Aggressive evil

I’m not a naïve person. I understand where evil comes from, in my own life and in the life of my community. It’s no surprise when someone steals or murders or embezzles. Among those of us not headed for prison evil quietly slumps downhill—something we didn’t do but should have, idle hands, polite gossip, and so on. But it’s startling to see well-dressed, educated, respectable people fight aggressively for evil, if you pause a moment and think about the fallout from evil policies.

Aggressive evil is when a somewhat well-known celebrity who doesn’t vote in Georgia travels to that state to threaten and campaign against a bill to protect unborn children after their heartbeat can be heard. Her campaign against the bill includes a threat from 50 or so other celebrities to boycott the Georgia film industry. Some of her enablers have picked up the chant that the bill would therefore be bad for business. Strong business has always been a terrible, and dubious, reason to bless wickedness. It’s no shock that many hold this viewpoint but it seems aggressive that someone would travel across the country to fight for these abortions.

Efforts to normalize pedophilia, to classify it as a “sexual orientation” that one can do nothing about, seem aggressively evil to me. In this article a respectable psychologist working with the police to protect children is described and quoted as urging us to “stop the hate” toward those with pedophilic urges. In her Ted Talk, the psychologist calmly refers to some pedophiles as being respectable men “with no psychological disorders whatsoever.” She claims the best way to protect children from being victimized is to not be so emotional about pedophilia. Those of us who’ve watched, stunned, as our society overturned every state law that defined marriage as involving a man and a woman should recognize the normalizing process at work here. If you have been shocked at the glorification of transgenderism, you should stop saying “surely we won’t go that far” about anything. Read the article and then tell me if we are being too respectful of some well-dressed and educated folks who energetically pursue terribly destructive ideas.

We might see aggressive evil in the efforts to run gospel-based child placement agencies out of business for their biblical convictions. Laws that shield such faith-based institutions are in place across the country, and in Texas, but challenges like the one linked above in Michigan will multiply. In a government child welfare system that depends heavily on the generosity of churches and religiously motivated donors, forcing these Christian people to choose between their convictions and their work will result in a system increasingly unable to place children. Our homes will go out of business in many cases so that some politicians can do what LGBT activists call fair. It’s not even a matter of whether these activists will take up the work of those they’ve run off (they won’t), it’s a matter of asking people who believe one thing about man, God and marriage to act as if none of those things matter when it comes to sending children to live with those who deeply believe the opposite things. Who would do that?

The Texas Legislature has received a bill that would protect infants (as in “already born”) from neglect or something worse if they survive an abortion. Those who say “this is already illegal” or “that wouldn’t happen” are insincere or more naïve than I am. The Texas bill is very similar to one that failed in the U.S. Senate in early March. The president of Planned Parenthood sees a subtle threat to Roe v. Wade in the thought of requiring abortionists to provide medical care for babies they remove from their mothers without killing. Those who speak and act against such legislation are willing to bless grisly evil to avoid crossing the abortion industry. That’s not mere wrong-headedness but it is aggressive evil.

Isn’t that one of the things the Lord says he hates? Proverbs 6:16-19 says:

“These six things the LORD hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
A proud look,
A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that are swift in running to evil,
A false witness who speaks lies,
And one who sows discord among brethren.”

Of course none characterize themselves as doing any of these things. We disagree on what is proud or wicked or evil or a lie or even discord. But it is more than just a clash of viewpoints when some of our neighbors seem so energetic in the fifth of these seven things the LORD hates.

We should be startled and scandalized to see it play out. There are guys in prison whose consciences are more tender than some we welcome into polite company. I sometimes think we are too tame with those who oppose life and justice. I wonder what John the Baptist would say to the president of Planned Parenthood or the “faith leaders” who rally against Christian child welfare agencies. I think there should be a little more John in all of us than I usually see in myself.