Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
GOOD AND BAD CONJOINED
GOOD AND BAD: CONJOINED
Why does evil always seek to hide itself among the good? Why does wickedness always malevolently masquerade as an angel of light, being that it is in actuality the prince of demons and of darkness?
Is evil, demonic wickedness afraid, ashamed to stand its own ground ?
Or, do we who are privileged to read, and privileged to observe the so-called "good" and "bad" in history and in our lives, and in literature, both sacred and sacral, instead, err? Do our own prejudices and biases ignorantly obscure our futile , if innocent, attempts to discern between these coefficients of existence, due to our incapacity?
Take a plain example the African slave trade:
It is generally agreed that the African slave trade was evil and wicked, lasting 400 years, and tearing up entire families, killing millions of people in order to "civilize," to populate and to develop the Americas, which are now global powers. Let me concede the point, even if in so doing, I deny my African American self, who would not be, but for that so-called evil, wicked occurrence!
Not only would I not exist, nor be, as a person, but for the assimilative processes of cruel chattel slavery, but neither would anyone nor anything else that is American, or African American, or any of many permutations of the two, exist or be, but for the African slave trade that is now universally accepted as so wicked and so evil! Yes, it
was wrong! But, despite its wrong, that wrought so much havoc, it has also brought forth so much good!
Good and bad are conjoined twins .