Commentary

There is evil in this world. I have seen it. And I have experienced it.

For Christmas, my 80 year-old-brother gave me, soon to turn 77, Priscilla Long’s "Dancing with the Muse in Old Age."  A celebration of artists and others who do great work in their later years, Long’s book includes a short discussion on “A Spiritual Life” in which she posits that “in old age many persons become more spiritual.”

We have the right to say whatever we want, right? Isn’t that what the First Amendment says? Not necessarily. While the First Amendment says Congress shall make no law abridging the right of free speech, there is no such restriction on the U.S. Supreme Court.

God, who loves us unconditionally, gave us free will, the option to do good or to do the opposite of good (evil). The choice of practicing evil results in a condition known as sin. Evil is the action, and sin is the result of that action (separation from good).

This is the third and final installment in my crowd-sourced series where Jewish people share things we wish non-Jews understood. In the previous two articles in the series, we covered things like Chanukah, horns, antisemitism and the wide variety of belief within Judaism. In this article, we’ll get songs stuck in your head, make you are of the Jewish disdain for the phrase, “Judeo-Christian” and point out that Judaism is its own whole set of beliefs independent of other religions.

As a practicing Christian, I think the Bible, where the teachings of my faith reside, defines the unseen reality behind evil as Satan along with the demons (or “angels” in some translations) who follow him. I know this sounds like the stuff of fairy tales, but I think a case can be made that the Bible’s teaching about Satan and the creation account of humankind’s fall in Genesis 3 is as viable an option as any that defines the source of evil in this world.