Those who speak the truth, who unmask and show their listeners what is underneath, are often hated, reviled, hounded and killed. Martin Luther King for an instance is still hated by many because he stripped away the mask of segregation and demanded that dignity be restored to his people…. in order to do this he often quoted from both the Old and New Testaments of the bible. He would not be silenced and the fear and rage he engendered was great; for to ask a culture to look at its collective undersides is dangerous business.
The truth he brought us to was not an unknown truth, it was just put aside. Evil becoming ordinary and so the worst kind of prejudice was made the law and achieved respectability…. well it did for those who benefited from this social evil. For anyone who belonged to the majority class, the stronger element in our society (white in this instance), a conversion of some kind would have to be endured, if participation in this kind of unjust system was participated in, when the call for change was responded to. So yes, it is understandable that Martin Luther Kind was hated and eventually killed. That is what happens to those who show us sides of ourselves and our cultures that we do not want to look at. I have no doubt that if I grew up in the South, let us say in the 40’s; I would have been just as racist as anyone else. For we are each a product of our time and we are each called to grow beyond it, though it is a long slow process for those who walk that road.
Jesus said an interesting thing to his family in the Gospel of John 7:7: “The world cannot hate you but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil”. We all know that there is much wrong not only in our own cultures, but actually in every culture throughout history and perhaps it may be getting worse in some ways. Evil seems to be that which consumes all that is around it, objectifying everything, seeing and valuing things and people on a scale that is narcissist to its core. This kind of thing is so common that it is fact considered normal and good, or perhaps unavoidable, which at this time in our history and evolution seems to be true.
Perhaps in fact, the most important project in our lives is to “love God with our whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves”. So everything that is done, no matter if it is approved by our prevailing culture and yes perhaps even our different religions, if not based on the above, is in fact evil; that which sucks the life out of others. . . .
Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastary
