Article on Original Sin | Song: Revenge |

Friends,

Ken and I arrive in Dublin at 10:45am local time, and meet up with family to gather in Cork for pre-wedding tourism.

I am hoping my ankle is healed enough for walking around! Today we'll see. (I already know I am very slow.)

-Liz

Introduction to Act! Be Church Now

I'm a fan of original sin. I mean the theology, not the sinning. I know it's not cool. And I know it's been used inappropriately to put blame for humanity's mistakes on women. And I know it's used today in conservative evangelical churches to focus on recognizing sinfulness to the point of abuse of children. (Physical abuse for sure but also simply telling children they are sinners is abuse.)

And it is my experience, with Paul, I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me (Romans 7:15-17).

I see this most clearly with the sins of institutional racism, sexism, classism, etc. I care about oppression. I study oppression. I practice anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-classist behaviors. And yet here I am getting privileges I did not ask for, and benefitting from the ways that black and brown and poor people are treated as less-than. Again with Paul For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me Romans 18b-20.

What is clear, to me at least, is that original sin is about the systemic and cultural nature of these oppressions. It is not about me making small mistakes here and there. My interpersonal relationships are things I can learn to do better, I can apologize when I do wrong, I am confident of the forgiveness that comes from God and from those people I connect with. Original sin is about the way that our society has attitudes and rules that make life harder for black and brown and poor and female people. They are not rules or norms that I made, nor ones that I enforce, and yet here I am, just by living my ordinary white-life, in an ordinary white-neighborhood, in an ordinary white-state reinforcing those white-male-middle-class norms.

I've been reading history for my work in the last few months, and I'm struck by what I read. In the 1960s reading the words of the Episcopal Bishop of Alabama, as he struggles to say he is in favor of civil rights, but not of protests, nor of outsiders (that is, Dr. King) coming to his state. He speaks, after Jonathan Daniel's death in his state, of how important it is to follow the law even as the killer is found not guilty. It would be so easy to believe that this man is a bad man, but by all reasonable measures he is not. He is a good man: loving, faithful, honest, trapped in the sin of racism.

And in the 1970s Episcopal Divinity School hired two women priests and allowed them preside over the Eucharist before General Convention had "regularized" their ordinations. Three folders, each one inch thick, from the days that paper mail was the only way to express disdain for this decision. Contorted analysis struggling to say that the writer is in favor of women's ordination, but not these women at this time. Again, I'd love to believe that these letter writers are simply bad people. But they are not. They are good (mostly) men: graduates of Episcopal Theological School, Philadelphia Divinity School, bishops who send their candidates for ministry to a justice oriented seminary. They are people who want to do what is right, but are trapped in the sin of racism.

Can I use the same compassion for those who anti-immigration today? It is much harder because the violence they are creating is so raw in the moment. But I see the same grasping at law-and-order while being unable to see the lawlessness of the arrests. The same insistence on righteousness, and sense of personal hurt, without reflection on the consequences of their fury. Leaving out the actual bigots, most anti-immigrant believers are people who want to do what is right, but are trapped in the original sin of this nation--racism. Trapped in the original sin of this time--authoritarianism. Trapped in the way our society, and many societies, find their future hope by creating an outsider to hate.

What do we do with this weight of original sin? It is not an excuse to stop finding a way to do better. For today I sit in the words of Jesus. “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11: 28-30.

What is your take on original sin? Where have you found yourself on the wrong side of justice? What do we do to interact with good people who are hurting others? Reply to this email to let me know your thoughts. ​
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I've shared this before but it is totally appropriate for today. Flamy Grant's song "Revenge".

Here is a more in-depth analysis of progressive Christianity and original sin, blessing, and the struggle of humankind to live out God's Kingdom.

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