Blurring the line between good and evil

Evangelist Billy Graham once said that humanity has always been skilled at confusing evil with good.

One reason we get to that point, he said, was because we look for shortcuts to happiness and our lust for immediate pleasure prompts us to think of evil as good.

Graham also said it was misguided to believe that a wrong deed is right if the majority of people declare it not to be wrong. We can see our standards shifting from year to year according to the popular vote. In our desire to achieve success quickly, Graham said it is easy to get our values mixed up and call evil good and good evil.

Another theologian, Hazen G. Werner, who served as a United Methodist bishop in Ohio, Hong Kong and Taiwan said there is nothing more startling in today’s society than accepting evil things as respectable.

“We accept in stride the false promises of politicians, the misrepresentations in advertising, the everyday dishonesties of Mr. and Mrs. John Doe — the cheating on exams, the usual exaggerations in conversation and the common immoralities of our times. We no longer blush, and we’re no longer shocked by the immorality that’s going on around about us,” Werner said.

In our recent history, we’ve seen how the lines of good and evil have been blurred, thanks in large part to its treatment by the liberal media.

One example was Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, the prison where up to 500 enemy combatants were held for their involvement in terrorist plots or acts against Americans. After transferring or freeing detainees to other countries, the Obama administration reduced the number of Gitmo inmates to 41.

When compared to high security prisons across the U.S., the conditions at Gitmo seemed to be more of a reward than a hardship. It’s disgusting to hear that prisoners there are treated better than American veterans trying to find help at the VA.

Another black eye for the Obama administration was swapping five Taliban leaders held at Guantánamo for Bowe Bergdahl, who deserted his Army base in eastern Afghanistan in 2009 and was held for five years by a Taliban affiliate.

The Taliban prisoners released for Bergdahl reportedly lived a life of luxury in a gated villa in Qatar. One critic referred to it as a yearlong all-expenses paid vacation. After the year, they were free to re-enter the war against America.

Many on the left lose sight of the fact that the Gitmo criminals are focused on killing Americans and destroying democracy.

The current controversy involving pro-athletes being required to stand for the national anthem has been a public-relations nightmare and a ratings quandary for the NFL. Despite the fact that they have a written policy regarding the conduct of and respect players must show when the anthem is played, the NFL chooses to look the other way and not enforce it. Last month, meanwhile, the NFL denied a Dallas Cowboys’ request to wear a decal on their helmets during the season that would have paid tribute to the five police officers killed in an ambush.

Colin Kaepernick, the player who began the protest against what he felt was racial oppression by refusing to stand for the national anthem last year, has worn T-shirts with the likenesses of radical icons Malcolm X and Fidel Castro.

And before Kaepernick began his kneeling sideline protest, he was photographed during practice sessions wearing socks showing cartoon pigs in police hats. After the head of a national police organization responded, Kaepernick released a statement, insisting that what he chooses to wear on his feet shouldn’t “distract from the real issues” and that the pig socks were only intended to make a statement about “rogue cops.”

The NFL’s double standard is obvious to fans. The league prohibits the Dallas Cowboys football club from honoring slain officers in their community with their uniforms yet it remains silent when Kaepernick dishonors police officers by wearing pig socks.

When the lines between good and evil are ignored or deliberately being blurred, one can expect an erosion in public confidence and a widening division from the populace that can cause a breakdown of civil society.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com