Evil Systems (1)

Christians who are concerned about poverty often blame the “system” for poverty. The problem with this is that no one is very clear about what the system is. It can be a bit of a cop out, because if the system is the problem, then no one is responsible or accountable. Systems cannot choose to do evil.

If we want to deal with evil, we must track it back to the person or group of people who are perpetrating it. Evil always starts with individuals. Individuals can evaluate options and value things. Individuals make decision and take actions. Individual people can choose to do good and they can choose to sin.

Sometimes people get together in groups to do evil, but each individual choose to join the group and not to opt out of it. Sometimes one person decides to dominate the rest if the group and the other decide to go along for the benefits. Nevertheless all the decisions and actions are taken by individuals, who are accountable to God for their behaviour.

Evil actions taken by people with power over other people amplify the impact of evil. An evil person with political power or economic power can do more evil than an ordinary person.

This full series is here.