How often do we make excuses for evil?

Many, if not all of us do this daily.

I get it... Sometimes we just don't want the conflict in our lives, and it's easier to glaze over the minor things to avoid being the eternal buzzkill.

It's nearly impossbile to attack this from every angle but I'd like to approach the familial dynamic of this issue.

What really got me started thinking about this:

A few months ago I attended my mother's memorial service. I really can't stand funerals in general for a few reasons, NOT the least of which, it gives everyone a license to revere the deceased as if they were the greatest person that ever lived.

In this setting people are far more apt to remember all the good things and totally sweep under the rug any negatives. I absolutely must ask myself the question as to whether or not this solidifies in our own conscious the good and bad in people as being the one in the same?

This however, is something that is not unique to funerals. People in general will tend to not call out immoral behavior in those they care deeply about.

How often do we make excuses for evil with our loved ones and friends? Everything from the more trivial matter of people who are just plain disrespectful to those who engage in the most depraved of acts.

I think many times, the reason we see the self replicating viruses of dysfunction in families is the memorialized awesomeness of imperfect mortals.

"Dad was a good man." He may have been drunk half the time, absentee on many occasions, temperamental, or abusive, but let's still call him good for the sake of memories.

I'm not suggesting we shouldn't or couldn't care deeply for those in our lives with all of their imperfections.

I'm suggesting we acknowledge them for who they actually are instead of who we wished they were.

I'm also going to suggest that if we don't refuse to be apologists for immorality that we are not only setting ourselves up to follow in the footsteps of the previous generations dysfunction, we are in fact engaging in evil by promoting wrong behaviour ourselves by the very act of excusing evil.

If this seems like a bit of a leap ask yourself the following:

•How many members of the Nazi party had families that excused all of the atrocities committed by every single member of that machine that was responsible for so much suffering?

-"They didn't really know what was going on."

• "They feared for their own lives."

• "They were only doing their jobs"

-"Those were different times."

WHY NOT JUST ADMIT WRONG DOING AND ABSTAIN FROM MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES?

•It is extremely disrespectful to attempt to absolve those we care for of moral agency.

If we begin to change our own behavior in this regard think of how much we can impact our current generation and those to come.

Selah

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