Those who want to fight evil first of all have to understand what evil is. They also need a firm basis for their understanding, one that is shared by enough people to make joint action possible. Secondly, they have to be prepared to fight evil—and by “fight” I don’t mean only standing up for the truth, as vital as that first step is. I also mean “fight” as in war legally waged by duly appointed governments, using bombs, and bullets, and requiring blood, guts, self-sacrifice, heroism, determination, perseverance, and confidence in the rightness of one’s cause.
These two qualities—understanding of evil and the strength to resist it—are not in abundance in our modern western society. Those who have been brought up to believe that the supreme goods of life are pleasure, self-indulgence, passive comfort, and security, are not going to have the will to resist. Believing that “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” doesn’t help. Can this who think that George Washington was no different from Yassir Arafat really be expected to fight evil?
Joseph Keysor, “Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Bible,” pg.436
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