Evil and Human Nature

Sufjan Stevens has a song titled John Wayne Gacy Jr which is about the infamous serial killer. Gacy was convicted of raping and killing 33 young men, mostly teenage boys. The song is obviously disturbing considering the subject matter, but is made even more so by Sufjan’s last lines. The song ends:

And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid

In my last theology class my professor Dr Nienhuis played this song and then asked if we agreed with the last line, if we all are “really just like him”. Are we capable of doing what this man did? Are you capable of murder, rape, or torture?

Are you human?

I think if you believe you are a human being you must admit that you are capable of doing these things. We are human, and we are fallen. We are “really just like him”.

So what does that mean? Should we embrace this fallenness?
No. I think we should acknowledge it, recognize it’s existence and understand it’s power. However if we are made in the image of God then our fallen nature is not essential to our being. My professor also asked the questions, “Have we always sinned? Will we continue sinning?” If we are to believe that someday we will not sin, then some part of our being must be able to restored to it’s original nature, which was pure.

Created in God’s Image

Sometimes this is hard for me, because our fallenness seems so essential, so inescapable. But I think it can be helpful to realize that my sinfulness is not a core part of who I am. It is not how God originally meant me to be. Knowing that is freeing.

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