The need for a Savior

Will Smith, the actor, strikes a nerve:

Will Smith has stunned the world by declaring that even Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was essentially a "good" person.

The Men In Black star, 39, is determined to see the best in people, and is convinced the former German leader did not fully understand the extent of the pain and suffering his actions would cause during his time in power in the 1930s and '40s.

He says, "Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'Let me do the most evil thing I can do today'.

"I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good'. Stuff like that just needs reprogramming."

Unlike those who make a living gnashing their teeth at such talk, let me suggest he made a point; batted .500 if you will. For you see, I agree Hitler didn't consciously wake up every morning saying "what evil can I do today?" In his twisted soul, the creation of the Thousand Year Reich, the elimination of Jews and other 'undesirables' (his words, not mine) and whatever aggression was required to accomplish these ends weren't evil.

And yet, unlike Smith, I don't believe he was "basically a good man." That's humanism talking... the idea that "all people are good inside," and if we can just get social "programming" right all will be well. Quite the opposite--each one of us is warped by sin into a self-centered creature. This often prevents us from seeing what we want to achieve as 'evil,' even when it may be obvious others are going to get hurt in the process. If such self-delusion WEREN'T the normal human condition, abortion would be emotionally impossible, spouses would never cheat, and we would be honest in our dealings even with strangers.

And yet we aren't. It's easy for us to see the results of this in a life like Hitler's; far less so when the log is in our own eye. But it's there, and we can't see clearly enough to remove it ourselves. So we're left with a dilemma. We recognize, however dimly, the outlines of a moral code we find impossible to live by, even when we consciously try. We rationalize the problem by comparison: "I'm no Hitler." But our standing isn't based on a curve. Outside help and reconstruction is required.

So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:45-49

This Christmas, don't overlook the greatest gift... THE gift, beside which all others grow strangely dim.

***
UPDATE: Smith claims his statements were misrepresented.