After the recent violence and protest attacks, a young woman called and asked me a question we’ve probably all been asking ourselves, “Why are people so evil?”  I didn’t have a ready answer for her. Who could? So, I have spent much time pondering her question.

I did as Attics Finch suggests in To Kill a Mockingbird. I tried to put myself into the skin of one of those violence seekers and see the world and life from inside him. They had to have some intelligence to plan and undertake such acts. . . Some were even devout.  They were plain and simple men and women utterly devoted toa cause, which was crystal clear to them – with NO doubts or hesitations. They were, in a word, single-minded.

They were single-minded as the crusaders who hacked their boldly way to Jerusalem. As single-minded as the revolutionaries who rampaged through France decapitating any priest or nun or anyone with a claim to noble bold. As single-minded as the Nazis who obediently herded human beings as if they were cattle and gassed and incinerated them. As single-minded as kamikaze pilots. As single-minded as the KKK or Black Panthers. As single-minded as those who blow up children. As single-minded as those who cut off heads. As single-minded as those who think the answer is to kill police.
In every single on of those horrific situations, every single person involved believed they were righteous.

And they were all single-minded.

They have inflexible convictions and are incapable of seeing the complexities of human life. By their very single-mindedness, they were simple-minded.

As George says to Lenny in Of Mice and Men, “It ain’t wicked people that causes all the problems. It’s dumb people.”

They were single-minded: that is simple, gullible, and stupid. Plain, simple, stupid people.

They have never been led to get into other people’s skin and look around at life from another point of view.

They have never learned empathy – the mindless beast in us is unleashed. It roams the streets of our world.

Jesus’ call today is to train us NOT to be single-minded, NOT simple-minded fanatics but people governed by the objective truth, by our common humanity – one hope – by the selflessness of the cross. We need to become fully human beings and, we hope, open-minded, open-hearted, open-handed Christians.

Toward the end of A Man for All Seasons, there comes an understanding of sin. “I am just a plain simple man.” Moore sinks go his knees. “Sweet Jesus, save us from these plain, simple men.”