I think the essentially reformist, everything-is-fixable nature of American culture makes us uneasy with the idea that anyone is beyond redemption. Sure, the faithful speak about evil and evildoers on Sundays, but in a nation that prides itself on second chances, there is a reluctance to write people off completely.
When the modern penitentiary was invented in the early 19th century, its creators envisioned it less as a place of punishment than of reformation. It's imposing architecture and regimentation were designed to teach discipline to victims of social disorder. Even now, in the era of three-strikes laws, some of us still hang on to the pretense that prison is about reform.
In this majority Christian nation, the notion of forgiveness as much as the reality of evil looms large. And while the Puritans and many fundamentalists have seen the devil everywhere, there is also a moral imperative in the New Testament not to judge.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." In Matthew, he says, "Do not judge, lest you be judged by others."
And let's not forget the ever-present struggle between moral judgment and democratic pluralism. The acceptance of pluralism is itself an implicit acknowledgment that differing moral persuasions can exist within one nation. This doesn't mean that we don't collectively decide and legislate what actions lie beyond the pale. One of the essential roles of government and civil society is to determine the boundaries of decency and indecency, moral and immoral, accepted and unacceptable. But it makes sense that in a society predicated on the idea of tolerance, evil is an accusation that is sparingly used.
I admire our collective reluctance to use the term, although I'm not sure that it doesn't sometimes make us less capable of dealing with evil head on. Alden Pyle, the well-meaning, dangerously naive protagonist in Graham Greene's "The Quiet American," comes to mind. So when somebody such as Judge Chen blurts out the word to describe a man who thrived for years on victimizing others, I not only think he called a spade a spade, he may have helped us identify the next bad guy who'll try to prey on us down the line.
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grodriguez@latimescolumnists.com
