Not Neutral, but Negative…

There is a word considered sometimes as a virtue which is often not so, and indeed may be quite the contrary. The word is neutrality, which in dictionary definition means “neither one thing nor the other,” “not engaged on either side,” “middling, indifferent…without marked vices or virtues.” Neutrality may mean not meddling in other peoples business. But where one should be actively interested, neutrality is much less a virtue than it is a vice. We have heard much, for example, of people’s appealing for help, crying for help, desperately needing help, while others, not wishing to become involved, go on their way, pretending not to hear, or choosing to assume that the situation is not serious, and so, in a sense pass on the other side in the Parable of the good Samaritan. Neutrality can be a sort of shell, a sham, a covering of convenience, of complacency, and not becoming committed. But there is a time to be counted in, a time to be counted on, and there is a time to make commitments. “Indifference produces a negative character.” And where principles are concerned, where good and evil are at issue, where there is distress, lawlessness, or rampant wrong—neutrality is not neutral but negative—indeed it is an actual evil. If no one cared what happened to anyone, life would be little worth living. I nobody chose to defend right, if nobody voted, if nobody took a public position, if nobody stood up and said what was right and what was wrong, if nobody fought for freedom, men would drift down to an unsocial and unsafe jungle. It is possible to be too comfortable, too complacent, too composed, with too much silence, too much consent. There is a time to take sides, to stand up, to be heard, to exert effort and influence, to do something about what should be done, and the ” don’t care,” “can’t be bothered,” “don’t get involved,” neither one-thing-nor-the-other attitude is, under some circumstances, not really neutrality but an actual encouragement to evil. “Where…Right gives a Call,” said William Penn, “a ‘neuter’must be a coward…We have a Call to do good, as often as we have the Power of Occasion.