Indifference is the most destructive sin we’ve never heard of.
Albert Einstein said the world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who stand by and do nothing as those acts of evil are committed. To remain silent in the face of injustice is sin. It’s indifference. To place personal comfort over the oppression of another human or group of humans is evil.
Goethe has the famous quote, “Every man has only enough strength to complete the assignments that he is fully convinced are important.” This can be read as, if we can’t find the time to do simple small tasks of consideration then it really doesn’t matter to us.
According to a study conducted by the Institute of Customer Satisfaction Score, the main reason, at 68%, customers take their business elsewhere is due to a perceived indifference of a salesperson or employee or overall company attitude. Indifference can be the single most toxic behavior wreaking havoc on a company culture and performance. In can be a leader who lacks compassion and respect for his or her employees. It can be employees saying, “Why should I do that?” or “That’s not my job.” If a company has lost trust, integrity, even its vision or luster, expect indifference.
Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner. He
used his life as a lens to highlight indifference. He gave a phenomenal speech titled, The Perils of Indifference, in April 1999. His words reflected on the evils of the 20th century and, in a sobering way, blamed them on indifference, “It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person’s pain and despair. Yet, for the person who is indifferent, his or her neighbor are of no consequence. And, therefore, their lives are meaningless.” Weisel continued, “Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony. One does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative.”
Acedia is known as indifference or spiritual apathy. It comes from Greek and simply means “absence of care.” It has elements of sloth, ennui, apathy and even laziness. It can be caused by becoming too absorbed in work, activities, and distractions, which can take precedence over nurturing one’s relationship with our neighbors, and more concerning, our relationship with God.
Indifference removes the option for positive change. It keeps us locked in a self-preservation mode and forces us to settle for less than we were created to be. It numbs our hearts and capacity to feel. When left unchecked, it grows into a deep-rooted cynicism.
Indifference has both personal and societal consequences. When indifference infects a culture expect the absence of real community. The less fortunate, oppressed and marginalized become something less than human. Their oppression becomes possible when the rest of us stop caring. It is how Auschwitz happened. It is how the disgusting story of Larry Nassar sexually abusing hundreds of young girls happened.
Jim Keenan Professor Theology at Boston College says, “Sin is the failure to bother to care.” Most of us are asleep to the sin of indifference. Little is spoken about it. It is easy to be lulled into our own personal zone of comfort and safety. We can be indifferent to the plight of men, but we can also be indifferent to knowledge. Have we become a society too lazy, or indifferent, to acquire facts to think accurately, instead of acting on “opinions” created by guesswork, snap-judgments, or social media influence?
We need to own this. We cannot remain indifferent. We need to recognize we were created to care. We need to hear the voice in our head that says, “I care.” Love is the opposite of indifference. An active passion which leads to compassion and feelings of joy, wonder, reverence, and gratitude. Let us choose love over indifference, solidarity over silence. Actions are our obligation. Choosing to act is found in our understanding of the dangers that go hand-in-hand with indifference.
When Pope Francis speaks about indifference, he describes it as a toxic combination of self-interest and apathy in the face of the violence and suffering of the world. Indifferent people are so caught up with themselves and their own pursuits they ignore the pain of others. For Jesus in the Gospels, sin is usually not where people are weak but trying, but where people are strong and not bothering.
In the Parable of the Talents. The servant with one talent does nothing. He buries his talent, waits, and then gives it back to his master. To this, the master refers to the servant as slothful. The servant was guilty of playing it safe and risking nothing. Indifference on full display. The prophet Amos (6:1-7), criticizes the people with being so preoccupied with the self-indulgence of their feasting, drinking and partying that they are apathetic to the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel. A better Biblical passage that expresses a stinging rebuke of indifference is found in the Gospel of Luke (16:19-31), and the parable of the “Rich Man and Lazarus.” The aloof indifference of the rich man to even share with Lazarus the scraps that would fall from his table, is reciprocated in a great reversal in the afterlife.
We must strive to join in the fight for good and God’s kingdom by calling out indifference when we see it and making every effort to be concerned, responsive, and sympathetic – even in the mundane. We cannot solve every problem or rescue everyone. We cannot do it all. But we can do something. Every one of us can and must do something – it starts with love.
