One of the most important tenets of Unitarian Universalism is that every person has inherent worth. This is a fuzzy, feel-good concept, but how can we reconcile such a comprehensive idea when it includes those who do evil? Do evil people have inherent value?

When we hear of a person who rapes and murders or a dictator who exterminates his own people or a parent who abuses their child, it is nearly impossible to convince ourselves that those individuals have any inherent value or worth in our world. What possible benefit do evildoers have on those of us that endeavor to perpetuate good? The answer is simpler than you think.

If there were no darkness, would we perceive light as we do now? If there was no sour, would sweet mean the same to us? Similarly, without evil, how would we recognize and aspire to good? We create laws to punish what society considers evil, generally what we find injures other members of our community. This particularly applies to what each society considers evil. We recognize however, that different societies and cultures vary in what they consider evil, and so what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

What is crucial in maintaining the belief that absolutely everyone has inherent worth is two-fold. We must recognize that we cannot control or, in fact, judge what we perceive as good and bad. But wait, you might say, don't we judge violent criminals every day by throwing them in jail or sentencing them to corporal punishment, up to and including execution? The reality is that the law does not judge the individual, the law judges and punishes the behavior. The individual that perpetrates the crime is punished for their behavior, not for their existent self. Second, we must redefine our preconceptions of “worth” and “value”.

Value is determined by benefit. We say that generosity has value because it contributes to the well-being of others. We agree that education has value because it benefits society as a whole when we expand upon our knowledge as a collective. So what is the benefit of evil? When evil is perpetrated in our society, we feel outrage for the crime and compassion for the victims. We rally together to increase what we perceive as the force of good to combat the influence of evil. Here we start to see a potential for evil's benefit.

In Christian belief, Judas perpetrated evil when he turned Jesus over to the soldiers which led to Jesus' execution. Yet most will agree that someone had to betray Christ in order for the rest of the world to benefit from Jesus' martyrdom. How would the story have been different if there were no evil? If intolerance and fear and self-preservation did not exist, there would be no reason or basis of comparison to really see and experience good.

The inherent value then, of those that do evil is simply this: they provide a example of the opposite of goodness, and so, in essence, allow goodness to exist. Without evil, there can be no good. Goodness requires an opposing force to be recognized. We can and should reject evil for ourselves and our own behavior, but we should recognize the value and worth of those that choose the alternate path of evil. They give us an opportunity to ensure that the good in this world outweighs the evil, which in turn allows us to grow and prosper. Evil is a motivation for good, just as cold is a motivation for warmth. We must look at each person as an individual with a role to play in our world, each with inherent worth. We must understand that we can only facilitate that which is good because we are are able to witness evil. Every person has value. Judge the behavior, but not the individual. Everyone serves a purpose.