[jimkress]

WOW!

What an amazing article!

Thanks for posting it.

[anniegetyourgun]

Amazing how we can go from the Maddy Notsobright nomenclature of "states of concern" to "evil axis" so quickly. Just wish it hadn't taken 9/11 for libs to get over their pantywaist language problems.

[BlueAngel]

Bump!

[Common Tator]

This article is made up of a thinking mans arguments. It is far more simple than these convoluted statements infer. When the threat is to others,and not Joe Public, Joe is not concerned. Joe can tolerate and even accept and preach the softer words of tolerant diversity.

But when Joe sees his own a$$ in mortal danger, Joe wants the bad guys wasted before night fall. When Joe's a$$ is in danger his idea of a fair trial is for the troops to aim before they shoot the damned terrorists.

[SuziQ]

Michael Novak is an awesome writer. I like his idea about how our country is founded with a system of checks and balances because the Founders knew that we were HUMAN and could be tempted by power. That is the biggest difference between our system of govt. and that of the Muslim ruled countries. The followers of Islam don't have the notion of 'original sin' thus believe that their leaders, since they know the Koran and read it daily, will only do good because they are doing the work of Allah (as told to the people by the Mullahs). So the people don't see any need to scrutinize or even question what their leaders do, and they accept, without question, everything that is said 'in the name of Allah'.

We in the West, who have been raised with the tenets of Christianity (even if some are NOT Christian) don't believe that every political leader is good, so we'll be vigilant.

[ladyinred]

President Bush, like President Reagan before him, tells it like it is. Obviously, the American people like that considering the polls.
I personally loved his "wanted dead or alive" quip about OBL!

[zarf]

"The final enigma of history is therefore not how the righteous will gain victory over the unrighteous, but how the evil in every good and the unrighteousness of the righteous is to be overcome."

We need to be less critical of other societies and begin to hack away at our own sewage...Our Jerry Springer mentality is evil. We export this crap and it earns us no friends.

[JMJ333]

This is an excellent article. Thanks for posting it.

[Gershom]

Bttt. Great article!

[185JHP]

The potential for evil exists in all people. Some societies - like ours - do a better job of controlling it. Reading "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" in the Saturday Evening Post described the problem - and RR called it what it was. However, if you ponder "How could people support such evil?", reflect that after 1,000 years of perfect government, there will be people who take the side of evil when they get the chance...

[jwh_Denver]

Good God. This article is good but not "excellent". Some of you posters need to put down your comic books for a month or so and read some stuff that makes you think. Think and Grow Rich, and I don't necessarily mean money.

[lds23]

Ex nihilo,ex cearulo,evinvere malum bono.

[Matchett-PI]

"But the word "evil," when used only of others, can intoxicate the user before he knows it. I commend to him, and all of us, Niebuhr's pregnant warning: "The final enigma of history is therefore not how the righteous will gain victory over the unrighteous, but how the evil in every good and the unrighteousness of the righteous is to be overcome."

No.... I don't think that is the enigma.

To my way of thinking, the enigma is why would the Almighty God NOT eliminate the evil in every good and NOT eliminate the unrighteousness of the righteous.

For "Christians", the Scriptures reveal a God who is omniscient and omnipotent. That means that he knows how to eliminate evil, and has the power to eliminate evil.

The Scriptures reveal an omnibenevolent God, also, so it would seem to follow that since God is good, he would want to eliminate evil. But evil exists in this world. In fact .. great amounts of evil exist.

To some, there is no enigma at all. They will just conclude that because of all the evil in the world, God must not exist, or if he does exist, he's not the One revealed in the Bible. He's impersonal and doesn't participate in any way with his creation other than to just observe it from a distance. These mentalities have their standards of goodness and this "personal God" that the Scriptures teach, who allows so much evil and suffering to exist, could never measure up to their standards. Therefore he either doesn't exist or he's impotent or disinterested.

To others, the personal, omniscient, omnipotent omnibenevolent God that the Scripture reveals, does exist, and because he hasn't eliminated moral, natural, a mixture of the two, or even [gasp] gratuitous evil ... we must take him at his word that his thoughts aren't our thoughts and his ways aren't our ways. He must have good reasons for not eliminating evil.

His reasons for NOT eliminating evil are an enigma.

"The presence of evil in God's creation is consistent with God's purposes for creation; moreover it is what we might expect to find in a natural order designed to serve as an arena in which human beings are given an opportunity to respond to real dangers and challenges in the process known as soul making." [Ronald H. Nash, (Ph.D. Syracuse University) - Faith & Reason - Searching for a Rational Faith. Pg. 221. Zondervan Publishing House - Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 - Copyright 1988 - 2000].