Good People Doing Evil Things

On a recent morning, my Google homepage greeted me with the following quote of the day, “With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” The words were from Steven Weinberg, an American physicist. The quote was taken from a 1999 article in The New York Times.

The words, “for good people to do evil things, that takes religion” stang as I read them. Yet, part of me, if I am really honest with myself, knows exactly what Weinberg means. If there wasn’t the hope of an afterlife would it be quite so easy to find a seemingly endless stream of young people willing to blow his or herself up in the name of Allah? And can I point the finger at Islam without accounting for the great number of deaths that could be laid at the foot of the cross as those done in Jesus’ Name?

The Crusades and the Inquisition are just two notable examples of Christians killing in the name of God. Some Christians provided justification for the Holocaust in their preaching and teaching even if they didn’t take part in or directly condone the atrocities committed by the Nazi government. Organized religion does have much tragedy for which it can be called into account. So religion can be a problem. I think on that I will have to agree with the physicist quoted above.

This was true in Jesus’ own day as well. Jesus’ harshest criticism was always for the religious leaders who praised God with their lips and denied him with their actions. The poor, the outcast, the forgotten ones are those that Jesus lifted up. The high and mighty and holier than thou are the ones he sought to bring down a peg or two.

The word “religion” comes across in the New Testament as something of a bad word. “Thraiskos” was the New Testament word for “religion.” Its origin was the island of Thrace whose inhabitants were known for their excessive religiosity. The Thracians were fanatics and the Bible’s word “religion” means that you are “like the people on Thrace.” That’s why it is used negatively in scripture. The positive word in scripture is “faith” not “religion.”

The Book of James uses the word to point toward a better way to be religious: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

For scripture then religion seems to be a problem and the way to know if one has the good kind of religion is if one’s faith bears good fruit. If you are taking care of those in need and not getting tied up in the chaos and confusion of the present age, then you have true religion rather than just religiosity.

Therefore, in returning to the quote which began this thought process, good people doing evil things in the name of religion are ones who are using religion as an excuse for their wrong actions. The actions themselves do not come from God, even if the person doing wrong claims “God made me do it.”

This is the hard part for many people to grasp—even if all followers of Jesus get it wrong, it is possible for Jesus to still be right. Jesus is not wrong just because we act wrongly while saying we are following him. In the ways we get it wrong, we give others an excuse to ignore the faith that is in us. But when we bear good fruit, we point others toward the rightness of our beliefs.

Yes, Christians can be called into account for the Crusades, the Inquisition and much evil done in God’s Name. But we also can claim the creation of hospitals and orphanages and much that is right in the world. Many have also served selflessly in Jesus’ name and I don’t agree with Weinberg, who I quoted above, that this good would have been done with or without faith.

He may be right when it comes to religion, but not faith. I respectfully disagree as I feel that the great good people of faith have done would not have been undertaken without the same Spirit working through those doing the actions that was blowing across the waters in creation and was present in Jesus’ life and ministry. That is the creative and re-creative Holy Spirit which has worked through flawed and failed humans to do much good in this fallen world.

I think for good people to do selfless things, that are more concerned about the other person than for oneself, takes the Holy Spirit. I am saddened by the many truly bad things done in God’s name. Yet, I take heart in the many wonderful things accomplished through the centuries by person’s empowered by their faith to serve others.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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