Today I was searching for information about the book Girl, Wash Your Face by a young woman named Rachel Hollis. This is a best-selling book which I’ve seen but know very little about. I found what I was looking for and read about this best-seller. In my search, I also found a blog that was warning against this book.
Now my curiosity was sparked, “What could possibly be wrong with a book that encourages women to stop believing the negative things they’ve been told about themselves and focus on the good?” As I read through the warnings of the evil dangers in positive thinking, accepting others who are different than you, and dreaming big, I thought, “Hmmm, according to this definition of evil – I’m really, really bad!?”
Earlier this week I had seen a facebook post about evil that also caught my attention. It pointed out the danger of accepting what was once evil, making laws in favor of it, and so on and on and on.
This made me wonder, Who’s deciding what is Evil? Is there an Evil Meter? Or questionnaire? Is there an Evil Council that listens to individual cases and passes judgement?
I’m a preachers kid with almost 60 years of watching the definition of Evil change. When my mom was young, cards, movie theaters, and bingo were Evil. When I was a kid, dances, rock music and drinking were Evil. Before the 90s, divorce was Evil. Recently a group who apparently sit on the Evil Council decided that the show Good Omens was Evil. That should have been my first clue of my Evil demise – I love Good Omens and watch it at least once a month.
The definition of Evil has gone through a lot of revision…but has it really? Or have we lost what Evil really looks like. I believe the Holocaust was Evil. I think sending young men and women into crowded places with bombs strapped to their bodies is Evil. When a young person open fires on innocent peers, Evil is at work. I’ve watched drugs take over a person’s being and believed it to be Evil.
It has never dawned on me that thinking good thoughts, desiring to live joyfully, accepting those who aren’t like me, offering love unconditionally, or finding one’s potential had Evil connections. I guess that is because – they don’t.
However, diminishing the heaviness of what defines Evil to include differences of opinions or beliefs or life choices also diminishes the weight of the consequences of Evil – and that may just possible be Evil at its finest.
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Dear to my heart: please read: Raun’s story