“I could have been the killer or the evader. Both were human.” I’m John Stonestreet, and this is The Point.
That conclusion came from Holocaust historian Christopher Browning. Also, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel once wrote, “Deep down...man is not only an executioner, not only a victim, not only a spectator: he is all three at once.”
Yesterday, I suggested that our gut reactions to 9/11 – that instinctive recoil at evil, and our cry to something higher than us – reveals important truths about our condition. But another truth about us is harder to grasp.
Biola professor Clay Jones calls it a “raw fact about humankind” that we are “ 9/11-enabled human beings.” It’s easy to think of terrorists as “monsters” who were guilty of “inhuman acts.” But the moral evils of history, from Auschwitz to eugenics to abortion to 9/11 to slavery reveal that evil is not inhuman at all – but our common state since Eden.
As we reflect on the anniversary of this great evil, we should look inside. For thePointRadio.org, I’m John Stonestreet.
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