We're Evil

It's been a while, I know. The internet has been scarce at my house lately. And by scarce, I mean nonexistent.

I want to start by saying that I believe that God has a specific way that He communicates with His children that is specifically designed for how He made each of us. He talks to us in other ways too, but there are ways that are unique to each of us. Mine is reading. Specifically, secular fiction.

I've been reading Watchmen for the past couple of weeks and I just finished it yesterday. In a few words, it was awesome! God showed me so much through this book, and I'm going to concentrate on one specific thing that's had me thinking a lot these past couple of days.

The premise for Watchmen is essentially a world that differs from our current one because it has people who decide that they want to put on masks and fight crime. They don't have any super powers, but, for their own motives, the try to help their city by stopping criminals, murderers and rapists. The book doesn't necessarily have a "villain" like you might think, but there's definitely an antagonist and it's his motives that I want to discuss.

After trying to stop evil one person at a time, he comes to the conclusion that none of it will make a difference in the long run. Evil and good aren't as cut and dry as we make it out to be. There isn't a group of bad guys that are evil, and the rest of us are good. He comes to the conclusion that the problem with people is people. We're all evil and trying to end evil by stopping criminals is simply treating the symptom, but ignoring the illness. To solve the problem, he decides that he has to go to the heart of it, and that's the heart of humanity.

While he goes to dark places to make this happen, I think that his observations are correct. And the average Christian in this country seems to be more in the business of treating the symptoms rather than curing the disease. I can see this in the how many people are upset that Obama won because he is pro-choice and how much we celebrated when proposition 8 passed in California. And while I do pray that God changes our future presidents heart and I am glad that one of the most influential states in our country voted to defend marriage between a man and a woman, thinking that that's doing anything for the Kingdom is like treating a cancer patient with a band aid and thinking you've done a good job.

In the same way that Roe v. Wade didn't make pro-lifers decide that maybe abortion was okay, I doubt that proposition 8 passing will change the heart of any on the other side of that argument. And that's the point: the heart is the only battleground that we should be concentrating on. How can we be upset at the idea of a pro-choice president when we've done nothing in our own life to help pregnant teens who feel like they don't have a choice but to abort their child? Are we showing them the love of God when we look upon them with judgment and think of them as sluts who should have known better?

Have we who disagree with gay marriage ever had a conversation with a gay person who wants to get married? Do we talk to those dating couples who live with each other? Do we get involved in the lives of guys who think of women as little more than objects they use to fulfill their own needs? Or does everyone we have in our lives look and think just like we do?

It's safe to want laws to pass. We can do that without getting our hands dirty. And if they don't pass, we can go the self-righteous route and talk about how bad this country is getting. It's dangerous to be like Jesus. It's dangerous to talk to those whom we consider to be worse sinners. And the reason is that the people who look just like us will view us the way they view those "sinners," and our pride can't handle that. But to be like Jesus requires us to die to ourselves and to not care about what others think more than what God thinks.

The problem isn't "sinners," it's all of us. We're not good people who do bad things. We're evil people who do evil things. The only difference between me and those that I all too often look down upon is Jesus. And I had nothing to do with Him coming to me. Mark Driscol said in his latest book, "You are more evil than you have ever feared, and more loved than you have ever hoped." And it's true! That's the Gospel message in the simplest form I've ever heard it and that's the message we have to share!

It's so hard to give up comfort in favor of being a Christian. But God hasn't called us to comfort. He's called us to love others and bring those far from Him to Himself, and no amount of picketing and protesting will get that job done. We are supposed to be like Jesus. And He didn't expect us to come to Him, He came to us. In the same way, we shouldn't expect the people who are far from God to come to our churches and into our lives. We have to go to them!