A Reflection
on Evil & Silence
Pax Scotia Aug-Sept 2024 Issue 49
Pax Scotia
Issue 49
Sixteen years ago I visited Kenya in the immediate aftermath
of post-election ethnic violence. I had spent several
summers in the same town and knew many people well. It
was painful to see how viciously neighbours – including
parishioners - had turned against each other. I visited
friends who had fled for their lives. I had previously
received hospitality in their homes but now they were
forced to shelter in tents in a refugee camp.
This was long before the advent of social media, but I
learnt that several radio stations served the various tribes
in their own languages. Culturally this was a good thing, yet
it had been misused. A prolonged and determined
campaign of bigotry had flourished on these radio stations
which allowed lies, insults and exaggerations to partly
prepare the way for the violence. Loyalty to tribal vows
silenced good people who neither challenged this sinister
direction of travel nor warned their neighbours and friends.
In the same year I visited Bavaria and went to Dachau, the
first Concentration Camp built by the Nazis. I learnt that
initially Dachau was intended to be a place where through
cruelty, intimidation and sometimes death those who
thought differently or spoke out against the Nazis were ‘reeducated’. Early protestors were quickly incarcerated in
Dachau and the majority remained silent. However, sin is a
slippery slope and Dachau inevitably became a place of
mass murder.
Six months later I visited Auschwitz. There it was
impossible to ignore the depths that human depravity can
reach. I was struck that the undeniable evil which
permeated Dachau had further deteriorated to even greater
depths of evil - the extermination of 6 million Jews and so
many others. I recognised the truth revealed by the Book of
Genesis, not least in Adam and Eve, that sin/evil, when not
effectively challenged, quickly grows and spreads.
A combined culture of evil and silence can only go in one
direction.
Closer to home we have recently witnessed the unscrupulous
manipulation of a horrific crime to orchestrate hatred and
violence against Muslims, asylum seekers, migrants and the
police. This is what happens when blatant lies and the
manipulation of half-truths run amok. It has happened too
often before, and it is happening right now. Nor must we
ignore that while this particular form of bigotry, lies and
violence can be found in the Far Right, it can actually exist
anywhere.
As Christians, and indeed as human beings, we must be
vigilant regarding our own ideas and choice of language. We
must also be courageous in challenging any kind of bigotry
whenever and wherever we encounter it: within myself, or
among family, friends or at work. Evil breeds evil and silence
permits this. What is sinful/evil language today (verbal or
written) too easily becomes violent tomorrow. The way of
Christ is different and that is the path we must choose.
I pen these words on the Feast of St Maximillian Kolbe. I
stood in the cell where he was murdered, disturbed at the
new violence destroying Kenya at that very moment, half a
world away. I marvelled at how Maximillan’s faith drove him
to confront evil and triumph over it in love. When I visited
Kenya two months later, I promised myself that I would
always challenge bigotry, no matter its form. Although I can
point to occasions when I have kept that promise
unfortunately there are many times I have failed. Today, as
this latest bigotry spreads I again find myself asking if I am
willing allow Christ to transform me. Time will tell.
Bishop Brian McGee
Argyll and the Isles
14th August 2024
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