"Most difficult of all is having to face evil. Encounters with evil reduce oneself or another to the status of a thing or object. Evil has a variety of more benign forms. Lies, betrayals, gossip, objectifications and character assassinations are daily occurrences. More serious forms are sexism, racism, homophobia, heterosexism and socially condoned poverty. In every case evil treats another as if s/he does not have a history, loved ones, dreams or desires to grow through caring interaction. Evil seeks to diminish the other. Evil fails to recognize that people grow and become whole through human encounters. All humans need care and respect in order to develop and actualize their God given capacities to love self and others. To love another as oneself and to love God above all else lies at the heart of Christ's two main commandments. These attitutes are inherently spiritual for they recognize the interdependence of all living things. Reverence for life is diametrically oposed to exploitation and fragmentation. Evil is a pathological distortion of the capacity to relate. It is interested in fragmentation and not in interconnectedness. When partiality is revered and wholeness rejected evil is never far away. Evil demands control and requires that it be at the centre of things. Diversity is disparaged and not recognized as varied expressions of the Spirit. Evil desires to be a law unto itself and hence is a denial of the Spirit. It is the opposite of love. Love is freely given, involves reciprocation and is moved by another's predicament. Evil takes what it wants without concern for the other."
by Robert Grant, The Way of the Wound.
Sound familiar?
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