I’ve been thinking about evil. Hard not to sometimes if you’re reading the news. It seems to me there are different kinds of evil.

There’s the guy who knows he’s committing evil and either just doesn’t care or gets a thrill out of it. When caught, he giggles and says something like, “Yup. I’ve been thinking about killing someone for a long time now. So I did it.” You’ve read about these guys on the front page of newspapers. There’s a manhunt and people lock their doors at night. Usually there’s big headlines and it’s what everyone talks about and everyone shakes their heads and says stuff like “Can you believe…”

I think there’s some comfort in everybody shaking their heads at the same things.

You can say all you want about that kind of evil but at least you’re dealing with the same definitions. You’re looking at the same game board, just making different decisions.

There’s another kind of evil though. The kind that doesn’t get in the newspaper much -at least not labeled as such. It’s the kind of evil that doesn’t even acknowledge the terms good or evil.

That’s the kind that scares me. It’s abortion. It’s euthanasia. It’s embryo banks where people come for spare parts. It scares me because there’s not one name linked to it. There’s no manhunt. You can’t lock the doors because it’s already inside.

And I don’t see many people shaking their heads over these things.

And it’s all got me thinking -which is always dangerous – about whether it’s time or not. We’ve all seen the moment in movies. After the nameless Evil has come. It’s gone into the vents. It’s terrified the villagers. It’s killed half the cast. And the good guys are using everything they have on it but nothing’s working. All the lasers, bullets, or cannons have done little to slow the Abomination. In fact, the Abomination isn’t even limping. And now it’s coming at our hero. So what now?

It comes down to that. Do you throw the gun or just run?

I feel sometimes that maybe throwing the gun is all one man can do. Maybe that’s what blogging is. It’s the last resort. It’s throwing the gun. I’ve been throwing the gun so long at the same Abominations that the idea of running sometimes seems appealing. Even logical. I mean, at some point isn’t it smart just to pull up stakes? Give up the fight. Cut bait. Go Amish. Find your hidey-hole and live your life.

At some point just focusing on my family, my friends, and the little piece of the world around me seems appealing. And just stop fretting about the rest of the country all eagerly climbing into the handbasket. Maybe, just forget the public schools. The universities. The culture. The often quoted ethicists without ethics. The scientists. The celebrities. Maybe forget them all and just worry about what I’ve got right here.

I’m not there yet. But the idea comes into my head more often than it used to. And probably more often than it should.

Maybe I’m not talking much sense. It’s late. I didn’t mean to even write about this. But you read these stories about abortions, baby banks, and euthanasia and let’s face it, the bad guys are winning. The Abomination ain’t even limping. And nobody’s shaking their head.