In a move to transplant some of our thought streams about the "radically new kingdom" and human trafficking to a new post, I wonder if any 'terns have thoughts about the Ash Wednesday service and related remembrances today, especially as regards the language of humility, repentance, and sin. I wonder if this adds to our discussion about evil, brokenness, sin, etc.
I especially wonder how folks feel about Rose's words about original sin and the Psalmist's statement that we are sinful since birth, even in the womb. I guess I am just seeking to understand this distinction between brokenness and sin and the perceived avoidance of what seems like pretty orthodox and biblical language about the human condition.
And in response to Betsy's last post under "human trafficking," I don't think our 2 options are brokenness , which leads to nonviolence and empathy, and sin, which = us vs. them and entails inevitable violence. Maybe we are just talking about the same thing with different words, but as was evidenced today, an orthodox and biblical understanding of sin should take us to our knees, not cause us to pick up a sword. I am not sure the aversion to simply saying that we - individually and as a human race - are sinful and need some serious redemption and reconciliation. I appreciate that "brokenness" feels softer and nicer, but I worry that in our effort to erase "sin" from our lexicons we are losing the very real idea that people - willingly and knowingly and spitefully - do bad things that they are culpable for, whether that is the Janjaweed killing civilians in Darfur or me hating or envying or coveting or lusting in my heart. If we take Jesus at his word, they are one in the same, and at the end of the day, I am RESPONSIBLE and I know better. And again, I think the Bible, my observations of the world, and my knowledge of my own heart all confirm to me that default for us (and me) - esp. separate God's grace - is selfishness, pride, violence, etc. The miracle is not when someone does something wrong, but when someone does something good, right, just, and other-focused. It is entirely possible, yes, but it is not the human default, and we need grace to even make the slightest move to the Other. I think that if anything should breed humility, it is that (aka, robust understanding of sin), not a watered-down notion that makes us all kinda okay and doesn't really want to acknowledge our own culpability and the depraved condition we're all in.
Also, I think that a proper Christian understanding of sin doesn't mean there are then good guys and bad guys (like in a B movie), but rather, it means that the line of good and evil runs through the heart of every person.
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2 comments:
This is such an interesting conversation and I'm glad a few of us are attempting to engage it.
I agree that we are sinful by nature. I have always grown up with the idea that we are a fallen people and are born into sin. I have never really struggled with this idea because I, like Bob, have experienced the ease of pride, jealousy, selfishness, etc. and the difficulty of both overcoming those vices and participating in something wholly good instead. I believe that we are all not only very capable of doing wrong (I'm avoiding both the use of "sin" and "evil" right now to keep this part of the conversation lucid) but also have our default set in the position of self-servitude which finds its roots in what is wrong or bad about the world. Also, there are always actions or beliefs that serve as defensive or survival mechanisms that can become something other than that. Instead of protecting us in a necessary and positive way it also can lend us to such vices as selfishness and greed, etc. It just seems to be natural.
However, I do believe in the infinite potential of humankind to do what is right and good. I just think it takes much more intention and conscientiousness to do so. This is where my beef with those who only dwell on our fallenness comes from: I don't believe in wallowing in our own sinful muck, but rather using that to produce humility and thankfulness for the grace we have been given and joy in the possibility of overcoming or acting against that brokenness.
It is the obviousness of brokenness or sin or evil or doing wrong that is humbling to me, just as Rose stated. This is something I realized while studying psychology. The numbers forced you, as part of the human race, to face the very real possibility of doing something you found to be terrifying and inhumane. More than serving as a humbling force, I could also no longer judge in the manner that I could before. This wasn't a ridding of absolutes but more of a plank in my eye sort of revelation. At the same time I realized that the potential to do good, to overcome evil, to be penitent of sin, to show love and self-lessness is also a leveling factor. We are all similarly capable and susceptible to doing wrong and at the same time all have the potential to do good. How experience, genetics, personal responsibility and all of those variables interplay to produce the decision we come to, the beliefs we hold, and the actions we take part in is the main separating factor that I can come up with.
My aversion to using the words "sin" and especially "evil" most likely comes from the judgment placed by those who use them and the wiping away of responsibility that the judgment allows for. People write off others because they are evil or because they have sinned. And we can't help but measure the value of each sin. A murderer has sinned much worse than we have and clearly is more evil than we are. I agree that murder does have a different weight in our world, but it is still sin in that we all have done that which separates us from God and from others. We are all susceptible to that distance and it may be much harder one day to reconcile the relationships that you forced away with your pride or your jealousy or your greed, than to truly repent of an egregious act and receive forgiveness and begin the rebuilding of those relationships because at least those are the ones we allow ourselves to see. We like to write everyone off as evil and forget what else may have affected them. It is so easy for us to neglect the experiences of those who have erred so flagrantly, and conclude that not only would we never do such a thing but also that they should have known better as easily as we should know better. Forget that we're rich and white and privileged and have families that love us and friends who support us and education to guide us and opportunities that abound for us and our posterity; forget that their fathers abused them and their friends made fun of them and their mother ridiculed them and they never made it through high school and the bank denied their loan and the government ignored them and they only saw the faces of disgust and pity walking down the street because clearly they should have been able to make the right decision. Okay, that was a little much, but honestly, we forget that it is much harder than many think to overcome what feels innate to those who are in the wrong and seems to be an easy decision to those who are in the right.
Maybe I just wish more grace and a little more empathy and respect were shown to others and much more humility expressed on our part. In general I still believe in sin. I also believe in evil. In regards to evil, however, I think I am also turned off by the hugely spiritual use of the word and all of it's mysticism that it implies. I don't do well with demons and angels and spirits and ghosts...though clearly all of those don't even fit together. I have a hard time thinking of some floating, translucent enemy drifting about as "evil" or even as one person encapsulating such a concept in their body and mind. I think evil, though not in the spiritual sense, finds itself working through and around us...maybe something similar to what Bob mentioned at the end of his post...but not any one entity or person or even institution. Maybe an institution, I haven't decided. Ideas, yes. Can we still call an event or an act evil? I suppose so. Was the Jewish Holocaust evil? Probably. Was each individual Nazi and other participant evil? No. Was each Jewish person involved free of all fault and sin? Of course not. We like to idealize and romaticize all sorts of things, but espeically large atrocities in our history. This, of course, is not to discount the great tragedies that occurred and the heroism, strength, courage, and love that emerged from the event.
This is long enough.
Much of what Bob said resonates with me. I wonder if it’s more of a semantics issue? Is it a problem some people have with the historically and culturally loaded word “sin,” or does it really represent a very different philosophy about human nature to call it brokenness?
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