The classic saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing,” has been attributed to Edmund Burke, an 18th-century Irish British politician who was sympathetic to the American colonies. The fact that this grand proverb has been attributed to him all these years, yet has never been found in his many writings, may be a testament that when good people do finally do something, they might get more credit than they deserve.

Martin Luther King, Jr. used the saying to prompt the good people of this nation to get off their sofas and get out in the streets to promote justice for all Americans. Mohandas Gandhi used a variation of the saying to describe the inaction of India’s “good people,” whom he called a “curse of timid decency.” 

The truth of the phrase is that evil lives in a co-dependent environment. Evil cannot reign simply by the efforts of evil people. It must receive the apathetic permission of good people. The bully on the playground rules only as long as the observers remain silent and still. If that co-dependent relationship is broken evil tumbles with it.

This is why evil tries to isolate. We are much more likely to be silent in the face of injustice and evil when we feel alone. It works its power through self-doubt, fear, and loneliness. It tries to divide, separate, and create conflict. Community is the enemy of evil. Evil fears community, because community empowers individuals to act together.

Unfortunately, the laws of physics apply to community as well as objects in nature. An object at rest will remain at rest unless moved by force. Inertia in community is an aid to evil. For community to combat evil it must act, together. Otherwise, it will be plagued with the “curse of timid decency.”

When Christians are moved to repent from their sins, they often only name acts of selfishness and betrayal, but let us also confess the shame of our inaction, our sins of omission. The good deeds not done. The voice kept silent. The charity left in the wallet. The refusal to rock the boat. 

Confession and repentance, when shared in community can be the force that moves an object at rest, and the starting point of breaking evil’s co-dependence with good people.

~ Dr. Tim Moore