People Are No Damn Good

A Pastor's Struggle with Ethics and Morality

Jimmy R. Watson

• Editorial: Resource Publications
• Año: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781666796292
• Categoría: Theologie & Religion
• Categoría: Ethik & Religion

Over thirty-five years in the classroom and pulpit will give a person some perspective about homo ethicus--the ethical human being. In this intentionally non-academic contribution to the moral pursuit, Jimmy Watson offers personal anecdotes and reflections, sardonic wit, sarcastic humor, and most importantly, a wide array of information and laser-beam insights into his chosen field of study. He invites the reader to think deeply about the complexities and ambiguities of human nature and the discernment of good and evil from both secular and religious perspectives and encourages all of us to become the best damn people we can possibly be.

1

Exorcisms to Ethics

Are we no damn good? From Cain’s pre-historic murder of Abel to the attempted insurrection of the U.S. Capital on January 6, 2021, the evidence is overwhelming. We obviously suck as a species. We could be and do better.1 To those who, in response to January 6, like to say, “This is not who we are,” I suggest this is exactly who we are. The proof is in the pudding, and the fact that pudding is, and always will be, associated with Bill Cosby, further drives home the thesis of this book.

Ground Zero

Some folks will read this book and suggest that my general approach to the art of manuscript organization is best described as a “scattershot approach.” As a youngster, I fired a few shotguns in my day. I once downed two turkeys with one pull of the trigger because—let’s be frank—with a shotgun you just need to aim in the general direction.2 A scattershot approach in book writing suggests that one’s topic is “broad but random and haphazard in its range.” I have organized my chapters, however, into valid, and sporadically at least, decipherable, categories. In this chapter I will attempt to answer, with some clarity the question: Are we no damn good?

If nothing else, our experiences tell us that people are no damn good. Do you remember where you were when you heard the news that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been attacked and another plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001? I happened to catch the news at home when the first plane flew into the building. At that moment, most of us thought it was some sort of weird accident—mechanical or human failure on the part of the pilots. I hurriedly rushed to my office. Shortly after I arrived and turned on the television at work, we saw the second plane crash into the World Trade Center. The rest of the day, if not the rest of the year, was a blur. In some ways we have been trying to rebuild our national lives from the rubble of “Ground Zero” ever since.3

If that day taught us anything at all, it is that evil exists in this world. But how and why? Some people like to explain evil in mystical or spiritual terms, even going so far as to personify evil in a character known as Satan or the devil. Others prefer to talk about the “Fall” of humanity, original sin, and the corruption of human nature. Still others prefer to talk about evil solely in natural terms—we are nothing more than advanced animals and therefore we are inherently violent.4 Whatever your favorite explanation for the presence of evil in the world is, the bottom line is that it is real. It exists. Evil, and its sidekick, suffering, dominate the news around the world every day.

Human experience also informs us that there are two kinds of evil in the world. There is natural evil, which includes things like hurricanes, pandemics, and accidents, and there is moral evil, which is what people do to one another, to other creatures, and to the environment. Both kinds of evil cause suffering. The difference between natural and moral evil is the absence of motive in the former and the presence of motive in the latter. Unless we want to make the asinine argument that a personal God is responsible for natural evil, motivated by retribution or a divine mean streak, then natural evil just is. There is no intention behind the act. We therefore do not need to spend much time on the causes of natural evil.

Moral evil, on the other hand, often occurs because someone intends to do harm to someone or something else. This is the kind of evil that I will be observing, with the keen eye of an evilologist, in this book.

Evil is ever-present. It is not going away any time soon. Every day is an ethical Ground Zero. Every day we are forced to go back to square one, or the forbidden fruit, and wonder why. In this chapter I will make the argument that yes, we are no damn good, which is a very simple argument to make.

There is no One Who Does Good

Perhaps the loudest voices in our tradition that tried to tell us how evil, sinful, and bad we really are, are the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures. The prophet Jeremiah is a good example for us to consider. Jeremiah knew a thing or two about evil and suffering. His book was written in the context of violence (a particularly nasty form of evil) and suffering. It is the sixth century BCE and Babylon has invaded the nation of Judah and its capital city Jerusalem. If I did not know any better, I would think Jeremiah was foreshadowing the events of September 11, 2001.5 He was not, of course, and yet his words sound much like a description of 9/11.

In the fourth chapter of his book, beginning in verse 11, Jeremiah channels his inner-God-voice and writes, “At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my . . . people.” (Note that the people who attacked us on 9/11 were people from the desert in the Middle East.) From Jeremiah’s perspective, God was using the Babylonians to punish the Israelites. The Israelites are called “foolish,” “stupid children” and “skilled in doing evil.” And then it gets very interesting. Listen to the angry voice of Jeremiah’s God with a little inappropriate commentary:6

I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void (like Ground Zero in New York City); and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro (think of the mountains and hills as metaphors for the Twin Towers). I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled (think of people jumping to their deaths from the fiery buildings). I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins (no explanation needed) . . . For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation . . . Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black (think of the black smoke from the burning towers and the Pentagon).7

That is sort of eerie, is it not? Jeremiah is not predicting 9/11, of course, yet the lessons of the past continue as lessons of the present: evil is real, there are people who want to harm us, and most importantly we need to be aware of how our own decisions and actions can lead to hatred and violence—evil and suffering—in the world.

Jeremiah’s theological view that God was punishing the Israelites through the Babylonians may seem archaic to us, and yet it is interesting that he was willing to assign at least some of the blame for the Babylonian invasion to the Israelites themselves. If we as a nation are wise, we will look at how our own policies can foment violence in a world that is always on a short fuse.

Evil is real, yet complicated. Psalm 14 does not mince words by claiming that there is a wide swath of “evildoers”: “There is no one who does good . . . they have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one” (vss. 1–3).8 That is a harsh view of humanity, and yet we can only imagine what the psalmist was living through as he or she wrote those words.

The Exorcist

There are folks that are so “no damn good” that they think they might be possessed.9 When family and friends came to see us for the first time in St. Louis, my wife and I liked to take them on the neighborhood tour, which consists of the home Mickey Carrol of The Wizard of Oz munchkin fame lived in until his passing a few years ago, and the home where an event occurred in 1949 that inspired the 1973 movie The Exorcist.10 The latter house is directly two blocks behind our home. We often walk past it and take selfies, hoping that the current occupants do...