Every year at this time, my social media feeds and television channels become flooded with Halloween-themed content. But given the real-world horrors unfolding globally, it’s challenging to find anything imaginary truly frightening by comparison. Interestingly, some evangelicals in the United States continue to engage in the culture wars by criticizing the spooky season through memes, all the while dismissing real-world atrocities that don’t neatly align with their agenda.

The world is complex and multifaceted, but political, cultural, and social agendas often attempt to pigeonhole us into a simplistic binary framework. For instance, the recent escalation of conflict between Israel and Palestinians highlights the cruelty of our world. Yet, within moments of these events, my social media feeds are filled with calls to “Stand with Israel” without much consideration for the underlying causes of this seemingly endless violence. While it should be straightforward for Christians to denounce violence leading to the deaths of civilians and endorsing acts of terror like kidnapping, rape, and murder, seeking to understand the roots of this violence is often met with condemnation. It’s crucial to distinguish explanations from justifications....