My argument is that we should reject the belief that Man can discern good from evil, at least in others. We can't even fathom the complex interactions of good and evil within ourselves, much less anybody else.
I knew at 37 years old that I was a good person because I could feel the love I had for my wife and my precious children. The last thing I would want was to become enraged and hurt my kids. But I didn't have a dad in my life and I didn't know how to be a dad. I didn't know how to deal with the frustration, and I certainly did not know how to deal with anger. I was never an angry kid! Yet I could look back and see the many signs, plain as day, that I ignored along the way, telling me that I had an anger problem, years before I even had any kids. Sure my dad wasn't there but I wasn't physically abused. I was evil. What else could explain how I allowed myself to hurt my precious children...so many times.
So I'd heard the denouncement of "judging" others throughout my life, and at that time even not being a Christian I agreed with it. I loved my mom and my dad even though they weren't perfect. I still loved my wife and my kids even though they weren't perfect and my wife left me. I could make excuses for them just as I could make excuses for myself. I certainly didn't see them as evil. The only good and evil I truly "knew" was the forces I perceived juxtaposed within myself. I ignored that evil over and over until it had such a hold on me that I couldn't ignore it anymore, until I realized that I am the enemy. Then naturally I want nothing more than my own destruction, to escape the "eternal" (at least, intolerably long) suffering.
But then in that darkness, there was a light. I loved my wife. I loved my kids. I knew they needed me. I wanted my wife and my kids to forgive me and come back to me and I would say of one stepdaughter that hate is a burden that she needs to let go. I was both good and evil, but I could change and I deserved forgiveness so of whom else was that true? Was it true of everybody?
I had already started thinking about God in a different way thanks to this book called Thank God for Evolution. Then just by dumb luck I found myself at the Wenatchee Lighthouse listening to this wacko talk about faith healing and crazy shit, but he also spoke of Grace. I continued to listen and learn more about Grace, and before long he (and the few examples of "Good Christians" I had seen over the years) were standing around me as I asked Jesus into my life. Having been so depraved as to scare myself into questioning my most basic assumptions, I realized that God had worked His Grace in my life.
In my enthusiasm I was quick to accept a lot of doctrine at face value, but I've backed off quite a bit from most of that since then. I became a Christian only later to largely reject that label without disclaimers because I feel it's been twisted into something demonic (so to speak) and ugly and not about Grace at all. I still think there is a truer meaning of the word that I can embrace, but I need the disclaimer so people know what I mean when I call myself that. I prefer to call myself a "Jesus Enthusiast" because I can say that without any disclaimer.
At 42 I believe there are those who embrace life through trust, forgiveness, and at least aspire to Jesus-like unconditional love, and there are those who embrace destruction. But we all need grace. We are all depraved, and we are all unworthy, but redemption is available to all. We need forgiveness extended to us, and by the Golden Rule we all need to extend it even to our enemy. Thank God. We all embody good and evil in our own way. Some are more deceived than others, but there are no good people, and there are no bad people. There are just people.
