Cornel West comments about evil in "Hope on a Tightrope."
For Christians, the problem of evil means: How does one respond to, and resist all forms of evil, especially institutional evil? Christians must seriously consider sin on both the personal and institutional levels. In fact, grappling seriously with institutional sin has allowed me to arrive at some very radical democratic values - such as the need for accountability for all of us.
Sounds like a good way to look at the "bailouts" or "loans" that have been thrown out at some of the biggest institution in our country. We must make them accountable. I often wondered why it is that we make small time criminals pay so heavily for crimes. A good example is the three strikes and your out laws that have thrown small time criminals into prison for long times - long times in a brutal system. On the other hand, corporate business folk seem to be able to get away with ruining the lives of others and nothing is done to them. To make matter worse, we simply give them the go ahead to keep marching to their tune. Even the way institutions are held accountable is different. A blue collar industry is vilified and their worth as a segment of our society is drawn into question and they must make sure that each of their next steps is closely watched. And yet, we simply threw funds to the banks and Wall St. without any accountability.
Connection: Evil comes in many forms. There are some aspects of evil we can never touch as individuals and yet, we must always be listening and watching and working with others to make our whole society just.
Lord of New Life, it has been the flow of the story of your commitment to you people to demand that both individuals and the systems in which we live will be just and fair and honorable. Inspire us to work for justice and shalom even when we think our own lives are settled and in place. Amen.
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