Evil Empires & the Desire for Justice

 We are called to be the Church:

    to celebrate God’s presence,
    to live with respect in Creation,
    to love and serve others,
    to seek justice and resist evil,
    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
       our judge and our hope.

From A New Creed of the United Church of Canada, 1968

Some of us are old enough to remember President Ronald Reagan and the speech in which he referred from 1983 during which he referred to the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire. Over the course of 40 years what is now Russia was drawn back  into the fold of international relations only to be ostracized again because of its totalitarianism.

We could say that there are now multiple evil empires, including Iran, supposedly an Islamic theocracy which is using its proxies and agents to create havoc around the world. We heard recently that there had been an Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump and in the last few days about a credible threat on the life of Canadian Irwin Cotler. If Cotler's name is less familiar, he was a the Justice Minister and Attorney General in the federal Liberal government of the early 2000s. He was an eloquent defender of human rights around the globe and continues to be a critic of the Iranian regime. 

Now 84, Cotler is on the board of the Advancing Human Rights NGO and the international chair of the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He served as Canada’s first special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism from 2020 to 2023. 

Yesterday the House of Commons adopted a motion to condemn Iran’s alleged plot to assassinate former justice minister Irwin Cotler and affirm Canada’s steadfast support for the renowned champion of human rights.

 While Cotler was in the Liberal government I heard him give an eloquent speech on the subject of human rights (probably CBC Radio) that impressed me so much I contacted his office in the hope of getting a transcript. To my surprise, his parliamentary assistant told me that this was an extemporaneous address but he would see what he could do. Sometime later a package arrived in the mail -- remember snail mail? -- with a close approximation of his remarks and I may still have it somewhere...somewhere...somewhere. 

Cotler did not mention evil empires nor did he make reference to religion, He grew up in a Jewish family but I have no idea what his personal religious sensibilities might be. I'm glad that the Iranians were unsuccessful in their plot on his life and while he has been somewhat controversial in his staunch defense of Israel during the current conflict (he does support a two-state solution) we can admire who he has been and what he still represents in overcoming evil in our world. 

I would note that the United Church does acknowledge the reality of evil and our commitment to seek justice. And if you're curious, here are the "evil empire" remarks made by Reagan four decades ago to a group of evangelical Christians: 

Yes, let us pray for the salvation of all of those who live in that totalitarian darkness—pray they will discover the joy of knowing God. But until they do, let us be aware that while they preach the supremacy of the State, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world .... 

So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride—the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.