The Better Letter: Desperately Wicked
A change in plan.
I had what I thought was a pretty good piece all mapped out for this week’s TBL.
I scrapped it.
A spate of new reporting on or new cases of toxic and abusive behavior, most often sexual – in matters of religion (here, too), athletics (here, too), charity, medicine, music (here and here, too), commerce, entertainment, fashion, politics (here and here, too), and no doubt more – accumulated to a degree that I had to write about them. So, this (Thursday) evening I threw out what I had spent all week thinking about to address this ongoing and horrible nest of evil.
In Act 4, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, one of the witches exclaims the following.
“By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.”
Enter Macbeth.
And enter Harvey Weinstein. And Larry Nassar. And Jeffrey Epstein. And Theodore McCarrick. And Scott Rudin. And Iggy Pop.
And…and…and.
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Thank you for reading.
Desperately Wicked
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” the prophet said, and all we have to do is look around a bit to see that he was spot on.
That is why Reinhold Niebuhr, Billy Graham, Paul Tillich, and G.K. Chesterton, who otherwise had nothing in common, could all acknowledge the empirical reality of sin.
“There is none righteous, no, not one,” the apostle tells us.
That is not to say that all humanity is as depraved as possible. Calvin never taught that. The “total” in total depravity refers to the scope, not the depth, of the problem of sin. The doctrine affirms that every part of us is subject to sin’s corrupting influence.
There is always more than enough evil to go around.
We are all broken – every last, lost one of us – and wildly prone to screw things up royally. W. H. Auden got it right.
“O stand, stand at the window | As the tears scald and start; | You shall love your crooked neighbour | With your crooked heart.”
The key conceit of The Great Divorce, a novel by C.S. Lewis, is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. The damned could escape to Glory but cannot concede that they are wrong.
As ever, it’s easy to see the sin in others, and especially in those on some “other side,” but profoundly difficult to see it in ourselves. We can be counted upon to find ways to deny, minimize, redefine, or excuse our sinfulness.
The sorts of sins I outlined up top – toxic and abusive behavior, most often sexual – are no different.
The problem, of course, is how to avoid them.
The problem, as ever, is in ourselves.
These sins tend to come with a predominant theme. They can happen otherwise, of course, but most often they involve a powerful man taking advantage of someone who is deeply dependent or reliant upon him. The sinner abuses his authority and his victim to take what he wants. He relies on his status to avoid accountability.
Most abuse stories seem to involve strong leaders with few, if any, checks on their control. Regular independent oversight and a strong, respected accountability partner can help to make sure you’re doing as well as you think you are. A good spouse can be especially helpful here.
Most fundamentally, avoiding these kinds of behaviors begins with a commitment not to “go there” and building in some accountability structures and mechanisms to see that you honor it. The right leadership mindset also helps immensely.
Bad leaders see their subordinates as instruments of service to them. Good leaders seek to serve and look for ways to enhance the lives of those whom they lead. The gospels make that clear.
“So Jesus got [his disciples] together to settle things down. He said, ‘You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served — and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.’”
We all can be and sometimes are desperately wicked. We’re cracked – broken. Instead of leading to pain, abuse, and loss, may that be how the light gets in.
“I can’t run no more | With that lawless crowd | While the killers in high places | Say their prayers out loud | But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up | A thundercloud | They're going to hear from me.
“Ring the bells that still can ring | Forget your perfect offering | There is a crack, a crack in everything | That’s how the light gets in.”
Totally Worth It
It was 45-years ago this week that Stevie Wonder released his 18th album — “Songs in the Key of Life.” It may be the perfect concept album and one of the last authentic R&B albums of that generation. What a great musical accomplishment it was and remains. Paul Simon said this the year *before* SitKoL.
“So make sure when you say you're in it but not of it | You're not helping to make this earth a place sometimes called Hell | Change your words into truths and then change that truth into love | And maybe our children's grandchildren | And their great-great grandchildren will tell.”
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This is the best thing I saw or read this week (it’s horrific). The most powerful. The most important. The most ironic. The most insightful. The shadiest. The most significant. The most worrisome. The sweetest. The most unexpected. The biggest upset. The craziest. The most racist. The most absurd. The most remarkable. The most disgusting. The funniest. The best commercial. The best correction. The best sentence. Disrupting science. This can’t be good. Okay. Goat v. Grizzly. A literal Sodom? Quite the quote: “I’m happy being in the middle. Not all porn, and not all church.”
The most persuasive arguments are the ones we want to be true.
Sometimes the crazy is absurd beyond belief.
Thankfully, the crazy can be eclipsed by the lovely,…
…the delightful,…
…and the sublime.
Please send me your nominees for this space to rpseawright [at] gmail [dot] com or via Twitter (@rpseawright).
Benediction
To those of us prone to wander, to those who are broken, to those who flee and fight in fear – which is every last lost one of us – there is a faith that offers hope. And may love have the last word. Now and forever. Amen.
Thanks for reading.
Issue 82 (October 1, 2021)