Evil as an Excuse

The current juxtaposition of debates over gun control and how to combat terrorism is very revealing.  Since the 9/11 attacks nearly twelve years ago, Homeland Security, the CIA, and the FBI have foiled dozens of terrorist plots against the United States government and its citizens.  But now that two religious extremists have detonated bombs in the city of Boston, opportunistic politicians are declaring that our security network is a failure.  Their criticisms imply that it should be possible to protect America from all such threats.  Anything less than total success is unacceptable, even if it means compromising civil liberties.

Now contrast the terrorism debate with the gun debate.  The most ardent opponents of any kind of gun regulation, even closing the gun show loophole on background checks in order to prevent assault weapons from being purchased by terrorists and felons, argue that such legislation will not prevent future gun violence like the Newtown massacre or the Aurora, Colorado, theatre shooting.  Since violent people will find a way to circumvent the law, they say, there’s no reason to change the law, especially since doing so might compromise our Second Amendment right to bear arms.

What’s interesting to me is that some of the same members of Congress hold both these positions and don’t seem to be bothered by the glaring inconsistency.

In contrast, the general public by and large looks at both these issues the same way.  Most of us take the position that nothing can be done to guarantee an absolute end to all gun violence or terrorist activity, but we (meaning the federal government in our behalf) should do everything we can to reduce both.  A recent

Pew Research Center Poll found that 75% of the American public believes that occasional terror attacks will simply be part of life for the foreseeable future.  But they don’t blame this on the government’s failure to protect us.  Six in ten say that steps taken by government agencies since 9/11 have made the country safer.  Similarly, the American public agrees that no legislation can completely prevent gun violence.  But nine out of every ten Americans also favor legislation that will make it harder for guns to wind up in the wrong hands.  Only a tiny fringe of the American public believes that comprehensive background checks is a violation of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. 

It seems to me that the public is right about these issues, while the pols are wrong.  We can’t eradicate evil.  Christians understand that human beings cannot save the world by our own devices.  God has given us a Savior in Jesus Christ, who alone is able to defeat the power of evil.  Furthermore, it is not the role of the federal government to confront the evil that lurks in the human heart.  Churches and other communities of faith exist to bear witness to the greater power of love and how God can change our hearts.  But none of this should be used as an excuse for society not to take every reasonable measure to prevent evil behavior.  In Romans 12:21, the apostle Paul wrote, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  Here, he was speaking to a church and its members, but he also believed that God had ordained secular human government to curtail the effects of evil in the world.  In Romans 13:3, he wrote that “rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.” 

No law will prevent all criminal activity.  That’s no reason to have a lawless society.  We will never eradicate all the world’s poverty.  That’s no reason to abandon efforts to reduce it as much as possible.  (Hence, God said to the nation Israel in Deuteronomy 15:11: “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you: ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’”) If sensible gun legislation prevents even one more massacre of innocent people, isn’t that enough reason to enact it?

When I hear legislators opposing any new gun regulation by saying that it won’t prevent evil people from doing evil things, I am appalled at their hypocrisy (since they don’t invoke that argument when it comes to preventing terrorism).  I am also disgusted by their cowardice.  A bipartisan coalition of senators is hiding behind the religious doctrine of human depravity as they ignore the will of the American people and bow down at the altar of the NRA, whose leadership primarily serves, not its rank-and-file membership, but the powerful gun manufacturing industry.  These congressmen are manipulating Christian theology to suit their political calculations. 

Maybe those calculations will prove wrong.  Maybe the public will finally refuse to be swayed or outmaneuvered by the lies and distortions perpetrated by the most extreme elements of the gun lobby.  Or maybe not.  Maybe this sorry episode will only underscore our inability to solve the problem of evil, which is sometimes illustrated, not by the wrong we do, but by the good we leave undone.

Copyright 2013 by J. Mark Lawson