The Banality of Indifference

How is it possible that civilized people could do such things to other civilized people? That question plagued the minds of many in the west as the reality of the Holocaust became known and the extent of the evil perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews and other minorities of Europe became clear. How is it possible?


In her dispatches about the trial and conviction of Adolph Eichmann, Hannah Arendt pointed to the “banality of evil” to explain how the Holocaust could have happened. Such brutality of humanity against humanity comes from the normalization of what once was taboo. What other explanation can there be for the fact that ordinary every day Germans could so calmly stand by as their neighbors and friends were systematically exterminated from the face of the earth.

Over the years, the phrase Arendt made so familiar has been over used to the point that there is almost a banality to the banality of evil. Still, Arendt’s thesis has something important to say to us.  It has something especially important to say to the church. Though we may not exist as a society in which the systematic extermination of a whole race has become so banal as to become a normal part of daily life, we have normalized another evil; indifference.

I saw the banality of indifference played out in a dramatic and indicting way last week. While attending the Festival of Homiletics in Minneapolis, I and 1700 or so of my closest colleagues in ministry heard sermons and lectures on the importance of taking the gospel beyond the walls of the church; to preach in the world and not just the pulpit. After one barn-burning sermon, we broke for lunch and all of us walked out of the church and right by a man on a bench holding a “homeless and hungry. Please help” sign. In the moment, the meaning of that encounter didn’t even register. Looking back now, I am astonished at the indifference I and my colleagues showed. Even as men and women whose careers keep us knee deep in the gospel, the normality- the banality- of being indifferent to the need of a neighbor was there front and center.

No one noticed him and no one noticed the crowd not noticing him.

What does it say about us as a culture or, more importantly, as a church that neglect and indifference have become socially acceptable responses to the needs of our neighbors? Have we really become so immersed in the world of consumption and personal desire that we simply don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear? Can we, with any measure of honesty, claim to be children of the gospel if we dwell so easily in our indifference?

To be sure, there are scores of men and women both inside and outside communities of faith who give their time and energy and resources to bring comfort and relief to neighbors in need. They are featured in our church magazines and the subject of human interest stories in our newspapers and even on the local news. That begs another question for us…caring is news?

In Christ, caring is the rule rather than the exception. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we have been called by God to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, free the captives and comfort those in need. Christ does not put caveats on caring. He does not command that we care for the neighbors we like or we think deserve our help or who have somehow worked for it. We are called by Christ to live lives defined by care for one another.

In short, we are called to lives that make caring so pervasive that caring itself becomes banal and commonplace.

Indifference is not a gospel option.