Ever since the execution of Saddam Hussein on December 30, 2006, I’ve been thinking about the basic assumptions that most people make about how to fight evil in the world. We can not have any doubt that there is evil in the world. Mass murder and enslavement, subjecting human beings to poverty and squalor, torture of prisoners, crushing those daring to demand the freedom to make their own decisions; these are all obviously going on in the world, and these are obviously evil acts.
These aren’t the acts of individuals. These are the acts of entire organized movements of huge numbers of people. Whether it is an army conquering territory, or a government grinding its citizens under an iron heel, no individual person can be accused of carrying out a massacre of thousands, or forcing millions to think only the officially permitted thoughts and to speak only the officially permitted words. The most prolific serial killer in human history couldn’t even begin to approach the pure evil of what the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin’s leadership did to Russians, what the Khmer Rouge inflicted on Cambodia under the direction of Pol Pot, or any other example you could name.
What people seem to forget is that evil leaders are not the problem. You can’t lay the blame for true systematic large scale evil on the fact that there is a Saddam Hussein in the world, or even an Adolph Hitler. Without thousands of people willing to carry out their orders, a Saddam Hussein or a Mao Zedong would just be the neighborhood cranky guy, shouting “Hey you kids, get off of my lawn.”
Without followers willing to carry out horrific acts of murder, torture and theft, there are no evil leaders. The way to take away an evil leader’s power is to take away their followers.
The approach taken by the United States when a foreign government is run by an “evil regime” has been to use military force, taking away the followers of the “evil leader” by destroying their armies, blowing up their industrial resources and by slaughtering innocent bystanders and dismissing their deaths as “collateral damage.” Thus, the followers eliminated, we capture and execute their leaders.
That was the plan in Iraq, and that will be the plan for the next country that our leaders think takes one step out of line. However, it is a flawed way to take away the followers of a leader that you don’t like. By killing, maiming, torturing and starving the followers of a leader you don’t like, all you do is drive them to find another leader, preferably one who will save them from being killed, maimed, tortured and starved.
As a Christian, I happen to think there is a better way to take away the followers of evil leaders. For that matter, any human being with an ounce of compassion for fellow humans would say there has to be a better way to turn a dictator out of power.
At the time Jesus preached, the Romans had conquered Israel completely. The Roman emperors instituted a fairly typical occupation as these things go. According to most accounts many of the Jews of the time were hoping for a new Judah Maccabee, a military leader who would inspire them to rise up, slaughter the Romans and drive them out. After all, that’s how things were expected to be done at the time. Many others were content to go along with the Roman occupiers, and hope for the best
The crowds that gathered to hear Jesus were probably expecting to hear “death to the Romans” but instead were told “"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. 34And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
They were expecting to be told that their religious leaders were completely right and that Rome’s Emperor-worship was completely wrong. Instead they were told “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”
Christ’s message served many purposes, but the one most people miss is that he was taking followers away from leaders who either were evil or were content to ignore evil being done. If enough followers are taken away by Christ’s message, the leaders become powerless.
As Christ showed when He arose after the crucifixion, even death of the body can’t stop the idea that people can simply choose to not follow evil people. I see Christ’s most vital message is that the best way to make the Earth into God’s Kingdom is to convince people of this.
For additional proof that simply trying to slaughter the followers of evil leaders to take away their power doesn’t work, I’d like to point out that in 66 AD the Jews tried an armed rebellion against the Roman Empire. They simply managed to get Jerusalem destroyed, Herod’s Temple burned, and the Jewish people were enslaved, massacred and scattered for thousands of years.
With all of this in mind, I’d like to say that I feel the Republican Party since 1980 has shown itself to be an organization led by evil people. They have been attempting to lead the United States as far from Christ’s message of building God’s Kingdom on Earth as it is possible to go. In doing so, the Republican Party leaders, their financial backers and media cheerleaders have shown themselves to be in the service of Satan himself.
I encourage all of you reading this to do all you can to take away the power from these evil people, by persuading their followers to stop following them. In 2007, I’ll be building the Matthew 23 Ministries web site,
http://www.godhatesrepublicans.org into the best source for information to help Christians see that the self proclaimed “God’s Own Party” are nothing of the sort. God loves all of His creations, but those who do evil and claim it to be His will can not expect to be forgiven.
The Book of Proverbs chapter 6, verses 16 to 19;
These six things the LORD hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
A proud look A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that are swift in running to evil,
A false witness who speaks lies,
And one who sows discord among brethren.
These seven qualities embody the campaign strategy and methods once in office of Republican political candidates since 1980.
I don’t hold the Democrats, or the Greens or the Libertarians or the people who never vote to be blameless either. Our entire modern society has been grossly mismanaged, every person who has power, and every powerless person who just went along with the rest of the crowd has been a part of making the mess the world has become.
Don’t compromise with evil leaders. Don’t give them your consent by not challenging their authority. Hold those who claim power accountable.
Let the George Bushes and Rupert Murdocks and Antonin Scalias of the world be reduced to becoming the neighborhood crackpots they so richly deserve to be. Do not follow them, do not respect them, and do not honor them in any way. Let them dry up and blow away with the wind.
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