I am convinced we need to return to using the word "evil" to describe actions that are evil! If a
people for dinner, that's an evil act. If someone repeatedly lies, cheats, defrauds, and harms others, those are evil actions and taken together they are a pattern of evil behavior that is cause for great concern. Cultures develop values and laws, and those who continually and intentionally violate those norms are participating in evil. Are they, themselves, evil? My honest answer is that I don't know. I don't believe that worrying about whether Bob has participated in enough habitually evil actions to have earned his Dr. Evil merit badge is especially helpful. It may be for some an interesting theoretical exercise, but it doesn't really change what has happened or offer us a way to move forward. We get sidetracked in a discussion of what to do about this person we have labeled as evil rather that look for a solution to the problem of evil.

These ideas don't only apply in life or death situations. When we choose to tolerate corruption, our karma will be that corruption will increase. When we choose to play footloose and fancy free with the truth, we will be surrounded by lies. When we choose to tolerate infantile behavior from our leaders, we will get childish leaders whose behavior is a national embarrassment. When we
ignore the plight of the poor and continue to oppress people, they will rise up. When we choose to divert funds from education and healthcare to the defense industry, we will raise dumb, sick people. Karma is common sense.
When we ignore warnings of a pandemic and cripple our pandemic response capability so the President can pump more money to his friends in industry, we get corona virus. If we have elected an unqualified leader, our response is crippled and people die. This isn't about politics, it's about karma. Jesus said it this way - you reap what you sow. If you wonder how we as a people got here, wherever the here of the moment might be, just look at where we have been. Next week, I will look at how to fix the mess we find ourselves in.
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