NILS VON KALM reflects on what recent outbreaks of violence reveal about the state of the human heart…
Whether it be the shooting of Republican Congressman, Steve Scalise, the assault on the Australian conservative columnist Andrew Bolt, or the apparent revenge-terror attack on Muslims in London this week, recent violence by people on all sides of the political spectrum highlights a deeper issue in the human psyche.
It seems that the vast majority of violence we see reported in the mainstream media is either so-called Islamic terrorism or right-wing extremism. When violence is reported, it is seized upon by those on the opposite side of the political fence as more evidence that we need to protect our borders or acknowledge the fact that the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists but just want to live in peace.
PICTURE: Andy Naylor/www.freeimages.com
“The reason that Christian faith makes sense to me is because it explains the contradictions of human nature. It describes how we all have the capacity for both good and evil within us. Ultimately, it describes how we all fall short of what being human is about and that we need outside help to realise our full human potential.”
To many of us, it seems that the world has gone mad. Violence seems to be on the increase, and the rhetoric of fear is used to win elections and generally influence public opinion.
Fear is such a strong motivator. As humans, we have an inherent inclination towards self-protection, so it is natural that, when a political leader says we are in danger and that he or she is the one who is strong enough to do something about it, we will be drawn to them.
What the recent attacks have highlighted is not that people on the left or right have the moral high-ground. Leftists cannot claim the moral high ground more than anyone on the right can. None of us is better or worse than anyone else. Some of us are more prone to violence than others, but that doesn’t make those people worse in terms of what defines them as human beings.
What has been highlighted is the fact that we are all the same, no matter what our political allegiance. The sooner we humble ourselves and acknowledge this, the quicker the violence will decrease and reconciliation can become more of a reality.
As the Russian writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, said, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts”. My heart, your heart, all human hearts. We all have the capacity for both good and evil within us.
It is the human heart that needs changing if the human race is to be saved from itself. In a day when we are actually closer to nuclear war than at any time during the Cold War, ideological arguments over which side of politics or which ideology is better placed to rule the world are futile. It is time to heed again the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, that “the choice is not between violence and nonviolence but between nonviolence and nonexistence”.
King of course had his own contradictions, as we all do. His serial philandering was proof of Solzhenitzyn’s words. And lest we judge King, let us beware that we don’t become proof of Jesus’ words – that we ought to take the log out of our own eye before taking the speck out of someone else’s.
The reason that Christian faith makes sense to me is because it explains the contradictions of human nature. It describes how we all have the capacity for both good and evil within us. Ultimately, it describes how we all fall short of what being human is about and that we need outside help to realise our full human potential.
The great heroes of the Bible had their flaws. Adam and Eve’s first son was a murderer; Abraham pimped off his wife to the Pharaoh, and then did it again to Abimelek; David, the man after God’s own heart, abused his power as king when he saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof, got her pregnant and then had her husband killed in battle to get rid of him. And so it goes on. In the New Testament, Peter, the ‘Rock’, denied Jesus in the hour of His greatest need, Judas Iscariot betrayed Him for a bag of money, and the New Testament church had numerous scandals that Paul had to try to deal with.
“Violence is not something that exists in the hearts of certain people-groups or certain ideologies or religions. Violence exists in the hearts of all of us. When we ask how a nation as civilised as Germany in the 1930s could allow a dictator like Hitler to come to power, we need only look at ourselves and our own need for God to step into our lives.”
Our lives are full of contradictions. None of us has it together. Us Aussies are known for our tall poppy syndrome, for knocking somebody off their perch as soon as we see a flaw in them. But when we see the failings of people we look up to, we can actually relate to them much easier, because we suddenly realise that they are really just like us, with all our failings. They’re not some person way up there who we can’t touch.
I think this one of the reasons the Bible doesn’t hide from depicting the ugly side of its main characters. Another reason is that it shows them as examples, just like us, of people who need grace. If you look at the life of Abraham for instance, God is constantly stepping in to rescue a situation that Abraham has made a mess of. And God’s promise to make Abraham a father of many nations never wavers. If the great father of the faith, and of the Muslim faith, needs such grace, who are we to say we don’t need it even more?
Violence is not something that exists in the hearts of certain people-groups or certain ideologies or religions. Violence exists in the hearts of all of us. When we ask how a nation as civilised as Germany in the 1930s could allow a dictator like Hitler to come to power, we need only look at ourselves and our own need for God to step into our lives.
When humanity is left to its own devices, it cannot do life on its own. We fail and we need help. We need grace. That’s not an admission that we have no inherent potential and are worthless; on the contrary, it is an invitation to reach for outside help to receive our full human potential. If anyone thinks they can do life on their own and always do everything right, they are either delusional or are lying.
The story of recent violence is just another example of human nature at its worst. It shouldn’t surprise us. Violence is violence, whether it is carried out by a leftist, a right-wing extremist or done in the name of religion. To live in reality is to acknowledge what Solzhenitsyn did, that the line separating good and evil passes right through the middle of all of our human hearts.
