No, there is no “Breaking News” here. Wolf Blitzer hasn’t reported a new archaeological find just outside Jerusalem. No brain scan was just discovered. And there is no long-hidden-in-the-Vatican-archives suicide note from Judas Iscariot. It’s just that the events of last week got me to thinking about some of the most notorious villains of history. What psychological anomaly made them do it?
It now appears that the 27-year-old co-pilot of a German jetliner locked the plane’s captain out of the cockpit, programmed the A320’s descent, and crashed it into the French Alps at 400 mph.
As I sat down to write this essay, talking heads from France, Germany, and the United States were theorizing on TV about the event.
The critical questions seem to be these: How can we be sure this never happens again? What mental illness drove this man to so horrendous an act of suicide-murder? What combination of cameras and cockpit remotes can we design and install to guarantee future safety against such awful things?
Here are my best (and quite serious!) answers to those questions: We can’t be sure this will not happen again. While mental illness is real and sometimes can help to explain a person’s actions, we still need categories such as evil intent and willful harm (i.e., sin) in the human vocabulary.
And no combination of deterrents will keep people with evil intent from finding a way to get around them to carry out their malicious plans.
Please don’t misunderstand the point. Yes, we should create every sensible safeguard possible for airline safety, home security, and personal welfare. Yes, we should value and use the services of mental-health experts to help us deal with anxiety, depression, and rage. Yes, we must have employee screenings, surveillance systems, and company filters against troubled souls.
But what if our common human issue is simpler? What if we are fallen people in a fallen world who can be selfish and lustful, arrogant and angry, cruel and murderous?
For example, the pilot in question tore up a medical note calling him “unfit to work” and threw it away. Sounds like old-fashioned anger to me. It sure looks like the sort of nasty temper I’ve seen move people to lie about or hurt other people. Both bar fights and domestic violence leave people dead.
I’ll just bet Judas was bright, charismatic, and charming. The other apostles trusted him to be the group’s treasurer. That’s not the post a depressed and suspicious-acting person is given.
Then after his actions of betrayal and suicide – just as with the German pilot – his neighbors would all have been “shocked” that such a “normal” person as Judas had been “driven” to do such unthinkable acts!
All of us are capable of evil. No, all of us are guilty of evil! That’s why all of us need not only the Good News of forgiveness but also the Good News of life within a Spirit-filled community that allows healing and spiritual health.
“Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones” (Proverbs 3:7-8 NLT).