More often than not, reality is significantly more complex than the simplistic narratives spun by headlines or hot takes. But not always. And even if we acknowledge that the reality on the ground is more complicated than some headlines and partisan pundits would have us believe, that doesn’t mean the reality is all that complicated. Sometimes an event is so grievously unjust and evil that the only appropriate response is clear moral condemnation.

What Hamas did in Israel this week—slaughtering hundreds of civilians, including entire families and babies—is one such event. Any defenses of Hamas’s actions—any moral equivocation, any whataboutism, any attempts to call it something other than evil—is not only foolish but itself a moral compromise. As Christians, we should lead the way in speaking with moral clarity in moments like this. When foreign or domestic terrorism occurs, or a mass shooting, or a racist hate crime, or any number of other acts of evil are perpetuated, moral equivocation is dangerous. We need moral clarity.

We sometimes appeal to the “fog of war” in geopolitical military conflicts like this. And sometimes the fog is real. But as Bernard Howard and Ivan Mesa argue in their article today, “The inevitable existence of wrongdoing on both sides doesn’t always produce a moral fog. Sometimes the fog lifts. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for instance, can be condemned by Christians without hesitation. Hamas’s attack on Israel is a similarly clear example of wrongdoing that can be firmly condemned without equivocation.”

In a world of increasing moral confusion, let’s be a people of moral clarity—speaking truthfully about egregious evil wherever it’s found, no matter who is committing it.