Someone wrote on Facebook that all cruelty is based in weakness. I wrote, “Not always true; Genghis Khan and Stalin were cruel but they were not weak.” Someone said that they were weak because they gave in to ego.

When someone has you pegged as a bad guy, he is likely to deny that you have any good traits. Of course that is wrong. Most people have both good traits and bad traits. Give credit where credit is due. Genghis Khan and Stalin were strong. That does not mean that they were good.

So, for example, we have many people not wanting to acknowledge Hitler as having had any good traits. Of course he did. He was a fitness buff and a vegetarian, and he was a brilliant speaker and politician. That does not mean that he was good. It means that he had some traits that were good, and one does not need to be a Nazi to recognize that.

There is a serial killer named Charles Cullen, who as an emergency room nurse killed 300 people in his care. When he was a jail, a family friend needed a kidney transplant, and he donated his kidney. The social worker in jail asked him about it, and he said, “Well, this depends on what you believe about people.” He was right. That someone has done bad things doesn’t mean that he can’t also do good things.

In the Bible there is a statement that a bad tree cannot bear good fruit and a good tree cannot bear bad fruit. In fact, most fruit out there is both good and bad. There are many men who work hard and follow the law but beat their wives and children. There are many people who are compassionate but treat “narcissists” and “sociopaths” as less than human. Most trees produce both good fruit and bad fruit. And that some of the fruit is bad does not mean that all of the fruit is bad.

It is important to see the person for the totality of what he is. Then we have a much more complete understanding of the person. Most people are both good and bad, and most people have done both good things and bad things. That someone has bad traits doesn’t mean that he doesn’t also have good traits. See the person for the whole of what he is and act accordingly.