By Karen MacNutt,
Contributing Editor

God is great. God is good. God is all powerful. So why does evil exist?

"Why?" That was the one word headline of the Army Times on November 16, 2009 in the wake of the slaughter of unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood by one of their own, Maj. Nidal Hasan, US Army. Why would a United States citizen by birth, a commissioned officer in the United States Army, kill his fellow soldiers?

Some say he was despondent about having to fight "his own kind" in Afghanistan. Excuse me, but we have a lot of Moslem allies in Afghanistan. General Eisenhower, of German extraction, led the American Armies to their victory over Hitler's Germany. Japanese-Americans and Italian-Americans fought for their country, the United States, during World War II against the nations of their forefathers. Being a soldier means that all other soldiers are your "own kind." Being an American means being an American first, even if you just became a naturalized citizen. Being an American is a state of mind, not ethnicity.

In his mind, in his heart, Hasan was not an American. He was, and is, evil. He embraced the dark side of religion. He was a blasphemer. No pious person of any religion could, in good conscious, say otherwise. Other American Muslim soldiers have denounced his actions.

The world today is engaged in a battle between the light of reason and the evil of false teachers. Armies alone cannot conquer the corruption of the mind. Rather good people of all religions must recognize evil and confront false teachers. There is an old, but true, saying that all that is needed for evil to exist is for good men and women to do nothing.

For my parents' generation, the evil empire was state socialism. It called for the destruction of the individual spirit in the name of the collective. In my generation, it was the atheism of Communism. It also denied the beauty of God's creation of man's individuality. In both instances the affirmation that God created all men and women equal and gave them basic rights, prevailed.

Philosophers have reasoned that evil exists because God wants mankind to have free will. God wants people to have the ability to choose. In God's great plan of things, each of us is given free will so that we can show our love of God. I do not profess to be an expert on religion. I know one thing, however. If God is all powerful, he does not need mortal man to do his work. He can punish and reward directly.

Think of it this way. There are three women. Each walks down the same street. The first woman is a politician. She has cameramen and newspaper reporters trotting behind her. She stops in front of a beggar and gives the man a hundred dollars. She then poses for a "photo op" before continuing along her way. The second woman is walking all by herself when a man steps out of an alley with a knife and says, "Give me all your money." The second woman gives the man the $150 that was in her pocket. The third woman is also walking down the street by herself when she sees a collection box for the local food pantry. She reaches in her pocket and finds two ten dollar bills. She puts one in the box and walks on without looking for any recognition. Which of the three has shown love to another?

The first woman wanted public praise. Hers was not an act of love for another. What she did was for herself. The second woman gave more money that the first. Hers was an act of fear and compulsion, not of love. The third woman gave freely, without thought of reward or fear of retribution. Hers was an act of love.

If someone forces you, under threat of physical harm, to embrace a religion, they are denying you the free will that God intended for you to have. Your embracing that religion is meaningless. If you make a big show of your religion because you expect a big reward, you are not showing love for God, you are showing love for yourself.
When Nidal Hasan gunned down unarmed fellow soldiers, it was with the thought he would be rewarded in the hereafter. His was not an act of love for God. He wanted a reward for what he did. His was a selfish act.

Hasan's life has been one of self-centeredness. He violated at least two oaths that he took to God: one as a doctor not to hurt people; and, one as a soldier to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. No one forced Hasan to take those oaths. He took them because he saw profit in it for himself. By being a doctor, he would earn lots of money. By being a soldier, the Army would help him become a doctor. Others kept their end of the bargain, but Hasan put no value in his oath.

Hasan swore falsely for his own profit. His false swearing was an act of blasphemy. His was a selfish and dishonest act. He attacked those who were unarmed. That was an act of cowardice. He betrayed a trust. That was the act of a traitor. What he did was pure evil.

Those he killed, were killed for their religious beliefs. They were the martyrs. Those who go out of their way to get themselves killed in the name of religion, are not martyrs. They have aggressively destroyed God's creations. That was not for them to do. If God wants to take a life, he can do so in the middle of the night. The God of Abraham, the God of Moses, Christ (or if you are not Christian, the God Christ serves), and the God of Muhammad is all the same being. From the time He told Abraham not to offer up his, Abraham's, son as a sacrificial offering, God has not approved of killing humans as a way to please God.

The siren call of evil has always been, "Do this little bit of bad because it will lead to a greater good." Nothing good ever comes from doing bad. Whether it is killing someone in the name of God, or taking someone's civil rights away in the name of the "common good," it is still wrong. It always creates a greater evil.

We are all God's children, whether we are bad or good. The love of God at Fort Hood was not displayed by Hasan. It was displayed by the two security guards who rushed forward to protect others even, if need be, at the sacrifice of their own lives. Theirs was the gift of love.

Pacifism has always been a strong undercurrent in the United States. There is much to be said for a philosophy of "live and let live." Evil, however, does exist. If good people do not stand against evil, evil will win. Pacifism in the face of evil becomes evil's enabler. Good people must not only speak out, but must also, if necessary, be willing to defend against evil with force.

Fort Hood should have been a safe haven from the evil that possessed Hasan. Not everyone can get onto a military post. There are armed guards and metal detectors at the gates. The civilian rules of search and seizure do not apply. Your vehicle can almost be searched at random. Privacy on a military post is very narrow.

Not everyone can become a soldier. There are tests and background checks. Most of the things that would disqualify a civilian from owning a gun would disqualify a person from being a soldier. To be an officer, however, requires even more background and security checks. Hasan at least had a "Secret" security clearance. He held significant rank. Not every officer reaches the rank of Major. Being an officer is very competitive. Hasan was evaluated at least once a year.

Although Hasan could buy a gun off post, he could not legally carry it on post. The possession of privately owned guns is highly restricted on military facilities. Guns are only allowed in those areas designated for hunting during hunting season. Other than that, guns must be kept in a government controlled arms room. To that extent, the gated communities known as military posts are "gun free" zones.

Although Fort Hood was filled with soldiers trained to use weapons and to respond to emergencies, the training was useless without the right to have a gun for self defense. Like schools and other "gun free" zones, our soldiers on stateside military posts are vulnerable to individuals who desired to do evil in the name of good.
Hasan had two guns, a 9mm semi-auto and a .357 revolver. In ten minutes he killed 13 and wounded 30 soldiers. He had to reload several times. Many of his victims had multiple gunshot wounds. The emergency calls went out right away. The victim soldiers knew what to do. The civilian security guards and MPs responded right away. The first responders arrived within three minutes of receiving the call. Unlike civilian law enforcement which allows mass murderers to continue killing while they assemble a SWAT Team, the civilian security guards at Fort Hood immediately sought out and engaged Hasan thereby immediately bringing his reign of terror to an end. Early evidence indicates that Hasan wanted to die. That is, this was a suicide attack which could only be stopped by incapacitating Hasan.

It is no surprise that mass murderers, whatever their reason, seek out the helpless to attack. Hasan did not go down to the rifle range to shoot at the soldiers on the firing line who could have shot back. He went to a medical station where people did not have guns.

Being disarmed does not promote peace. It enables evil.

Within the military community there has been a call for the army to re-evaluate its policy of prohibiting soldiers from carrying privately owned firearms on post. "You're safer in a Wal-Mart," said one soldier to the Army Times, "because some people are probably carrying a concealed weapon . . . [on post] we've regulated ourselves into the softest of soft targets."

Fort Hood is filled with good people. The stories of unarmed soldiers going to help wounded fellow soldiers in the face of Hasan's cowardly attack is a testament to that. Their frustration at being trained to arms but then being denied the ability to protect themselves, is understandable.

Evil exists. We should not discount it as being an aberration. Fort Hood is a graphic example of why, if good is to prevail, people need the means to stand up to evil. Ft. Hood is a graphic example of why passing laws that require all guns to be kept under lock and key except for on-duty police and military, can kill good people.