The Banality of Evil, Part II

 This is the second post of a three-part series. Part I can be found here.

Celebrant: Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
People: I will, with God's help. (The Baptismal Covenant, The Book of Common Prayer, page 304)

What do we mean when we speak of evil? What does it look like to persevere in resisting it? There is a film that I still find compelling, and a scene about the devil that I find helpful. It's from Broadcast News:  

I think this clip has everything to do with the banality of evil. It's not about the cartoon devil in a red suit, but about the ways that we miss the mark and lose our bearings and compromise our core values, bit by bit. Bruce Springsteen sings in the title track of Nebraska about a guy who offers this explanation for a killing spree that he and his girlfriend go on: "sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world." (Critics have noted that Springsteen was reading a lot of Flannery O'Connor before writing Nebraska and that these words echo "A Good Man is Hard to Find," if you prefer a more literary reference than the poet from the swamps of Jersey.)

A book that I read many years ago was written by a Jewish scholar, Jon Levenson, entitled Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence. It's a compelling read but for this post it's that issue of the persistence of evil that I want to focus on. I think Levenson would agree to summarize by saying, "sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world." His argument is the drama is still unfolding and that God is still fighting against evil. God's people are called to share in that work. 

I'm currently serving in a congregation that takes it's name from the Archangel Michael who is said, in the Revelation of John, to have kicked the devil out of heaven but not yet off of the earth. 

We need, I think, mythological and not literal language to speak about evil. But we do need to reclaim this language in our time, starting with John's Revelation. I wrote a series of posts, chapter by chapter, seven years ago, beginning here. One superb guide is the late William Stringfellow. So, too, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series or the Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis. We need to reclaim the language of the faith that it is not enough to just go out and do good and think the world will be better overnight. We do battle not against flesh and blood but the powers and the principalities. See this post for more on this topic.

I'll try to figure out how to bring some of these strands together in Part III of this series, so stay tuned.