Less Bad is Still Bad

Desiderius Erasmus is famous for being Martin Luther's target in The Bondage of the Will, a discussion regarding our ability – or lack thereof - to recognize and practice good while resisting evil. He is also famous for a quote he included in another 16th-century book, "Adagiorum Chiliades," published in 1509. That quote is, "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."

An otherwise anonymous writer, under the username "ltauber," posted about this quote in the USC Folklore Digital Archives:

"It means that if everything is bad, and one thing is less bad, then it's automatically the best. It plays on the idea of 'best' being a relative term. So literally speaking, someone who has sight in one eye can see more than someone who is blind. Therefore, he's the best. He rules. In life, if you're better than people at something, even if you're not even good at it, you'll be the best. It's winning by default. If you were playing a game and the other team forfeited, your team won just because it didn't quit. You didn't do anything, but you still did more than the other kids."

My informant is my mother, who grew up hearing this phrase and doesn't remember learning it. When I asked her if she knew the saying's origin, she said "it must've come somewhere with a king, so it's probably European." She likes the saying because it puts things in perspective: "Once you enter the real world, nothing is perfect. A lot of life is just getting things done the best you can. It's not like in school where there are grades. Many times, the things that are best aren't even very good. That can be very comforting or very concerning, depending on your belief system. I think it's kind of beautiful."

The author would go on to say that this statement is rooted in Genesis (actually, it is from a midrash (or interpretation) on Genesis, the B'reshith Rabba, or "Genesis Rabbah") and that this gave the statement a more gracious meaning: "Biblically, it means that we are all human, and we shouldn't be so hard on each other." 

I won't support or debate the author's understanding of the meaning of this phrase as originally intended by Erasmus. Instead, I mention it to illustrate a weakness we have in dealing honestly, objectively, and above all, biblically, with sin. 

Today, when we look at the world and its problems, it seems that our first point of reference tends to be how such problems make us feel. The situation under consideration might make us sad, frustrated, or angry. We might want to "do something about it," whether to eradicate the offending situation or punish the person[s] responsible, or we might try to become "comfortably numb" to it because it is just one of the myriad of problems in the world, and we have enough mess on our plates to deal with.

What we do much less of, even in Christian circles, is recognize just how pervasive sin is, such that it has thoroughly corrupted us, warped our perception of reality, and binds us in a hostile position relative to God's will, as expressed in his law and commandments. Paul's treatment in Romans 7 explores this with such rigor that we prefer to pass over the chapter, in many cases relegating to a debate on what period of Paul's life is being illustrated: is it from his life as a Pharisee, or is it his experience of struggling against sin as a Christian?

Sometimes, we even ask why God allows sin - and the suffering it incurs - to continue to take place. There is even a fancy word for such speculation - theodicy. David Hume, 18th Century Scottish historian and philosopher, argued that evil is evidence against the theological understanding of God being all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing:

The logical problem of evil, as articulated by Hume and his followers, runs as follows: (1) given the biblical God's all-good and all-powerful nature, God could not know and care that there is evil in the world yet at the same time fail to act powerfully in order to stop it coming about. Yet, (2) there is evil in the world, (3) therefore an all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing God cannot exist (Lexham Survey of Theology, The Problem of Evil).

Of course, Hume's reasoning flounders upon the insufficiency of human reasoning. We cannot understand God apart from what he reveals, nor are we in any objective capacity to fully judge the truthfulness or coherence of what he declares concerning himself. When we seek to be "God's counselor" or hold God accountable for the world in its current state, we do so from the bias of enmity. Paul writes in Romans 1:21–23, "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." 

According to God's revelation in Genesis, we were made in God's image and likeness, but then we sinned against God, and the Imago Dei in humanity became corrupted, twisted, and even dead (Eph. 2:1). Because of this, we are able to recognize, to an extent, evil, and even, on a civic level, be good. We cannot eradicate evil, however, because, in Adam, we became enslaved to it. The Bondage of the Will, written by Dr. Luther in 1525 and addressed to the same Erasmus whose quote is cited at the beginning, argue that the notion that we are a tabula rasa, as was once claimed by modern psychologists and educators, bears no evidentiary support from either research or personal experience. It maintains its currency only because it stands against God's revelation that we have, as Adam's descendants, inherited his decision to disbelieve God and follow his wife in the seduction by the Serpent to disobey the Command in the Garden.

Because we share this corrupted nature, "the one-eyed man," while thinking himself to be better off than those around him who are blind in both eyes, is actually no better off at all. They have adapted to the darkness, and he foolishly believes being only half-blind means he sees everything clearly. He isn't better than the blind; he just thinks he is. In fact, his half-blindness may blind him to the reality of his need much more than the full blindness of those around him.

The only solution that God offers to the problem of evil is outside of ourselves. This solution promises to eradicate both the impact and power of evil from all of creation, with our primary role being that of passive recipients of God's gracious redemptive act and witnesses of his loving deliverance. This is why the gospel is "the power of God unto salvation - for all who believe," while it is foolishness to those who seek to find their own solution, whether by morals or by philosophy, as it is written: "But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (Gal. 3:22).

That promise – that God would make us into his sons and daughters by uniting us to his unique son, Jesus Christ, reconciling us to himself – lies at the heart of the exceeding abundance of his grace towards us. The Bible is the Book of books because it tells the truth of that grace from Genesis to Revelation as it reveals our need for God, and how he meets that need in all times and places, to the praise of his glorious grace, to the glory of God alone.