Hidden Evil

[Phoebe Sibilio]

Somethings are Obviously Evil. This index is for those things that aren't. Be they cute, innocent-looking animals, small children, or just have good publicity, evil in the world often hides under an array of disguises and facades. This is a list of these various nondescript places where evil beings often lurk. These tropes are the opposite of Index with a Heart of Gold and Quirky Good.

My prayers took a fresh tack today as I dealt with the ongoing concerns about anthrax and other terrorist attacks. These words popped into thought: There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed. It struck me that this is an important direction for prayers to take. For while it is essential to help others gain a sense of protection and safety, it's also important to know about the spiritual forces that are at work to uncover these wicked activities so that they can be stopped.

I was fairly certain that this idea came from the Bible, and I was led to these words of Jesus. He told his disciples: "... there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops" (Luke 12:2, 3).

In the context of today's events, these words help me realize that no matter how secretly such attacks are planned, no matter how carefully people might try to cover their tracks, through our prayers, all these things can be brought to light, and those who pursue such goals can be exposed. There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed.

Evil certainly tries to hide in dark and hidden places. But these familiar words of the Bible hit me in a new way: "... darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:2, 3). I don't want to trivialize one of the profoundest passages in the Bible, but isn't it heartening to know that even now, at this moment, the "spirit of God" is active and still demanding light? Still eliminating darkness? Still revealing the supreme authority of good?

I am reassured to know that at this very instant, this great omnipotent power of good is at work in the world, saying, "Let there be light." Let the force and might and omnipotent activity of good be revealed. Let us see it exterminate the darkness and the activities that take place there. Let us see the operation of divine law at work. This desire is a righteous prayer and one we can all join in with all our hearts.

I acknowledged as well that those who have information that would expose these plots are being given the fearlessness and strength to reveal what they know so that lives can be preserved. Fears or divided loyalties might make this hard for some. But divine Love helps overcome these and gives people the strength to serve good instead of evil. This is affirmed by Mary Baker Eddy in her enormously helpful book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Man's enslavement to the most relentless masters - passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge - is conquered only by a mighty struggle.... Here Christian Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the weakness of mortal mind, - strength from the immortal and omnipotent Mind, - and lifting humanity above itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and good-will to man" (pg. 407).

This led me finally to the spiritual fact that the power, authority, and demands of good that work in men and women are sufficient to overrule and arrest the impulses to murder and harm others. Mrs. Eddy states, "The superiority of spiritual power over sensuous is the central point of Christian Science" (pg. 454). This is challenging to believe sometimes. So I am continuing to pray for God's help in understanding that He does rule supreme in our hearts and minds and that divine Love does overrule hate.

This is unmistakably evident in Christ Jesus' life. It is clearly one of the great lessons his life teaches us. Current events are compelling many of us to return to our spiritual roots, and this is one of the lessons that we have the God-given ability to learn. I am convinced that the more we pray in these directions, the more we will demonstrate the fact that there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed. This will save us from harm, and save many from doing harm.

Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations.

I (Kurt) recently appeared on the podcast Hidden Brain, hosted by Shankar Vedantam, to talk about morality and the growing political divide in America. You can listen to the interview at the link below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the podcast, I try to make sense of his aggression and eventually come to see his side of the story, as both another human being and a social psychologist. I understand where he came from: He felt threatened and was lashing out. But is understanding forgiveness? Am I making violence seem okay by explaining why he attacked me?

In the remainder of the podcast, I outline how feelings of threat drive much of our political behavior. When we scream at political opponents, it is not because we want to destroy them but instead because we seek to protect ourselves and the values we care about. There is a lot of science showing that our intuitive perceptions of harm drive our moral judgments. But Shankar noticed a deep ethical tension behind the science of explaining bad behavior.

Consider immigration. Liberals might see undocumented immigrants as victims seeking a better life, and therefore support easier pathways to citizenship. Conservatives, on the other hand, might worry about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants against more vulnerable American citizens, and therefore support stricter borders. We all care about protecting victims from harm, but we emphasize different victims.

This general trend held when asking about other historical villains as well. Many liberals rated Joseph Stalin, the former dictator of the Soviet Union and leader of the communist party, as being a right-wing extremist. Of course, our opponents are not like Hitler or Stalin, but we see them as lacking a basic moral compass.

In a recent set of studies, a former Center postdoc Curtis Puryear asked Democrats and Republicans for their views on a range of uncontroversial moral wrongs, like child pornography, animal abuse, and embezzlement. He then asked them to estimate the portion of their political opponents that approved of these acts. He found that Democrats and Republicans estimated that between 10 and 30% of the other side approved of these blatant moral wrongs, when virtually none did. (See Figure 2).

Part of the problem is that we are increasingly politically segregated. Americans have few friends who support the opposing candidate, which means that our political conversations are not playing out between well-meaning friends, but on national stages between political elites who are more likely to have nefarious goals.

Shankar and I discuss questions of politics and our psychology, but there\u2019s a recurring theme: explaining evil. I start with a story about road rage from when I was a teenager. I was driving to a movie with some friends. It was dark, the roads were wet, and I accidentally cut off a man in a Mercedes after almost missing my turn. He leaped out of his car and threatened to kill me. I took off, and then he chased me through a dark strip mall before cornering me. He tried to pull me out of the car, again threatening to kill me, and then slapped me around.

When we explain why someone does something odious, it can seem like we are condoning their behavior. This tension came up when we discussed the January 6th riots at the Capital, which might seem like an act of evil or a righteous response to evil, depending on how you vote. It also came up when we talked about the actions of the Nazis, although this didn\u2019t make the final cut of the episode.

I don\u2019t condone violence\u2014whether against me or anyone else\u2014but I do believe that we need honest explanations of human behavior. Explaining evil is why social psychology took off in the wake of the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust. Understanding evil is important to preventing it, and studies find that everyday humans do bad things when they are told to, when the situation calls for it, and when it conforms to other people\u2019s behavior.

People are often unsettled by these psychological explanations because\u2014as one paper finds\u2014explaining evil can make it seem more acceptable. People can accuse the \u201Cexplainers\u201D as guilty of being complicit or of \u201Cboth-sides-ism.\u201D The German movie \u201CThe Downfall\u201D received a lot of pushback because it portrayed Hitler as a fallible human being. And shortly after my Hidden Brain episode was released, I received an email comparing me to a Nazi sympathizer for trying to see the humanity in both sides of the American culture wars.

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