When bad people do good things.......

What makes us 'good' or 'bad' people? Is it our intentions or our actions? Membership in organizations, churches, service clubs, even the high holy station of parent, all of this can help us to achieve and learn and act, but we ourselves must be the agents of our own good character.

And what of that character? Is a lifetime of goodness to beundone by a few ill deeds at its end, or conversely can a life of sin be repented of in a few righteous actions?

Surely at the judgement will our eternal fates will not be determined by a preponderance of evidence, or even a 2/3 majority.

So where does this fit in?

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/nazi-scrapbooks-from-hell-3675/scrapbook-photos


National Geographic calls this the 'The Nazi scrapbook from hell' it is the scrapbook of Karl Hocker, a high ranking official at Auschwitz. It shows candid photos of outings with the ladies who worked in the office, and the german soldiers from the camp. The sunbath, eat blueberries, sing songs, and play the accordian. They look very normal, and this is what is disturbing. How can these young people work all day running a death camp, then relax and pick blueberries? They could not all be sociopaths to begin with, how did these seemingly normal people take on this terrible role.

More importantly, how can I be sure that I will never commit a major sin and all the while justify myself as these young people have done?

I imagine that in order to do such evil work a person would have to justify their actions. Perhaps they reasoned that they were following orders, or that the law called for such horrible acts. Some may have tried to convince themselves that God did not disapprove, or that there was a historical precedent for such actions.
I suspect one factor may have been racism taken to an extreme. The Nazis liked to believe that they were a special race of people, and that their crimes were justified by eugenics meant to ultimately benefit the world.


I don't know what the answers are, but I think this is important. People can be bad, commit horrendous crimes, and yet live among us or even become us. Hopefully the solution is a constant examination of ones ones' life ala Socrates.