Eusebius, in his death, shared a striking similarity with Jesus in this: both were brought before persons of Imperial power (Eusebius before Maximian, as Jesus before Pilate); neither of the Imperators found any guilt in the man before him; and each powerful government official declined either to condemn or release the person brought before him. Instead, each chose to be passive in the face of the execution of a man who they considered innocent of any wrongdoing–bowing to the pressures and insistence of others swirling around him.

Maximian and Pilate force the question: To what extent are the people who do not take action–action that is within their power to take–to stop pain, suffering, or injustice, responsible when it is others who actually perpetrate the evil itself? How far does being a bystander excuse them…or us?

At the end of the film version of Lillian Hellman’s play, The Little Foxes, the main character, Regina, is arguing with her daughter, Alexandra, about what Alexandra will do now that her father is dead and Regina has managed to lie, cheat, and steal her way into an imminent fortune. Addie, whom Alexandra refers to, is an African-American servant who had earlier quoted from the biblical book of Joel about the prophesied plague of locusts that would eat up the earth; Ben is Regina’s brother (Alexandra’s uncle) who helped Regina to pick clean both the fortunes of Alexandra’s dead father and the misfortunes of their town’s poorest people. Here is their dialogue:

Regina: I’d like to keep you with me, but I won’t make you stay.

Alexandra: You couldn’t, Mama, because I don’t want to stay with you. Because I’m beginning to understand about things. Addie said there were people who ate the earth . . . and people who stood around and watched them do it. Just now, Uncle Ben said the same thing, really the same thing. Tell him for me, Mama, I’m not going to watch you do it. Tell him I’ll be fighting as hard as he is . . . some place where people don’t just stand around and watch.

With a tip of the hat to Scarlett O’Hara, I believe we must ask ourselves morally “Where shall we go? What shall we do?” when evil is happening in front of us. And I implore us all, frankly, to give a damn!