From our Thump Your Pulpit In Lieu Of Climbing The Walls department…

This came across my Facebook stream, via Songwriter Janis Ian…

Evil does not need malice to spread, or even to exist. Malice is probably the least of its needs. What really gets it going is that absence of empathy. Or as I like to say, sympathy. It’s when other people simply become a means to your ends, whether economic or emotional. It’s when your neighbors in this life stop being people, with their own hopes and dreams, their own human desires, and needs, but become faceless means to whatever your needs may be. And there is no more needful thing than empty pride.

“Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.” -Eric Hoffer

They say faith can be a source of strength and inner peace, but the hard lesson to learn is faith is utterly neutral. It can give you strength to stand side by side with the oppressed. It can grant you peace as you turn away from them. It can be the calm self assurance that persecuting them is both righteous and just. It is Himmler telling his troops after they’d just massacred a village in Poland that because we can do such as this and still remain moral men is what makes us strong. It is Ntakirutimana telling the Tutsi congregation, about to be slaughtered and begging for his help, “You must be eliminated, God doesn’t want you anymore.” Their faith was strong. The evil that grew within them found it a completely willing ally.

“Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.” -Eric Hoffer

I’m in my sixties now and I think I can look back on everything I’ve seen in this life and make a few judgements now. And as to faith, I’ve seen it give battered hearts hope, but I have also seen it take people’s brakes away. Faith will come to the aid of whatever a person has within them, whether good or evil. But I have seen the most miniscule shred of sympathy in a bitter person finally soften a heart I was certain had been hardened beyond any hope of redemption. I have seen it turn people away from great wrongs they had been calmly certain of being good and righteous, and atone for them. It isn’t faith we need in this life, it is sympathy. Even if it’s just the size of a mustard seed. It will save your soul.

[Edited a tad…]