Article March 25, 2002 Issue

When evil takes the form of disease

By Ruth Elizabeth Jenks

The very term good and evil suggests that if it's not one, it's the other. The Bible has 97 references linking those two words, showing their opposite nature. The same contrast applies to real and unreal. Light and darkness. Truth and lies. Order and chaos. It's one or the other—they're incompatible. They don't coalesce.

But you might say, "Evil is more like some heinous crime or tragic loss or being the victim of hatred, violence, or terrorism. Disease isn't in the same category. Disease is not something that someone does to you. It's more like a matter of chance over which you have no choice."

That sounds logical, but no matter how something bad comes upon us—whether by an overt attack or by the subtleties of chance—it's all a matter of dis-ease: fear, doubt, or hopelessness that deprives us of ease, comfort, safety, or health.