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Why Do We Tolerate Evil?

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Industry Observer

I was just trying to enjoy the last Packer game of the season and I'm hit with a commercial for some new show coming to Fox. The last person on the ad said and I quote, "It's deliciously evil." I tried so hard not to pay attention and had turned my focus off of the TV awaiting the game to return when this really turned my head. The reason my head was turned was because of all the violence they were showing that was part of this new show coming out. But hearing someone exhort how deliciously evil this show will be, caught my attention. I wondered how deliciously evil they thought the shooting in Newtown was? Or the shooting at the movie theater in Colorado, or the mall shooting or the firemen shooting or the... I could go on and on.

Why do we tolerate evil when it's in entertainment? We help to glorify it which allows it to happen more and more in real life. Why do we tolerate this? Sometimes I feel like I'm Neo and I live in the Matrix... why can't everybody see what I see? I'm joking of course but a movie I once thought was really fun was just another vehicle to allow evil into my life. The storyline was good vs. evil, I know and it appeared like evil lost but it didn't really. It just sucked you into the next sequel where evil rebounds. It's fantasy and I once got sucked in to it too. But no more, I've grown to recognize that even redemptive violence is evil wrapped in a nice shiny package that appears good.

Daniel 10 gives us a snippet of what is going on around us at all times. In paraphrasing, Daniel prayed for help. 21 days later an angel of the Lord shows up and Daniel is upset. I asked for help 21 days ago... where have you been he wants to know?? Well, the angel explains, I got a little hung up with the prince of Babylon and what not. In simple terms, the angels were dispatched from the throne of Grace immediately but encountered a lot of interference from principalities of darkness that we never see but yet tolerate because we'd rather not see them. We become much like the little kid who watches a scary movie with their eyes covered. We feel safer if we just ignore or don't watch.

I tried to turn on just a little news this morning and I couldn't find one story that couldn't use one thing in it to make it better, Jesus. But we've allowed a few evil people to dictate to us that His name be removed from society. Yes, the absence of good is evil and when you remove what's good and true, you've allowed evil to enter. It really is that simple. Teaching our children about God and His love for us and how we should love others is not harmful to one single person regardless of what they choose to believe. But evil reigns... it is delicious.

I would like to submit to anyone reading this that there is no such thing as deliciously evil! It's time we turn our attention to that which is good and pure and stop filling our lives with evil. Turn off the TV, don't pay to see violent movies, don't let your children play the violent video games. It is evil you are allowing to creep into your life.... plain and simple. God doesn't allow evil things to happen, we do.

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Steven Cook
No Longer Processing Mortgages. - Tacoma, WA

Bob -- very well articulated position statement that more and more believers are coming to the realization of in their lives (though they may be hard pressed to state it in such clear terms.)  Thank you for an exellent post!

Jan 04, 2013 03:53 AM
Dale Bledsoe
Crown Key Realty - Tracy, CA
Realtor in Tracy, California

We are surrounded by evil. As God has been thrown out of so many places the devil has been welcomed in. Personnal salvation is my only answer. Well written post Bob and Bonnie.

Jan 04, 2013 04:07 AM
Bob & Bonnie Horning
Mount Joy, PA
Steven, Thank you it was a bit of a rant as it really made me angry when I heard that commercial. Then the Packers lost to make my mood worse. Actually the next day I was still mad about the deliciously evil line. We play with fire and expect not to be burned and I see Christians being as bad as anyone in the world too. I think it's time for the church to grow up and mature into what we've been called to do. May you have a Blessed 2013. Dale, Thanks for taking the time, I appreciate your encouragement. Stay passionate brother and keep them revival fires stoked. Monday I'll be dropping my daughter at the airport to head back your way, she's in 2nd year at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry... learning about revival.
Jan 04, 2013 04:46 AM
Karen Anne Stone
New Home Hunters of Fort Worth and Tarrant County - Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth Real Estate

Bob & Bonnie:  There are many things in your post about which I agree, but the last line, for me at least, hit home.  God does not allow evil in this world, we do.

I think many times folks will blame "the devil..." but I think that is just an easy excuse.  It is WE who allow it. 

I think the line about being "deliciously evil" was just a "tease line" that you took for much more than it was offering, but I really DO see your point.  It hit you in a really vulnerable spot... but that is quite understandable.

Television, the movies, and computer games are all just about as stuffed with violence as they can be.  And the only reason that is... is because it sells.  And, we buy it.  We allow it.  We "turn it loose" into the minds of our kids, and of ourselves, as well.

In the 1960's, right out of high school, I worked full time, but also had a part-time job a few nights a week as a cashier/admissions person at a drive-in movie.  Remember those?  Sometimes we had "R" rated movies, and we would get phone call after phone call from parents about why it was rated "R." 

If we said "sex"... the parents would not bring their kids.  If we said "violence"... they couldn't get there fast enough.  And just think of all the violence that has been emptied into those heads over the last fifty years.

That young monster of a boy in Newtown who killed all those babies... had simply drenched himself in the constant violence of these horrible video games.  For years and years.  And, when he "cracked"... violence was the obvious answer for him, and he knew how to use it very well.

Why did God let that happen?  He didn't.  We did.

Jan 04, 2013 06:04 AM
Bob & Bonnie Horning
Mount Joy, PA

Karen Anne, It's sad isn't it? The scripture "My people perish for lack of knowledge." comes to mind. I never heard anything about the shooter's life other than a few headlines here and there but if the fact that he spent all his time playing violent video games is true... not hard to believe.

I admit, a long time ago there was a game that agents in the office kept talking about called Doom that sucked me in and got me hooked too. I remember how it would make my heart race as it seemed so real even in the early days of computing on small screens. It is a magnet that I'm very aware of now. Fortunately, I never had a thought of doing that for real to real people. One time my young daughter walked in and surprised me late at night playing, (I had headphones on) and she saw about a minute of what was on the screen. She had nightmares for months after that. That's when I got rid of it too. 

Yeah, I remember seeing more than a few Clint Eastwood movies and slasher B movies at the Drive ins. The one thing I keep in mind about these monsters in real life are, they aren't monsters. They are human beings loved by God as much as you and I. It's not the person we see doing these things but the evil that has inhabited them. That's where people have the hardest time swallowing such a thing. But it's as real as the nose on my face.

Jan 04, 2013 07:01 AM
William Feela
WHISPERING PINES REALTY - North Branch, MN
Realtor, Whispering Pines Realty 651-674-5999 No.

There is plenty of darkeness (Evil) in this world without having to embrace it so wholeheartedly.

Jan 04, 2013 08:36 AM
Karen Anne Stone
New Home Hunters of Fort Worth and Tarrant County - Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth Real Estate

It is my belief that the world is full of good.  And also full of Good.  Evil only exists when we choose it over good, or over Good.  Evil is the absence of good... in my opinion.

It's the same with darkness.  Darkness exists where there is the absence of light.  With the presence of light, darkness no longer exists.  And... for us, that is a choice we have the ability to make, or not to make.

Jan 04, 2013 11:09 AM
Bob & Bonnie Horning
Mount Joy, PA

William: Exactly. Hollywood gets blamed for so much but yet, we the people tell them with ticket sales what we want to see.

Karen Anne: Very well stated. 

Bonnie is re-reading a few fictional pieces by Wendy Alec. In a conversation one person had with Satan in hell went like "But we just didn't think you were real!" to which Satan replied... "And that's my best work." So we're inundated with "fictional" works that almost glamorize the dark side and it numbs us to the reality that truly is.

Jan 04, 2013 10:41 PM
Rob Arnold
Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. - Altamonte Springs, FL
Metro Orlando Full Service - Investor Friendly & F

I try to not watch TV.  A little news, a little of Jay Leno, and that is about it.  Way too much garbage on it. Even the sports stuff is just a bunch of high paid immoral thugs covered in tattoos - so I don't even watch that anymore. 

Jan 04, 2013 11:03 PM
Karen Anne Stone
New Home Hunters of Fort Worth and Tarrant County - Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth Real Estate

Bob, and then there is the quote by the group called The Christophers:  "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."  It makes a lot of sense.

As far as the choices we make... I would actually prefer we, the world, go into even a higher plane.  Rather than choose "good" or choose "Good" out of either love of the "Good" or fear of The Good retaliating... I would so much prefer that good choices be made simply because that is the right thing to do.

I think that is what the point was of John Lennon's "Imagine."  Religion would become the cherry on top of the whipped cream.  Doing good and choosing good simply because it was "good."  What a great way to live.

Very idealistic I know, but then again, everything in this conversation is about "the ideal."  Ah... I just love my Jesuit education.  :)

Jan 04, 2013 11:24 PM
Fred Griffin Florida Real Estate
Fred Griffin Real Estate - Tallahassee, FL
Licensed Florida Real Estate Broker

We got rid of our TV set many years ago.  Whenever I do see a TV program (somebody else's house, a waiting room, etc.) I am saddened at the Evil that is so common and so accepted. 

Jan 06, 2013 05:00 AM
Bob & Bonnie Horning
Mount Joy, PA

Fred, Good choice of getting rid of the great American wasteland in your home. I hope to follow your lead soon.... they are slowly dying in my home and not getting replaced.

Jan 07, 2013 11:26 PM
Mike Frazier
Carousel Realty of Dyer County - Dyersburg, TN
Northwest Tennessee Realtor

Bob, I agree with you and Karen Anne. We are the ones that allow evil to happen.

Jan 08, 2013 06:41 AM
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