Comments on: Getting Used to Evil

By: Ed Harrell

Ed Harrell — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 03:10:00 +0000

The just getting used to it is Satan’s goal for sin in our own lives, whether it be abusing our fellow man, looking lustfully at someone other than our spouses, greed, or any other manifestation of evil (sin). May we have all have soft hearts for God and make sure there is no “plank in our own eye.” God Bless

By: chrismith

chrismith — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 19:07:00 +0000

Wouldn’t it be great if Christians brought about peace with the same excuse? “Why didn’t you fight back?” “Why walk that extra mile?” “What’s with this turning the other cheek stuff?”

Answer: “I was just following orders.”

By: Val

Val — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 20:09:00 +0000

I am continually amazed how funtionaries, when confronted with their inhumanities, merely say “I was just following orders;” as though this were a sufficient excuse. Generations of people “just following orders” have produced snapshots of hell on earth. Meanwhile, we often still buckle under the strain of following Jesus. While following Jesus has not, is not, will not be easy, our love in response to God’s pursuit of us has to be a better impetus to showing love to the world than does any reason for carrying out acts of hate. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

By: SG

SG — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 17:37:00 +0000

This post has been removed by the author.

By: Q

Thu, 29 Jul 2004 17:29:00 +0000

Learning to adapt, to become used to these things makes it also easier to justify passing that abuse on. So often the abused becomes the abuser, globally, locally, personally.

It’s a startling thing when God begins to answer the prayer, “open my eyes, Lord.”

By: Serena Voss

Serena Voss — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 15:36:00 +0000

Tragic when people get used to the abuse of a fellow human being. If we can put distance between us and the abuse, or if we can somehow “dehumanize” the person or group receiving the treatment, it becomes “easier” to tolerate and thus perpetuate.

Tragic also when a man, woman or child “gets used to” being abused — as if it were their birthright. They grew up in abusive patterns, and even though it hurts, they accept it as normal.

I still cringe when I think of the young adolescent girls I have counseled who have been sexually violated by a family member with a grandmother or mother just a few feet away. In one case, after the child was removed from the perpetrator and when I explored the situation with the young lady and later her mother and grandmother, the common words that surfaced were, “Honey, you just have to let ‘em. Not a thing you can do about it.”