Dennism,
I believe Christ immersed himself in the reality of life at his time and we have to do the same in ours.  I have no illusions about the "evil" that is out there nor of the necessity of confronting it.  The word "Yhwh" has been translated as "I will be with  you, as who I am I will be with you."  God will always be who God is.  It is I as who I am that I must respond to God and to life.  That does not mean that attempting to follow Christ does not call me to be more, but, for now, I am who I am as such must respond.  So, yes, we can neither be naive nor stupid in our dealings with the world, but, I believe, we must strive to evolve our selves and our world as a more loving place to live.