In September of 2004 a film premiered in Germany called The Downfall and it immediately sparked controversy. The film focused on Hitler’s last days living in a bunker below Berlin. It was controversial because it not only portrayed Hitler as a madman, but as a human. The film attempted to show the charming side of Hitler’s personality and therefore garnered sympathy for him which made many uncomfortable. In America, the movie The Joker created a similar stir by trying to humanize the famed Batman villain and potentially turn audiences’ disdain of his diabolical evil into frustration with his circumstances.
This trend in cinema followed a cultural trend in which blame for people’s actions are more shifted to circumstances.
The Problem
Beverly Tatum tried to dispel what she described as the “myth of a just world.”[1] In the world of race, Tatum argued that many white people struggle to accept the idea of white privilege because they like to think they’ve earned all the good things they have. If we deny that the world is just or that there’s any thread of a meritocracy left in society then we will accept that those who are successful in society are so because of injustice rather than their hard work and good deeds. Similarly, those who are considered poor or even evil are that way because of injustice.
It’s certainly true that all people should be humble about their success. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you have not received from God? If then you have received it why do you boast as if you have not received it?” God gives different gifts and opportunities to different people. We must make the most of our opportunities while giving ultimate credit to God. There are also times when injustice greatly effects people. In fact, we find that in Scripture. For example, Proverbs 13:23 says, “The fallow ground of the poor would yield much fruit but injustice sweeps it away.”
But if we accept Tatum’s argument that the world is not just at all, we will completely undermine any sense of personal responsibility. This is exactly the step Ibram X. Kendi takes in his book How to Be an Anti-Racist. Kendi writes, “One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist.”[2]
Following the logic of Kendi’s thought: if you identify any wrongdoing in a person or a group of people you are a racist. In other words, finding fault with an individual isn’t just wrong, it’s immoral.
The Cost
It might sound compassionate to never blame the poor or lawbreakers for their actions, but it’s not. It actually robs them of an essential part of their human dignity. Michelle Alexander in her book The New Jim Crow about criminal justice elaborates on the challenging circumstance that lead to many incarcerations. But then she writes this:
None of this is to suggest that those who break the law bear no responsibility for their conduct or exist merely as “products of their environment.” To deny the individual agency of those caught up in the system–their capacity to overcome seemingly impossible odds–would be to deny an essential element of their humanity. We, as human beings, are not simply organisms or animals responding to stimuli. We have a higher self, a capacity for transcendence.
Yet our ability to exercise free will and transcend the most extraordinary obstacles do not make the conditions of our life irrelevant.[3]
If we denigrate personal responsibility we rob people of their humanity. We make them less than human by making only excuses for them. And it isn’t only relevant in the issue of race.
G.K. Chesterton writes in his book Orthodoxy that many socialists in his day located the problem with man in his environment. In other words, the physical conditions of the poor necessarily make them mentally and morally degraded. The problem with this is that it doesn’t give us reason to hold the poor in high regard, but instead it actually justifies the belief that the people born into the greatest privilege and best conditions are the only ones qualified to lead. As Chesterton writes, “If the man with the bad bedroom cannot give a good vote, then the first and swiftest deduction is that he shall have no vote.”[4] These socialist in seeking to have compassion on the poor and exonerate them from all moral responsibility actually end up arguing for an aristocracy.
Chesterton points out that Christianity from the beginning maintained that the real danger was not in man’s environment, but in man. Of course, this doesn’t mean circumstances are irrelevant. Sometimes there is injustice that needs to change in a person’s circumstance. Yet, blaming circumstances alone infantilizes people and degrades them ultimately. We must hold people in high enough regard to hold them accountable for their actions.
As Christians we must call evil what it is. We must hold people accountable, but we must also hold out hope for all. No one is above the law, but neither are they beyond God’s grace. Yet we must recognize our wrongdoing and repent of it. God welcomes sinners, but only sinners who know they are sinners. If you don’t think you’re sick you’re not showing up to the hospital, and if you don’t think you’re a sinner you’re not showing up to the cross.
The Better Way
So, what does a proper approach to evildoers look like?
During World War II, Corie and Betsy ten Boom were imprisoned by the Nazi’s for hiding Jews in their home. They ended up in a concentration camp where Betsie died of sickness. The way these sisters responded in the midst of one of history’s darkest evils was remarkable. Betsie and Corie prayed for the guards and even showed compassion for them since they saw how sad their estate was to be filled with such hate. They abhorred and were even overwhelmed by the wickedness they were seeing, but also sought to share the gospel with as many as they could including the guards. As Corie boldly told one Lieutenant about the light of Christ who takes away our darkness he pulled his hat down to cover his face and softly said, “What can you know about my darkness?”
We’re headed toward a world with no villains or heroes because personal responsibility is being undermined. Holding individuals accountable is scorned as too harsh, misguided and even morally unthinkable. Yet, to not hold people accountable robs them of their humanity, loosens the restraints on evildoing, and potentially leaves innocent people more vulnerable. Evil is real and people must be held accountable for their actions. We will all give an account to God one day not for our circumstances but for how we acted in our circumstances. There are villains whether we acknowledge them or not. And the sad truth is, in God’s sight, we are all villains because we’ve all sinned. But thankfully we serve a God who died for his enemies. That promise is true for every person no matter their record.
[1] Beverly Daniels Tatum, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race, Revised edition (New York: Basic Books, 2003). 9.
[2] Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist (New York: One World, 2019). 9.
[3] Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New York: The New Press, 2011). 176.
[4] G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Independently published, 2020). 87.
Mike McGregor
Mike McGregor (MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary) is Director of College Ministry at First Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. You can follow him on Twitter at @m5mcgregor.
