The Ethics of Lesser Evils and Greater Goods

As an ethics teacher and pastor I have noticed that many people reflexively think most choices are a stark contrast between “good versus evil”. In reality, very few choices are that clear cut.

I think we often we tell ourselves that our choice-- whether it is a personal choice or a public policy decision-- is clear cut because we want to feel better about the problematic choice we are making. Because a great many choices are between lesser and greater evils: All the options available have harmful consequences, even doing nothing. So instead of choosing a lesser evil and praying for mercy, we convince ourselves that the choice we made was actually “good” and all the other options were evil. I think this move numbs our ability to morally discern lesser and greater evils, as well as lesser and greater goods. It also numbs us to our need for God’s grace and forgiveness, because in order to retain our self image as “good” and “blameless” we fail to recognize our complicity in making decisions that harm ourselves and others, even if those decisions were the best possible choices we could make out of all the bad options we had to choose from.

There are also another category of choices which do not fit into the “good versus evil” binary. And these are choices between lesser goods and greater goods. For instance: It’s been a long day at work, and you are exhausted. You could spend the next hour in prayer and reading devotional literature, or you could help your child with their homework. Both are goods. But depending on your level of need and the need of your child, one is a greater good and the other lesser. And it is entirely possible to choose a lesser good so often that it squeezes out a greater good entirely and becomes an evil, and a source of idolatry. For instance, let’s say I regularly skip time for prayer and meditation to be helpful to others and successful in my career (or skip time with family for the same reasons). That would be a case of letting what is good push out what is best, which would become a source of sin and idolatry. 

The psychological terms for what I am talking about here are “approach” and “avoidance” conflicts. An approach conflict is when a choice is between two more helpful outcomes, and an avoidance conflict is when a choice is between two or more harmful outcomes. For the sake of ethical honesty and spiritual vitality, let us make use of these ideas, and be very careful in categorizing choices and issues as starkly “good versus evil”. Most personal choices and public policy decisions are a complex interplay of lesser evils and greater goods. May the Good Lord (for there is only one who is Good, and it ain’t us!) have mercy on us and guide us into those decisions that minimize harm and maximize healthy outcomes.