Indifference to evil

 from Essay "God Demands Justice" 

Abraham Joshua Heschel

There is an evil which most

of us condone and are even

guilty of: indifference to evil.

We remain neutral, impartial,

and not easily moved by the

wrongs done unto other people.

Indifference to evil is more

insidious than evil itself;

it is more universal, more

contagious, more dangerous.

A silent justification, it makes

possible an evil erupting as an 

exception becoming the rule and 

being in turn accepted.  The prophets'

great contribution to humanity was the

discovery of the evil of indifference.

One may be decent and sinister, pious

and sinful.  The prophet is a person

who suffers the harms done to others.  

Wherever a crime is committed, it is

as if the prophet were the victim

and the prey.  The prophet's angry

words cry.  The wrath of God is

a lamentation.  All prophecy is one

great exclamation: God is not

indifferent to evil!  He is always

concerned.  He is personally

affected by what man does to man.

He is a God of pathos!