When good is evil and evil is good

During a recent visit with my sister in law she made the statement ‘we call evil good and good evil’ several times over a couple of days.

And as she said it each time I couldn’t help but identify with what she was saying. Our society does call evil good. It not only calls it good, it exalts it. So much of what God considers evil is paraded before us and labeled as something we have to accept and embrace.

I quit watching secular movies a long time ago. I very rarely watch a Christian movie because so many of them have opinions and views that go against mine or portray Scripture as different than it is. Even in many of those so-called Christian movies evil is placed before us to watch. Walking through a Christian book store movie section I’ve seen movies covers that could have just as easily taken their place on the secular shelf. The same type of covers are on books in the same Christian store.

There was plenty of evil in Biblical times. The Lord used it then to work out His plan. I’m sure He’s using the evil of today to work out the same plan. He allows this evil to continue for a reason. He’s allowed it in the world for a purpose. And He’s placed us in a society where it surrounds us for a reason. But seeing all this evil is a hurt on my heart.

My sister once told my daughter that I make things so much harder than they have to be. She made that statement about the way I live…the way I avoid so much of what is in the world, about how I insulate myself from much of the things she enjoys. What she doesn’t understand is that I don’t do it because of any conscious decision. As a parent I’ve seen time and again how a toddler reaches out to touch a hot oven door. When they feel the heat of the door they yank their hand back. Today’s ovens are made so that the doors don’t get hot enough to burn you but many of them still get warm enough to be uncomfortable, especially to small, tender hands. And so the baby learns, without being told, to avoid the oven door because it caused them pain.

I’m like that toddler. When I sit among something sinful my heart, my soul, hurts. I can’t handle the discomfort so I pull back, try hard not to go near it again. When I hear curse words they make me mentally cringe. They make me uncomfortable, they make me want to stick my fingers in my ears the way a child does when they want to block out sound. They make me pull back, to try and avoid the situation, or the person, that made me feel that discomfort.

And I’m seen as making things more difficult than they have to be.

Because I try to avoid the sin, the evil, that so many see as good.

Years ago I used to think I should have been born in a different time. I changed that thought when I had a child that needed modern medicine. Since then I’ve changed it for another reason…because the Lord placed me in the time and place he did for a reason and who am I to question His doings?

But I can’t help thinking of times past when evil was seen as just that…evil. When bad was punished because it was evil. When society understood right and wrong. There were, of course, exceptions. Then as now, there were evil things that were overlooked. But as a whole any step back in time gets us a step closer to more clearly defined lines of good and bad, right and wrong.

Not all that long ago I sat in a courtroom as a support for a family member. I was there not for myself but for them. I listened as person after person went before the judge. Charge after charge was read. Traffic tickets. Theft. Drug use. Trespassing. Fishing without a license. Failure to pay a fine. So many different charges were read and sentences or punishments handed out.

And as I sat there listening and observing I couldn’t help but think that so many of those crimes held no Biblical grounds. And the ones that did seemed to come with no higher punishment than those that didn’t.

I also noticed that the crimes were punished by a fine most of the time even when a different punishment would have served a better purpose.

There was a teenage boy in there for repetitively driving at high speeds. He had multiple speeding tickets. When questioned the boy admitted that he had no job. His dad told the prosecutor that he would be the one paying the fine.

What goes on in other families is their business but I couldn’t help thinking as the prosecutor lectured the boy, and accepted that the boys dad would be paying the fine, that  a different punishment might have fit that crime better. What did that boy learn by being given a fine he didn’t pay?

Would he have learned to drive more carefully if he’d been made to take defensive driving?

Would he have seen the horror of what speeding could do if he’d been made to ride with first responders to accident scenes?

Would he have felt the sting of the punishment if the prosecutor had refused to let his dad pay the bill and had sentenced him to community service instead? Would he have felt it if he’d worked off his fine? Would he have learned more if the prosecutor had told him he had to get a job and work to earn the money to pay the fine?

This boy basically walked out of the courtroom having suffered no punishment for what he did beyond the embarrassment of getting lectured in front of a roomful of people.

Now…what that boy did wasn’t a crime by Biblical standards. It was a crime because it broke one of the laws of the land he lived in. It was considered bad and unacceptable and therefore a punishment was dished out. That seemed to be the case in most of the cases that went before the judge that day. With the exception of the cases that involved theft none of them were crimes by Biblical standards.

I sure don’t see where fishing is a crime. No matter that a license is required by the state, a failure to have a license to fish for food that the Lord provided for our consumption doesn’t strike me as a crime. Nor does failure to wear a seatbelt. Don’t get me wrong…I very much believe in seatbelt use and go to extremes for child safety seat use but if a person fails to wear a seat belt are they committing evil? Is it unacceptable in the Lord’s eyes? Are they committing evil if they go fishing without having a license issued by the state that tells them they can do so?

Why wasn’t theft punished more strongly than laws that were made up by man’s minds? Why weren’t cases of violence? I’m not saying all these people didn’t break the law, or at least get accused of doing so. I’m not saying whether or not they should have received a punishment for what they did. That isn’t my choice to make. I’m just questioning why…if speeding gets a fine that the offender didn’t even pay himself why does theft get a fine too? If fishing without a license gets a fine, why does violence receive the same punishment?

And that was all in the same courtroom over a few hours time. What of all the things that go on in our country, in our world, day after day? Why can a woman walk into a building pregnant and walk out not pregnant after killing her baby? Why are there people that will tell her she did the right thing?

Why is it that according to a report released by the Department of Homeland security in 2012 that I’m a potential terrorist because I oppose abortion but a doctor that performs the murder of unborn babies every day is seen as okay?

There’s so much being said about homosexuality and gender identity in our media, on the internet and just about everywhere else you care to look today. It’s the big topic right now. You’re considered not only wrong but can be punished by law if you speak against it. It’s being paraded as good while anyone that has a differing opinion is evil and intolerant.

I remember when I first began my journey as a mother, my grandmother used to say how glad she was that she wasn’t raising children in today’s society. She talked about how much bad there was out there and how hard it would be to raise them in this world today. She said the world was just too bad. She was right.

When evil becomes good and good becomes evil…there’s too much bad in our world.

Scripture tells us that it will only get worse. Scripture tells us…

3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ² For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God… 2 Timothy 3:1-4

They will become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

In America what type of pleasure hasn’t become so loved that it is valued beyond all else? Sports now hold such high standings in society and in fans minds that in a lot of cases it is the god of their life. Movies, video games, hunting, fishing…you name it they have all been taken to a level that puts them in the place of God in so many people’s lives.

We have huge superstores devoted to just about any type of thing you can imagine. There are boutiques that sell high dollar dog clothes, spas and day cares for them. There are cruise ships where you can be with your favorite singer or movie start…or preacher. You name it, if you want it to rule your life you can find a store, conference, cruise, meeting, etc, to further your interest.

And it’s not just in things. It’s in the people, in the places, in anything and everything. They have become lovers of pleasure. An internet search on just about any third world country will show people that are struggling to survive. They’re grateful for a shack, hut, or tent that gives them shelter. It can be infested with insects and falling down around them and they’re grateful. How many people in first world countries are truly happy with the home they have? How many talk about their ‘dream house?’

They love pleasure more than God.

Simple.

And wrong.

My human mind grasps onto the fact that loving pleasure isn’t as evil as murder but the Bible says differently. My human mind tries to reason away that at least people that love money, stuff, aren’t hurting others, but the Bible says it’s evil. And then I have to question if the love of money doesn’t hurt just as many people as the acts my human mind wants to label as evil does. How many murders happen over money? How many children are given away or killed because they get in the way of their parents pleasure? How many people value their dog more than their children? How many people spend thousands on electronics while their children go without things they need?

How many children are forced to be perfect (or as close to it as they can come) to feed their parents pride?

And yet…by our world’s standards those things aren’t considered bad much less evil. Murder doesn’t even have a definite line. Abortion is legal. Euthanasia is legal in some places, has happened in America.

Where is the line between right and wrong? Where is the measuring stick by which we should measure what’s good and bad?

We’re encouraged to accept that which is seen as sin by God. It’s everywhere we turn. One version or another. Even ‘church’ buildings promote sin in one fashion or another, some to large degrees.

I was in a very large city this past week. As we traveled through the city we saw many very large ‘church’ buildings. Many of them would be better described as huge. There were all sorts of decorations. Stained glass windows. Steeples. Fancy paint. Big playgrounds. Huge signs. These were show palaces. They were look at me buildings. They were so big you couldn’t possibly miss them. If you were to go inside one you might need a map to find your way around.

I’ve seen many of those ‘church’ buildings before, the ones I haven’t might have looked different than the ones I had but to me they were no different. Every time I see those kinds of ‘church’ buildings I can’t help wonder who or what is being worshipped in those buildings.

When Christ walked the earth did He build a huge building? Did he need fancy windows and pulpits to teach from?

When I see those buildings I wonder who is being worshipped there. Is it Christ or is it the preacher? What does a place like that cost to build? And was it really needed? When children go hungry and people live in poverty…was that the best use of their funds? I can’t help but wonder how many of those funds were ill gotten gains. Was that huge building built with funds from the pockets of people struggling to pay their bills? Was it built with money that was needed to feed their families?

And still we’re encouraged to accept and support those things. Bigger better houses are the norm in our country, new cars every couple of years are expected…and those things aren’t even the worst of what we’re told is good.

But at what cost?

When we start chasing bigger, better, newer, nicer, more expensive things…what is the cost we pay to get them? What price does each individual pay for those things? What does our country pay for them?

When a family lives in a house with enough bedrooms for each child to have their own…the child loses the closeness built during shared times with it’s siblings. When children start spending all their time in their room while the parents live in the rest of the house…everyone loses out on time together and memories made. That is life for so many in our country. Families living in one room huts in third world countries don’t have that.

And still those things aren’t evil.

They just separate us from those we love. When my youngest was a baby I owned a car seat and a bouncer (that he rarely used) for him. That was it. Walk through any baby store and you’ll see so many things parents today think they can’t raise a baby without. But…all those baby seats, beds, and what-have-you’s are designed to keep the baby occupied away from the parents. They’re babysitters designed to separate baby from mommy and daddy.

So much of the things in this life serve the same purpose. Women are encouraged to have jobs and hobbies that take them away from home. Away from their husbands. Aways from their children. And it’s seen as good. The same is true for husbands that have rooms or buildings where they go when at home to…get away from home. Children have so many classes and functions that some of them are on the go every day of the week.

And it’s all seen as good.

If a couple chooses not to limit the number of children they have it’s often seen as bad…and a good number of people, strangers and loved ones alike, will tell them how wrong they are for having so many children. Yet abortion is acceptable in many eyes. If a family lives in a house that doesn’t meet certain standards it’s seen as bad. Yet if a single person lives in a million dollar home it’s okay. And on and on the list goes.

Our country, our world, calls good bad and bad good. And it’s only getting worse. What does it do to not only our society but to each individual to have no clear line of right and wrong? What does it do to them to see the things the Lord calls evil as good? What does it do to all of us when…

Evil is called good, and good is called evil?