I agree with Travis Little (writer of a recent Daily Universe column) when he condemns the brutal killing of Nick Berg and criticizes any who see it as excusable. But I believe Little has a deeply mistaken view of evil in general, identifying it with others and offering the destruction of those other people as a solution. Little suggests that those who disagree are not "sane" and do not "see evil for what it is." In my opinion, that is precisely the problem with Little's view: its failure to "see evil for what it is."

As I've learned of recent atrocities, my instinctive response has been, "That is evil." But I have tried not to say "they" are evil. I do not have a privileged view into others' hearts; I have been taught that my role is not to judge and I can't dismiss the sobering scriptural language that tells us we've all "gone astray" and that, even at our best, we are "evil" compared to a perfect Heavenly Father.

Identifying evil with actions and attitudes rather than with particular people can help us avoid being caught in the cycle of violence and perpetrating against others the very evils we consider them guilty of. This approach can also help us accept our own responsibility to repent. That, again, is a repeated scriptural refrain. If for no other reason than our own salvation, we must remember the truth expressed by the great Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: that "the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either-but right through every human heart."

Almost thirty years ago, President Spencer W. Kimball counseled against our tendency to rely on violence "for protection and deliverance" and, "[w]hen threatened," to "become anti-enemy instead of pro-kingdom of God," thus, "in the manner of Satan's counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior's teaching" to love our enemies. President Kimball went on to recommend that we should oppose evil by having faith in God, repenting and carrying the gospel to our enemies.

That doesn't mean we should do nothing to protect ourselves. But it means we must be careful not to become the evil creatures we imagine our enemies to be. Ultimately, we have no guarantee we will be spared the evils designed to be part of this life. What matters is how we respond to those evils, for the way we respond will in large part determine what we become.

Bruce Young

Associate Professor

English department