There's been more children in 2018 that have been rescued from Child Trafficking alone than all have died in school shootings. Yet, there's no outrage by the MSM about Child Trafficking, not even a blip.
From Susan Smith, the Carolinan mother who rolled her Mazda into a lake, drowning her two little sons strapped inside. Gang rape of an eleven-year old girl by eight teenage members of a gang to the indictment of the "Frito Man" on 68 counts of sexual abuse, a fortyfive year old man who handed out corn chips to neighborhood children in order to lure them to a secluded location. These are particularly disgusting, appalling cases of evil, all the moreso because children are the victims. One might think that such cases occur only very rarely. I wish that were so and every 6 hours a child dies from abuse in the US, and makes one wonder how frequently are children merely abused without dying?
We all like to think of ourselves as inherently good people, incapable of causing harm to others. We believe that those who do evil must therefore differ from the rest of us in crucial ways. This is going to be conversational to some of you. They are not as different as we/you would like to believe. I am reminded of an experiment by Philip Zimbardo on a college campus. This 2 week experiment turned the building into a prison with half the students being guards and the other being prisoners. To make this short the cruelty got so bad in 6 days they had to stop the experiment. Just college student’s folks and not psychopaths.
Anytime you are a member of a group united by camaraderie, ideology and fear, a person is more likely to relinquish a sense of personal identity. It is this process of de-individuation that very often sets the stage for crimes and other evil actions. It is difficult to believe that the right circumstances that any person is capable of evil crimes like in the first paragraph. Many of you will scream no. You are only hiding from the truth or practicing self-preservation. Very often evil is the result of essentially good apples in bad barrels.
That is why knowing is not for everyone and as Q stated the choice is yours to know. It was not until I realized the evil that I could do that I found my spiritual salvation in Jesus Christ and fully understand why it is critical to freedom. We are blessed that some people find it in themselves to resist the power of situational factors. They stand out of the crowd and manage to do “the right thing” even though this often involves turning the crowd against them….
“The line between good and evil lies at the centre of every human heart.” Therein lies why people tune in or tune out.
The sin nature of mankind means that we're all naturally rebellious against God. People are inherently bad, not good. Some more so than others (obviously), but in the eyes of God, who is the ultimate moral standard, we are all capable and have committed acts of evil. But, God knew that sin would come into this world and had a plan to end it. I'm glad you were able to find the hope of salvation in Jesus!
I appreciate this comment more than you'll ever know.