When Evil is Evident: On the Gruesome Murder of a 10-Year Old Girl
By Brian Nixon, Special to ASSIST News Service
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO (ANS – August 28, 2016)
-- The absurdist philosopher and writer, Albert Camus, once said, “The
evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good
intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack
understanding.”
As
cultured Mr. Camus seems, his quote is nothing more than erosive
jargon. Why? Because to deny evil is deny existence. Equating evil with
ignorance is eluding the point. Bad thing happen. And humanity has
defined and understood aspects of bad as evil. Not that all things bad
(like an earthquake) are evil in themselves, but they have at their root
something that is out of whack in the world; existence is misaligned.
In the end, it’s not as Camus claims, but as Thomas Aquinas quips: “Good
can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.”
Because
there is good in the world -- something humanity deems as virtuous,
noble, and right, we know when something is not good; therefore, the
opposite of good is something we’ve designated as bad. And the extreme
of bad -- really, really, bad, is evil. To deny evil is deny the
evidence. It’s as the English writer, G.K Chesterton, once pointed out:
“Original sin (the presence of evil in humanity) is the only proven
Christian doctrine.”
I
think Chesterton is correct. There are thousands upon thousands of
years in human history showing the manifestation of extreme evil in the
world.
Case
in point. Humanity would call a young girl about to celebrate her tenth
birthday with family a wholesome thing. It’s a time of celebration, a
time of maturation, a time to recognize the value of the person.
Correct? Generally, we’d call this good.
But
what if that ten-year-old girl was drugged, raped, stabbed to death,
and then dismembered? And what if her mother watched this performed by
two deviant individuals? We, of course, would call this sick and evil.
Correct? Well this exact incident happened recently in Albuquerque, New
Mexico [1].
Victoria
Marten had just celebrated her tenth birthday when her mother and two
other individuals did something to her that is beyond explanation. I
can’t even write about it. But suffice to say, something horrific
happened. These three individuals enacted evil upon a beautiful young
girl. Evil that was present in the persons (not based upon ignorance or
lame excuse: “Is this wrong what we’re doing?”) entered the situation
and a lovely human being was lost.
So
contrary to Camus, evil is not ignorance, lacking understanding. But is
much more sinister: evil is that which is wicked, horrific, vile, and,
as Christians would say, sinful. And, biblically, evil has envoy: Satan.
Evil is not good intentions gone wrong, but the very presence of
perverted intentions going against good, and ultimately, God. Corruption
of good is the capstone of evil.
So
why does God allow evil? Why would God allow a 10-year old girl to be
brutally murdered like this? This is another question all together.
Great thinkers have given much space to discuss the problem of evil [2].
But suffice to say, I’d summarize it as Augustine did: “God judged it
better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist.” This
is not to say that God condones evil; He does not. But rather, God -- in
Christ -- is the answer to evil. Christ suffered for salvation to come.
Christ is the candle for a world consumed in cavernous darkness;
Christ’s light penetrates the pain of pungent acts. And though we don’t
know the end results of why God allowed heinous evil like Victoria
Marten’s -- and countless others around the world -- we do know this one
thing: God discerns in accordance with His justice, love, and
character. And God will act -- in His time -- to destroy that which is
counterfeit to His character. One day, evil will cease to exist (see
Revelation 21-22).
All
this to say, we can’t ignore evil; we can’t waive it off as
misunderstanding or ignorance. No, evil is real and needs a reply. As NT
Wright states, “We cannot and must not soften the blow; we cannot and
must not pretend that evil isn't that bad after all.” In the end, we
must respond to evil -- not with more evil -- but with a resounding
message of reconciliation (see Romans 5:8). Think of this: people have a
propensity to participate in evil, cohorts in conflicted craftiness.
But in Jesus, craftiness is conformed into His image through the gospel
of love as demonstrated by the cross.
So
in times of crises, evil, or calamity -- cry out to God, and remember
that God has responded to evil with the cross. We now must do our part:
announce and proclaim that which Christ has accomplished and procured.
Evil
is, but it won’t always be, for with the Son of God evil has met God’s
misery; Christ will stamp it out and toss it away, but until that day we
must act, pray, and obey.
2. http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-problem-of-evil or http://www.iep.utm.edu/evil-log/ or http://www.aquinasonline.com/Topics/probevil.html
Photo captions: 1) Victoria Marten. 2) G.K. Chesterton. 3) Vigil being held for the murdered girl. 4) Brian Nixon.
About
the writer: Brian Nixonis a writer, musician, and minister. He's a
graduate of California State University, Stanislaus (BA) and is a Fellow
at Oxford Graduate School (D.Phil.). To learn more, click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Nixon.
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