Original one-act
play by Sr. High Class under direction of John Lutterbie
presented on October 27, 2002
The setting is a
Sr. High RE class. Gil is the Sr. High Leader Various students are
responding.
(Students
in the class are sharing)
Dan: I have a rebuttal. I heard we were going to have
a pop quiz in AP American. I almost pulled the fire alarm.
1: You were going to what? Don't you know that's a
felony? That's pure evil.
2. That's not evil. You think that's evil, you don't
have my fifth period teacher.
3. Dog, you think you know but you have no idea. No
one does.
4. What about the twin towers. That was evil.
5. Evil? Evil for who? (people start arguing)
Gil: I think we've all had a chance to share. Now can
we start talking about Servetus?
6. Duh. Really, Gil. We are talking about Servetus!
7. Yeah, like, didn't he have that thing with, like,
evil? and, like, good?
Gil: That's an interesting. ..
8. Hold on, Gil. We've got something going here.
9. Who's Servetus?
10. Servetus. Don't you remember? We did a play about
him last year.
11. Yeah, he was burned at the stake because ofhis
views on good and evil.
12. He saw God in everything. So he thought that
there is no such thing as evil.
13. Yeah, unless God is evil.
14. No, God is good, it's people who are evil!
15. What is evil? It's different for everybody.
16. Do you even know what evil is?
17. It's cow tipping, and gnoming.
Gil: Let's get serious.
18. I am serious!
19. What about the Oklahoma bombing?
20. Or homicide?
21. Child abuse?
22. Genocide?
23. But what makes those things evil? (pause) 24.
Doing harm to another is evil.
25. Like look at Hitler -what he did was evil.
26. But he thought he was doing the right thing. He
had a belief and he acted on it.
27. No he didn't. He was just crazy .
28. [someone who hasn't been saying anything] It
doesn't matter if he was crazy or what he believed. He was simply under
the control of evil.
29. You mean you think evil is an actual thing?
30. [same person as 28] I mean that evil is a force,
the dark angel, the devil, whatever
you want to call it. That some people are infected by
evil. It's everywhere and you
have to be on the look out so that you don't fall
victim to evil. It doesn't matter what Hitler believed or ifhe was
crazy. Genocide is evil and he chose to exterminate anyone who was
Jewish or gay. ..
31. You mean evil is like a virus?
32. [same person as 28] I guess. Maybe it's genetic.
Maybe some people are just born evil.
33. Does that mean Hitler's parents were evil?
34. [same as 28] I don't know. Maybe it's a mutation
that happens in some people's DNA. Maybe it's not inherited.
35. Yeah, you have a point. Hitler went to school
with people who didn't do evil things. So it can't be something learned.
So how do you account for it?
36. It's not the individual person who is evil but
someone who is captivated by evil.
37. Yeah, like Darth Vadar and the dark side of the
force.
38. But he wasn't all evil. He became good in the
end.
39. So maybe nobody's completely evil. They just make
evil choices.
40. Okay, but why do people make evil choices?
41. Different things. Money. Power.
42. They think they are doing good.
43. Maybe they think everyone else is evil and they
are the only ones doing good.
44. Yeah, maybe its being afraid of other people who
are different and don't believe what you do. Maybe we call them evil, so
we think what we do is right even when it's evil.
45. Hunh?
46. You are different from me, I don't know, maybe
you like Jennifer Lopez and I think anyone who likes her is evil, so I
kill you.
47. Hey, I don't even like .Jennifer Lopez.
48. I think I see what you're getting at. We justify
actions that are really evil because we think someone else is out to
hurt us.
49. That goes against UU principles: the inherent
worth and dignity of every human being.
50. So maybe Servetus was right and it is a choice.
Maybe we can choose to call someone evil or we can try to see his or her
inherent worth.
Gil: I think that's all the time we have for today.
This has been an interesting discussion. It's time to extinguish the
chalice. Who wants to read the closing words? I think it fits in today.
51. I do.
Never does hatred
cease by hating in return;
Only
through love can hatred come to an end.
Victory breeds
hatred;
The
conquered dwell in sorrow and resentment.
They who give up all
thought of victory or defeat,
May
be calm and live happily at peace
Let us overcome
violence by gentleness;
Let
us overcome evil by good;
Let us overcome the
miserly by liberality;
Let
us overcome the liar by truth.
Dhammapada
Bhuddism
