Evil’s Code of Silence

I am currently in the process of getting freed from the fetters of a bondage that I would like to simply call a “code of silence.” It is by its nature very complex and variable, but it’s end game is simple; maintaining a dark place from which evil can operate. It’s not unique to my family or Ashburn Baptist, because wherever evil successfully gets embedded, a code of silence is used to give it the cover needed to continue operating.

It can take the form of saying, you need to be loving, gracious, forgiving, loyal, or maybe pragmatic and sensible. If a group member doesn’t quite see the “rationality” of keeping quiet, they may be shamed, threatened with loss of position or something else, very often they will be shunned. In some groups the evil is so powerful and the stakes so high that they resort to blackmail, violence, even murder.

Let me try to explain how this deceptive and evil code of silence works. You don’t easily see the primary evil, because this evil is doubly evil, in that it has cunningly cloaked itself in everything respectable it can find. This makes you more likely doubt yourself rather than to speculate evil in what seems to look so good. What you may notice, though, are unexplained things, confusion, conflict And division. When you are in the middle of this dynamic, often it is hard to discern what’s right and wrong. These conditions may lead to losses of one kind or other, and even death. Then, in this context, if you look around and see a quiet acceptance of this kind of craziness, confusion and loss with no further concern, discussion or questioning, you are looking at the code of silence being lived out in front of you.

That’s exactly what has played out in my family and Ashburn Baptist over decades due to the code of silence. The death of my mother along with the pretentious care that caused it, has challenged me to look much more closely at my own complicity with this dangerous evil code.