In one of his recent Daily Meditations, Richard Rohr suggests that we should try to move beyond an emphasis on personal sin, in order to regain an accurate understanding of the deadly nature of true evil:
No one can deny that evil is very real, but what many of us now observe as the real evils destroying the world—such as militarism, greed, scapegoating of other groups, and abuses of power—seem very different from what most people call sin, which has mostly referred to personal faults or guilt, or supposed private offenses against God. These did not actually describe the horrible nature of evil very well at all. So, we lost interest in sin....
Sin and evil must be more than personal or private matters. Convicting people of individual faults does not change the world. I believe the apostle Paul taught that both sin and salvation are, first of all, corporate realities. Yet, we largely missed that essential point, and thus found ourselves in the tight grip of monstrous evils in Christian nations, all the way down to the modern era (emphasis added).
I am not thinking I have much to add to this excellent statement. Except, maybe, this.....
"Politics" is one very direct way we can join together to "change the world," and to battle evil.
Consider enlisting!
I question the idea that politics can battle evil. I wonder how that would be? I also, actually question the whole concept of evil itself. That religious concept depends upon a dualistic world where we are caught in the opposites of good and evil, black and whitel, joy and sorrow. These are human constructs which do not describe reality. Modern science, since before Einstein is proving that everything is interconnected and that our dualistic experience of the world is an illusion.
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