The heart is the core of our being from which our desires, thoughts and judgments come. A hardened heart will cause a person to indulge in evil deeds.
To restrict our capacity for evil, we have to recognise it so that we can recognise the red flags and make wiser choices. It is also important that we show others empathy and not be overly judgmental.
Focusing too much on the evil of others will blind us from our own poor choices. Furthermore, we need to have people in our lives who can ground us and keep us on the straight and narrow, someone who can say no.
Equally important is that we need to correct mistakes quickly. It is important to recognise our bad choices and make them right as soon as possible. By shining a light on our poor choices, we can nip them in the bud. It is clear that evil is undesirable as it violates almost the entire spectrum of the 10 commandments.
The intersection between evil and poverty is captured in the words of Irish playwright and critic, George Bernard Shaw, who argued, “the greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty”.
Poverty destroys lives, nullifies freedoms, stifles happiness and destroys creativity. Had the two women not faced poverty, their lives could have been spared and they certainly would not have died under such undignified circumstances.
Writing a foreword to the book From Poverty to Power, by Duncan Green, Francis Wilson, emeritus Professor of Economics at UCT, notes, “in order to tackle poverty effectively there has to be a critical combination of a well-organised state with an energetic and demanding civil society”.
Active citizenship and capable and effective states are therefore desirable in fighting and triumphing over the dehumanising scourge of poverty.
Religion has a crucial role in championing active citizenship by shaping attitudes and beliefs.
Among these beliefs, which representatives who attended a World Faiths and Development Conference in 1998 agreed on, are the beliefs that everyone is of equal worth, and the whole world belongs to God.
Humans have no right to act in a harmful way towards other creatures. Essentially, such beliefs are captured by the Golden Rule, which permeates all religions. Within the Christian faith, the rule is to “do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31).
The Golden Rule can serve as a blueprint to eradicate the evil we witness.
Nathaniel Lee
www.sowetanlive.co.za
