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Almost 30 years ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote "When Bad Things Happen to Good People," a powerful book that propelled him to national and international renown. Though we have differed on some important theological matters, many of the book's insights have been indispensable to me in understanding God and suffering.
Today, we need another book that uses the words of Rabbi Kushner's classic work, but addresses an entirely different issue: When Good People Do Bad Things.
We need such a book because of the disheartening fact that much, perhaps even most, evil does not emanate from the bad parts of human nature but...
When Good People Do Bad Things
I guess I might as well post what John Calvin had to say about it.
"But if we outwardly display anything good, still the mind stays in its inner state of filth and crooked perversity. The prime matter or rather the matter of concern for all rests in the judgment of God, who judges not according to appearance, nor highly esteems outward splendor, but gazes upon the secrets of the heart [ I Sam. 16:7; Jer. 17:10 ].
Therefore, however much of a dazzling appearance of holiness man may have on his own, it is nothing but hypocrisy and even an abomination in God’s sight, since the thoughts of the mind, ever depraved and corrupted, lurk beneath." John Calvin Institutes of the Christian Religion Chapter 1 B
Gary Gordon