By gratuitous do you mean evil without compensation or without warant?

This is a difficult question for most and I can understand why. However, as a Christian, I will try not to establish a biased view.

It is believed by many Christians that if someone is not saved by the lord Jesus Christ, that they will be sent to live forever in the burning depths of Hell. Is this evil? If someone had been raised as a child of the Islamic religion and had been surrounded by family and friends of the same faith, how can God punish them for something they cannot control? How can he send them to burn for eternal life when they had been born into another faith? They are NOT simply going to perform a conversion at the sight of a Christian preacher! How can he punish them?!

Or...

Why would God bring suffering upon a race of people as in genocides in Sudan and earlier in the Holocaust? Why would he kill innocent souls that he created himself? God controls everything... and it says so in the bible. Why, then, would he send innocent souls, born into another faith or killed by the strength of racist fools, to be tortured perpetually in Hell?!

My answer is this... sin. Sin is the basis for all evil that exists on Earth. It is the foundation of the racism that had been found within the hearts of Nazi followers; the seed of contradicting faiths; the embodiment of greed and selfishness. Sin is evil.

BUT, if God can do anything... Why hasn't he? Why would his plans allow genocide, tragedy, and sufferance?

The answer to this question is I don't know. However, I love God, I believe in him, and I trust that some day he will provide me with answers.

If you have answers of your own, please feel free to express them.