.

Bryan Stevenson recently explained to the BBC, “I’m always hopeful, because the only way we make change in the world is when we believe in things we have not seen…I am hopeful, because hopelessness is the enemy of justice. Once you become hopeless, you become a prisoner of the conditions that have created so much conflict.”

In ascent, we choose to remember these things again. We name and turn toward the Source of all hope: the strength and goodness of God. In doing so, we prepare our hearts for the work we have ahead.

to read

Psalm 130, A Psalm of Ascent

to explain

Share how, although the Bible shows us the evil in the world and in us, it never leaves us there. Explain how the Bible calls us to hope, even in situations that appear very dark — and how that hope is rooted in the strength and goodness of God.

to discuss

What situations in your own life and in our society have felt hopeless to you?

What might it look like to choose ascent in these things, naming and turning towards God’s goodness and promises?

to do

Join in a prayer of ascent – rising from honest description of things that seem hopeless to expression of confidence in God’s character and His good intent for you and all His children.

For further exploration: CAFO Board Vice-Chair Tony Mitchell & Bill Ibsen discuss the hope of racial reconciliation through their own story, and how to begin. Birthmother, Dominique White shares her hope amidst the brokenness of her adoption story.

(4) Advent

To name and live into the coming of God’s kingdom, both now and yet to come.

It’s easy to imagine we are virtuous merely because we’ve felt or expressed something – whether conviction or indignation or righteous anger. The Bible never does.

“Dear children,” urges John, “let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.”

Certainly, whenever we see the ugly consequences of evil, lament is the proper beginning. We name and mourn hurt and sorrow. Next, we repent as we name and turn from the ways that evil has found quarter in our own heart, too. Then, from this valley of tears, we begin ascent. We name and turn toward the hope that springs from the strength and goodness of God. But we must never stop here. For God always invites His children to join in His work of justice and restoration. The Bible describes this as the coming of God’s Kingdom.

Advent means “coming.” In the Advent season, we anticipate and celebrate the coming of the promised Christ. But this sense of dramatic arrival is not about Christmas only. For the Christian, Advent pervades every inch of life.

The Kingdom of God arrives wherever God’s loving rule becomes visible. Yes, we long for the day when He will set all things right. But this Kingdom is breaking forth even now. Even under the oppressive yoke of Roman rule, Jesus could declare without irony, “The Kingdom of God is among you.” Every broken body healed by Jesus, every soul restored, every relationship reconciled was an expression of the Kingdom coming. It is the same today. In every true act of healing and restoration, God’s Kingdom is made visible.

How can we live into the Advent of this now-arriving Kingdom? We pray for it: “on earth as it is in heaven.” We rejoice when we see it, like old Simeon as he cupped the baby Jesus in his wrinkled arms.

And we seek it, above all else, like children laboring earnestly alongside their good Father.

For each of us, this Kingdom work of healing and restoration will look different. Even in the sphere of race-related justice and restoration alone, the opportunities for Kingdom endeavor are boundless.

• Calling the church to repentance for race-based sin and division, and guiding both white and black toward reconciled relationship, like John Perkins or Tony Mitchell & Bill Ibsen.

• Strengthening community organizations that help struggling neighborhoods to heal and thrive, like Bob Woodson.

• Serving in those community-building organizations, like Matt St. Pierre of Restore Merced and thousands like him.

• Combatting individual injustices and reforming entire systems, like Bryan Stevenson in the US or Gary Haugen globally.

• Serving in government to ensure the very best systems possible to protect children from abuse and neglect while also strengthening struggling families, like Sharen Ford and Felicia MasonEdward.

• Working to reverse the factors that underly “disproportionality” (the fact that AfricanAmericans represent less than 14% of America’s child population but 23% of children in foster care): from potential bias in the judgements of social workers and judges to the high percentage of children born fatherless.

• Encouraging men to step up as fathers like the National Fatherhood Initiative, or work to strengthen marriages and families like Family Life and Focus on the Family.

• Advocating for kids in foster care, like Eleanor Johnson and DJ Jordan and Willie Moore Jr. • Helping build a local network of churches that supports foster, adoptive and restored biological families, like Darren Washausen … or simply being a support for a single one of those families.

• Equipping churches to support families at risk of disintegration, like Maridel Sandberg and David Anderson.

• Mentoring disadvantaged youth and giving them vision and connections for a bright future, like Wintley Phipps.

• Offering a new adoptive family for children who can’t return to their family of birth, like Tony Mutabazi.

• Joining in shared meals and conversation with people across lines of races, ethnicity, economics or any other perceived boundary, like Senator James Lankford.

• Providing a loving foster home and encouraging others in your church to do the same, like Bishop Aaron and Mary Blake.

Whatever the evil we have encountered, each of us can play a part in God’s work of justice and restoration – living into the reality of advent, the coming of the Kingdom, both now and yet-to-come.

to read

Micah 6:6-8, Matthew 6:33

to explain

Share the idea of the “Kingdom of God” — and how we see it break forth wherever God’s loving rule is made visible by His people. Then share how we can celebrate and work for the advent (coming) of this Kingdom now, even as we look forward to its future coming.

to discuss

Where do you see the Kingdom of God breaking forth? In what broken situations do you especially long to see the Kingdom break forth? What role might you be able to play in that?

to do

Join in a prayer of “advent” – both celebrating the coming of God’s Kingdom in Jesus and in every life that reflects His will…and also expressing specific ways you long to see that Kingdom come and His will be done “on earth as it is in heaven.”

For further exploration: Bishop Aaron Blake and Diego Fuller tell their story of foster care and family.

This guide is created by the Christian Alliance for Orphans with special thanks to the insight and wisdom of the CAFO African American Leadership Council. cafo.org