By Joseph Plummer
After the senseless massacre of Black elders and innocent school children by murderous youth, the Russian invasion of and atrocities in Ukraine, and an unending list of global and personal cruelty and violence, we find ourselves asking, “Why does evil exist? Where does it come from?”
This Sunday’s Guest Minister, the Reverend Arvid Straube, seeks to answer those questions, turning initially to the Soviet era dissident, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose years in Siberian labor camps inspired the “Gulag Archipelago.” In that monumental work, he wrote, “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
The hopeful news, in Rev. Straube’s view, is that we humans are naturally caring, empathetic, and compassionate. How then can we be capable of cruelty and violence? To harm other human beings, a person must think of a potential victim as less than human. People often consider evil to be an intelligent, organized, and supernatural force, often personified by Satan or the Devil. But evil comes not from intelligence but from deep unconsciousness of greed, self-centeredness, indifference, aversion, and self-deception, which we all harbor. It roots in unconsciousness of the humanity of those one seeks to harm. It also arises from unawareness of the unhealed part of oneself.
Jesus said, “Don’t try to take the speck out of your brother’s eye before you remove the beam in your own eye.” What we do not like in ourselves, we project on other people, or categories of people. “If you spot it, you’ve got it.” We can resist evil actions and work to stop people who do evil deeds. More importantly, we must look into ourselves and, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, follow “the better angels of our nature.”
Rev. Straube lives near San Diego with his wife Sonya Prestridge. He has served Unitarian Universalist congregations for 35 years. He earned an M.A. in Divinity at the University of Chicago and a Doctor of Ministry from Meadville Lombard Theological School.
Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion. Our Fellowship welcomes people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientation, and gender identity. You can see who we are and enjoy previous services at https://www.youtube.com/. Enter UUFSMA in the search box. UUFSMA donates generously to nonprofit organizations providing health, educational, and environmental services for underserved communities in the San Miguel region. Support this work by clicking on the website home page Donate button.
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*Joseph Plummer is the UUFSMA Board Secretary.
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Sunday Service
“Why You Need to Hear this Sermon about Evil”
Speaker: Reverend Arvid Straube
Sun., Jun 19, 10:30am
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/414604040
Password: 294513
