Some leaders are great. Some are just okay. Other leaders are incompetent, or ignorant, or incapable. Men in terms of their leadership capacity run the spectrum. But are some leaders evil? Of course, and we can name them. Hitler. Stalin. Pol Pot. Kim Jong Un. Evil on a global scale. Let’s not forget Vlad the Impaler, Ivan the Terrible, Idi Amin, Attila the Hun, Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. The world will not forget these evil men.[1] What about on a smaller scale? Can evil leaders exist as the head of a company? Or in your community? Certainly if evil exists on a large scale, it also exists on the local level.
In September 2022 a Texas doctor was arrested for tampering with IV bags at a surgical center. He added a drug to the bags that caused cardiac emergencies, and led to the deaths of a fellow doctor and other patients and staff. Surveillance video showed the doctor walking a hospital hall, looking around to ensure no one was watching, and then switching out IV bags with ones whose contents would cause cardiac arrest. Prosecutors in the case described the doctor as a “medical terrorist”.[2] Watching the video on YouTube, knowing the result of his actions would be deadly, you are clearly witnessing an act of evil. A doctor, a leader in the community—and an evil man.
The US culture is built around the idea of good and evil. In more recent years though the idea that some people are truly evil has given way to the idea that they are just misunderstood. When a young person storms into a school with a gun and kills children, we grapple with their motivation, their upbringing, their mental state, all the circumstances that may have led to his actions. But at the heart of it is an act of evil. And a person who commits that act, no matter how it came about, is evil. A man opens fire on protestors in Portland, Oregon—evil.[3] Another man kills 10 customers in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York—evil. Three people attempt to attack and take down the power grid of the United States—evil.[4] A man kills 49 people and injures 53 more at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando—evil.[5] These are all true accounts of evil acts by evil people (see the footnote links to read the details of each).
According to Scripture, we are all born evil. We have what the Bible calls a “sin nature”—a predisposition to disobey God that has been passed down to every person starting with Adam and Eve. Their sin in the Garden of Eden separated them from their perfect relationship with God. The result is an innate sense of wrong that permeates all of us to this day. The Apostle Paul talks about the constant fight within for the Christ-follower between Jesus Who lives in us and the “flesh”—our propensity to do evil. Paul says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” (Romans 7:15-17). You can hear the “fight” going on in Paul’s mind against sin, through his own words.
Because of this predisposition for wrong, in our leaders today, we know that some are not acting for the common good. Outside of a relationship with Christ, it’s impossible to act rightly. Isaiah 64:6 speaks of our own best effort at “good” outside of God, saying, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” In other words, without a relationship with God, nothing that we produce is inherently good. What, then, might this evil look like in leadership?
The self-centered leader. Is it evil for a leader to put their own interests above those they lead and those they serve? James 3:17 warns, “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.” Self-centeredness is evil because it robs you of the capacity to connect with and attend to others. Self-centered leaders lack empathy. Without empathy, we cannot truly understand needs and emotions, which is why self-centered leaders lack friends and don’t themselves make a very good friend.
Romans 16:17-19 gives caution and instruction regarding self-centered leaders: “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.”
The ego-centered leader. Is it evil for a leader to place their own goals and motivations above those of others? While the self-centered leader simply looks to their own interests, the eco-centric leader is the next level—someone who believes their ideas and desires are inherently better than those of others. He lacks self-reflection, self-awareness and introspection.
Ego-centric leaders think excessively about how others may view them, but this view is warped by self-importance. It results in decisions centered around the self, and an excessive need for recognition and admiration, called narcissism. Eco-centric leaders view themselves as extraordinarily worthy or important and will manipulate others to get what they want. They are often arrogant, pretentious and preoccupied with fantasies of success, power or beauty.
2 Timothy 3:1-17 has an extended description and warning about such leaders: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people…”
The evil-minded leader. Do some leaders have a desire to hurt or destroy others for their own benefit? We know from history this is true, and it would be foolish to believe that the world has rid itself of such men. In reality, evil-minded people exist today at all levels of leadership, from totalitarian governments to bad corporate CEOs to hateful small businessmen.
Scripture talks of men who are completely engrossed in the sinfulness they were born into. Romans 1:28-32 describes them vividly: “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” Indeed looking at this list we all know men who fall into one or more of these categories.
Perhaps there is no leader more dangerous than an evil-minded one. We can recognize them, then avoid them, expose them publicly, and if necessary fight against them. You have likely heard the quote attributed to Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” This warning of inaction has become a call to action. To fight evil men is both a reasonable and courageous course when confronting evil in every aspect of life. Burke, however did not utter these words.
Rather it was likely philosopher John Stuart Mill, who stated in his inaugural address at the University of St. Andrews in 1867: “Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”[6]
[1] https://www.scoopwhoop.com/world/most-evil-people/
[2] https://www.fox4news.com/news/dallas-doctor-called-a-medical-terrorist-by-prosecutors-indicted-on-multiple-charges
[3] https://www.csis.org/analysis/pushed-extremes-domestic-terrorism-amid-polarization-and-protest
[4] https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdoh/pr/3-men-plead-guilty-domestic-terrorism-crime-related-plans-attack-power-grids
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_nightclub_shooting
[6] https://www.openculture.com/2016/03/edmund-burkeon-in-action.html
As a leader, you’re not over a what, but a who. To lead is to influence others in a way that helps them grow personally, professionally and spiritually. Leadership is fundamentally about influencing people.