Monday, April 25, 2011

The Lord of the Flies and Schindler's List

In a few day my students will begin writing an essay on the nature of humanity.  They've been reading through William Golding's excellent "Lord of the Flies" in which he seeks to show through the total breakdown of the society of a couple of dozen boys stranded on a small island that the evil that mankind confronts comes from within.  We can't hide from it on a island because we brought it with us when we came there.  Despite the best efforts of some of the book's characters, a meltdown into violence and chaos follows...Last year I used the heart-wrenching true story contained in "Schindler's List" as a way to further the theme and allow my students to write about human nature.  After watching the unspeakable inhumanity of the Holocaust, is it possible to still see good in man?  Can the redemptive acts of Oskar Schindler and Itzhak Stern stand up against the casual evil of Amon Goeth and the countless "good Germans" who didn't give a second thought to the massacre of innocents in their midst?
This is no small question, and one that occupies the minds of many Christians as well.  The level of evil in our world should, at the least, give us pause and send us back to Scripture seeking answers.  With Easter just ending, we are all aware of the injustice and inhumanity displayed when Christ was crucified.  This is nothing new.  God was disgusted with humanity in the day of Noah.  We haven't changed much.  The absolute reality of evil requires us to throw ourselves on the mercy of God and trust wholly in the Blood of the Lamb to save us from ourselves. 
In the end, this is why the Love of God isn't enough.  {Sorry, but it's the truth.  Love alone fails, without Christ we would all be doomed despite God's unchangeable love for us}To simply say that God loves us and it'll be ok doesn't cut it.  God cannot have any part in the evil that engulfs our world.  Holiness and sin do NOT mix.  There is no remedy for our desperate situation apart from Christ.
What will my students write?  How many of them will choose to see the courage of Oskar and the crazy Hope of Itzhak as proof that there is hope in humanity?  How many will recoil at the evil of children murdered simply because they were Jewish and conclude that humanity is beyond hope?
Is humanity evil?  Yes, none of us are free of guilt.
Are we beyond hope?  On our own, yes.
Thanks be to God for the nail-pierced hands that gave us hope.

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