Evil is like a hole in your sock

Another gem from Day 3 at the Doxology event I recently attended... 

Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidt discussed Augustine's belief that "no one is evil by nature"... because we are created by a God who is supremely good, and we are created in God's image. (He also noted Thomas Aquinas' theory of a 'bent toward self preservation').

If we are evil (or do evil), it is by vice. Evil is the absence, loss, or corruption of good. Or, as Fritz suggests, it is "like the hole in your sock."

Therefore, evil cannot be mended by eradication. You can't remove a hole in your sock... it can only be healed, by making it whole again. Which is where love comes in.

He went on... 'no one is so bad that they cannot become good, and no one is so good that they cannot do bad things.' 

Fritz used the real-life events that led to the book (and movie) Dead Man Walking as an example. Particularly how the father of the murder victim was able to say he forgave the killer.

I wish I'd taken better notes here, because it was a very moving talk.