One of the struggles I often face in thinking about the battle between good and evil is how to understand human depravity. It’s clear from scripture that all humans have the capability for great evil because of our fallen nature. "Utterly depraved" is the term used in theological conversations to describe this reality. If you’re less theologically inclined, just take a look at the invention and extensive use of torture throughout all ages of human history. We are capable of grievous cruelty, even in this time. Most of us choose not to actively partake in evil barbarity. But many do. In observing the evils of the abortionist, serial murderer, rapist, child sex traffickers, and their colleagues in darkness, my mind tries to process how someone can commit such acts and remain fully human. How can someone cheer evil, as so many did in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and retain the soul intact? With that as recent experience we all observed at national scale, there should no longer be any rhetorical drill capable of taking me by surprise. But Mississippi Congressman Bennie G. Thompson managed to do just that days ago.
In a congressional hearing with Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Thompson called the premeditated, terrorist attack on National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. — in which U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom was murdered — an “unfortunate accident.” When corrected by Noem, Thompson doubled down that the ambush, attack, and murder amounted to an “unfortunate situation.” Following a short-lived uproar, Thompson back peddled on CNN, telling Kate Bolduan that he misspoke. Yet to my knowledge, Thompson has yet to clarify just what kind of event he believes the shooting to have been. Does he think it homicide, terrorism, gun violence, Jihad? We don’t know. Based on events since — and the reaction to them from much of his party — it’s not unrealistic to theorize Thompson might consider it something akin to phase 1.
Last week one of my daughters knocked over a vase, and it broke. That was an unfortunate accident, perhaps an unfortunate situation. That glass item fell victim to a stray knock of the arm while the counter upon which it sat was being cleaned. My truck has a small dent in one of its doors, the result of an accident inflicted by a friend years ago. Accidents happen every day, but not at the end of a loaded gun held by someone charging at another person. When one of my sergeants returned to base in a medevac chopper when we were deployed to Afghanistan in 2012, it was not because of an "accident." A later complex attack on our base that killed three, wounded many more, and inflicted tremendous damage was more than an “unfortunate accident.” Not one of the fallen soldiers whose remains rolled past us to be loaded on the first of final flights home from that war-torn region experienced an "unfortunate situation." They suffered the harshest reality of war.
READ MORE: Noem, Ogles Go Off on Bennie Thompson for Minimizing National Guard Shooting: ‘Effin Disrespectful!’
Thompson’s cold-blooded statement reflects a partisan alignment so demanding that it strips the most basic of humanity from one’s core. I have no idea if it was an absence of the slightest human sympathy that drove him to national politics, or if shedding the attributes associated with redeemable soul is a consequence of ambition. But what I do know is something of human dignity left Thompson’s heart at some point during the man’s journey to power. Though born as fallen beings, we are not imbued in the womb with such automatic treason of heart toward fellow human beings who suffer violence.
When Democrat congresswoman Gabbie Giffords was shot in 2011, my reaction was one of shock, dismay, and horror. She’s the polar opposite of me on probably every salient moral issue. That did not change her humanity. I prayed for Giffords’ recovery and am glad she made it through what risked being fatal injuries. Two words I never said, nor heard from others to describe that shooting: “unfortunate accident.” Whether one has sympathy for fellow human beings subjected to murderous violence should not depend on the victim’s party affiliation. For those who live an opposing ethics, the dark deities they serve are clear to see.
I know that we all have souls. Some are darkened, a consequence of continued antipathy toward God and the basic goods He provides even to pagans through common grace. But when I look at men like Representative Thompson, I cannot help but think along the lines of "Now there is a man who has shed his soul." No one can actually do that, as the soul is the real part of us that lives eternally. But we can choose a way of living, thinking, being, and doing that cuts the strings of grace which hold us from descending to the worst of human character. Thompson outs himself among such company, and should serve as a cautionary tale, a warning buoy in the water that we stay far from in our life journeys.
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