The Stand Effect

This post is more complex. It deals with two forces of Evil—active and passive. Active evil is obvious. It involves deliberate actions that are designed to hurt people and cause destruction. Passive evil is insidious. It involves denial, a refusal to act when the opportunity arises to help prevent evil, and neglect (meaning no response to stop evil).

Another theme is something I call "The Stand Effect." This has to do with souls gathering to be either on the side of Good or Evil. Among fundamentalists, there is much talk about Armageddon, the ultimate battle of Good versus Evil. With the way things are today, I sometimes wonder if we are not in the middle of Armageddon rather than waiting for it.

The Brothers Tsamaev

By now the world is quite familiar with the events of the Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent identification of the two bombers. While the world watched, the older brother, Tamerlan, was shot and killed during an exchange of shots with law enforcement. Then came the spectacular capture of the younger brother, Dzhokhar. In between, we saw interviews with friends and family of these two evil brothers. These brothers behaved like jihadis who were Hell bent on destruction. Their mother talked just like a jihadi mother, saying that she didn't care if her sons were killed or if she were killed. The Boston Marathon, which was so dramatic and public, was only the beginning of these brothers' monstrous plans, which even included my own city of New York.  Tamerlan was wired with explosives when he died.

What caused these men to do what they did? That is the burning question here. They came here and began their education, and got involved with community activities and athletics. The older brother was not as well-adjusted as the younger one seemed to be, although Tamerlan evidently was able to get married. Dzhokar fit in quite well. He had a circle of friends and a lot to keep him busy.

What made these brothers any different from thousands of other immigrant Americans? We have plenty of people who are from the Caucasus, plenty of Muslims, and plenty of young people who are immigrants here. Dzhokhar was a naturalized American (on a September 11th of all things!). Evidently, there were crazy family dynamics playing a significant role.

But there's more. Many people from dysfunctional families don't turn to terrorism. Why did Tamerlan feel a need to even look at radical Islam? Wasn't peaceful Islam good enough for him? What made Dzhokhar follow Tamerlan? It was almost as if something evil was calling to them, looking for some vulnerable spot to attach to and draw them in. Perhaps it would not be considered possession in the classic Catholic sense of the word, but it is still a kind of force that does take some kind of possession in the souls of people who would have otherwise gone on to live unremarkable but productive lives. Were these brothers weak in some way that allowed this evil to enter their souls? Or were they just picked randomly by Evil to be instruments of death and terror?

When it comes to Evil, there are obviously more questions than answers. One hint comes from this in a story on Yahoo News, written by Jeff Donn and Jocelyn Noveck:

Albrecht Ammon, 18, lived directly below the apartment of the two suspects. He said he recently saw Tamerlan in a pizzeria, where they argued about religion and U.S. foreign policy. He quoted Tsarnaev as saying that many U.S. wars are based on the Bible, which is used as "an excuse for invading other countries."

Visit: The Stories of 2 Brothers Suspected in Bombing

Scary, isn't it? Wars and terrorism promulgated in the name of G-d. I can't help thinking of that Bob Dylan refrain:

If G-d's on our side, He'll stop the next war.

To that I can only add, AMEN, S/he will!

The pleas for peace from all Catholic Popes are well-known and familiar. This is an area in which progressives and the Church are exactly aligned. We all want wars to stop. Not just the obvious wars with the tanks, guns, and missiles (whatever happened to the missile rattling by North Korea?)—but also the wars by terrorists everywhere. And also the wars within ourselves.

Perhaps we need to start asking ourselves some questions: Who are WE to think we have any right to cause destruction of other human beings who are not harming us? Who are WE to think that G-d would pick US to do this? This is where a line must be drawn. It doesn't matter which form of G-d we believe in. When we start to force that vision of G-d onto other people, we are, first of all, violating their souls. And when we use physical force to do so, we are violating the temples of their souls, i.e., their bodies.

Why must there be a war between Christianity and Islam? Isn't our Pope trying to reach out? Aren't there imams trying to reach out? Why are these peaceful people being ignored in favor of the fundamentalists because the fundamentalists are noisy and shout the loudest?

Is it because Evil is gathering souls to counteract the forces of Good that are also gathering souls? 

The Stand Effect

In Stephen King's famous book, The Stand, there is an Armageddon-like plague, and the survivors are drawn to either Good or Evil. Good is represented in the person of Mother Abigail, an old African-American woman living alone on a homestead. Evil is represented by the roaming Walkin' Dude (Randall Flagg), who collects followers by doing favors for them and demanding unquestioning obedience as payment. I'm not going to tell you the ending, but there is a blowout. There are characters who are inherently good and others who are inherently evil. And then there are characters who struggle with good and evil within themselves. Some end up with the forces of Good and others end up with the forces of Evil. The whole point is that souls are called and gathered together to battle for their sides after many, many people are eliminated from the Earth. Everybody has to choose and they can decide whether to be destructive or constructive. No one can just stand by and do nothing, because, that is simply allowing Evil to prevail—one is compelled to take a stand.

I feel Stand-like effect these days. So many people are just being eliminated in explosions, floods, earthquakes, storms, shootings, and more. It's almost as if they have paid their karma, and G-d has called them back to the spirit world, leaving we survivors to remain for the battle. That battle seems to be ongoing, every day. First it's the Middle East (Israel versus the Palestinians; Iran versus Iraq), then it's somewhere between the "Stan" countries and Russia. Then it's the Koreans. Now it's Syria and Israel (and maybe the United States). Groan! We have our own things going on in Afghanistan (one of the "Stans") and the problems with terrorists on our own soil. And, as duly noted, Nature is playing a role too.

What to Do? What to Do?

In the face of all this, most people just go about their business. They hope for the best, but somewhere, we are all prepared for the worst. That is hard enough. Yet, all of us have to do more. We must respond—but not by proselytizing. We must speak out, over and over and over again, against extremism. We must not permit extremists to rule anywhere at any time. We need to use all the powers at our command to do this. But we must do it nonviolently. I'm no Mahatma Ghandi, but if push comes to shove, I sure would want to would use his tactics rather than throwing bombs around or shooting people. 

It is vital to stop insisting that there is only one route to salvation via our particular religions. Pope Francis recognizes this when he attempts to reach out in an ecumenical way. While his version of Catholicism is strict and not especially progressive, at least he is not saying "no salvation outside the Catholic Church," like the infamous Father Coughlin did in the past.

Can we not recognize that there are many routes to G-d that Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach, as Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach said? Can we not realize that these roads help control all the spiritual traffic and represent specific kinds of missions, specific kinds of "being chosen peoples"? Can we not find the most good, the gentlest parts of our religions—or even our atheism—and simply practice these things? It's true that one person cannot save the world. But, collectively, by paying kindness and goodness forward, we give our own souls and the souls of others a fighting chance to emerge intact from the battles we are in.

Can we not use the gentle actions of Pope Francis—whether or not we follow his brand of Catholicism. He isn't a progressive but he has something very, very important to teach all of us: Humility! If we  must evangelize, can we not evangelize about that?

I'm not saying it's easy. It's NOT. Humility is really tough—especially when trying to combine it with strong, well-grounded beliefs. I'm going to have to write about that struggle one of these days. For now, I ask forgiveness that I've been absent from this blog for a week. I was totally caught up in the Boston events.