We learn in the news about profound harms being done to people around our country and the world.  Many label these actions “evil.”  Unitarian Universalists typically don’t focus their attention on evil.  They emphasize reassuring people that human beings are fundamentally good, that kindness ultimately prevails.

However, they know that evil impulses can spring up in every human heart and enterprise. UU’s goal is not to eliminate evil — that is too much to hope for — but to understand and minimize it.

They recognize that evil is a human creation. Natural disasters cause great damage to innocent people, but are not considered evil.  Blaming supernatural forces for evil ignores our human capacity to choose actions (or inaction) that are consistent with, or at odds with, our better selves.

We all can recognize and reduce evil — using our own consciences, the “still, small voice” within, the collective wisdom of our various traditions.  When we know what’s right and good, yet choose a harmful path, we actively bring evil into the world–in personal betrayals, in structural injustices, and in wars fought with guns and bombs.

All evil has a common cause — our capacity to be so self-absorbed and self-righteous that we lose sight of our connections and similarity to others, as well as our common bond through the Source we all have in common.

Whenever we forget who we are and our essential relationship to one another — we have a breeding ground for evil. Losing that realization leads us into individual actions and collective campaigns that generate disconnection and death.

Evil originates in the sad abandonment of love and hope among people who have never considered or have abandoned their core identity as siblings to all people on earth.  UU reminds us of our fundamental connection and asks us to honor it, as best we can, in how we conduct our lives.

November 17, 2023