Monday, July 31, 2017

Good, Evil, and Everyone In-Between

Earlier today, I had a conversation that included, among other things, an exploration of the concept that no one is "all good" or "all evil." There are a number of places in the scripture that contrast "the wicked" and "the righteous," as if those are two clearly-defined, distinct groups.

They're not.

Every righteous person has some wickedness in them (with a handful of celestial exceptions), and every wicked person has some righteousness in them (with perhaps at least one satanic exception). Of the people who have lived one Earth, live on it now, or will ever live on it, all of those people (except Jesus Christ) fall, will fall, or have fallen somewhere on the spectrum between perfectly good and completely evil.

No one is pure good or pure evil. Not you, not your mother, not your mother-in-law, and not any politician, whether you support them or oppose them. Everyone has redeeming qualities, and everyone has room for improvement.

So, let's remember that in our conversations with each other and not let our assessments of anyone grow out of proportion. Only one person was literally perfect, and only one person was "literally Hitler" (and he wasn't completely evil anyway. No one who was born on this planet ever was). So, let's keep our compliments and criticisms at least semi-moderate, whether we're talking about politicians, relatives, or even (or especially) ourselves.

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