The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

“Time has taught me well and I can tell you

The good things people do

They really care and I’ve been there

Seen it with my eyes

You can tell that they’re God’s people

By the goodness in their lives.” Good People by Audio Adrenaline

In one of my college courses we watched the old black and white version of Twelve Angry Men with Henry Fonda. The jury had just convened into a room and were about to decide the fate of a young man who had allegedly killed a man with a knife. The jury had to reach a unanimous vote to convict him. Everyone was ready to go home. Ready to get this over with…to see their family…to do something more important. The votes were cast and Henry Fonda was the last holdout. He had serious doubts. Reasonable doubts. And that’s all it takes. Finally he convinces almost all the jurors of the reasonable doubt, and the vote that was originally 11 for conviction turned into 12 who voted for acquittal. It was a good movie and it taught me a lot about human nature and also about leadership.

The movie got me thinking about whether man is inherently good or evil. It is an important question and not exactly an easy one to answer. All the evidence points to evil. The atrocities of Adolf Hitler. War. Corruption and chaos in governments. Death and mass murder conducted by terrorists. It’s unanimous...a slam dunk conviction. But before the jury votes, we must consider the evidence. First, I want you to consider this quote:
"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death." ~Anne Frank

Anne was about to be captured and killed by the Nazis and we have her diaries that tell the story. How could someone experience these atrocities and see people killed and tortured and still believe in the goodness of mankind? Was she simply young and naïve? First, I want to say that, as a Christian, I believe in the concept of original sin and the verses that tell us that there are “none righteous, no not one.” And I do believe that idea and supposition. However, I believe there is more to the story. Just as man is capable of atrocious acts of evil, he is also capable of amazing acts of goodness. What a contradiction we are. Left to our own devices, we usually chose the path of least resistance and the choice of sin. But, as the song I mentioned by Audio Adrenaline talks about, there are so many good people in this world. And, like Anne Frank, I have to believe that there is some goodness in everyone. I will agree that it is hard to find and it has dissolved away in some individuals by a lifetime of anger, abuse and bad choices. Maybe like Anne, I am naïve and I only see the good in people, which could be a character flaw and cost me my life one day while trying to find the “good” in a mugger with a gun.

I guess, in the end maybe we are asking the wrong question. Maybe we need to ask: Are humans capable of great goodness? And for that question, I think the answer is a resounding Yes! If the answer to that question is “Yes”, then there may be hope for mankind after all. We must never stop believing in the potential for people to make good choices.

I end with a quote from one of our generation’s greatest theologians: Mr. Rogers.

“Sometimes people are good, and they do just what they should. But the very same people who are good sometimes are the very same people who are bad sometimes. It's funny but it's true.”