Watching the hit film The Apostle the other night, I was
strongly reminded of the kind of religion I knew as a child.
We used to attend a basement Gospel Hall in Toronto's east end.
Some of the evangelists who held "missions" there came close in
fervor to Sonny (robert Duvall) the preacher in the movie. They
were opposed to sin even though, like Sonny, their lives weren't
always free of it.
On itinerant cleric in particular sticks in my mind. He flooded
our neighbourhood with leaflets inviting children to come and see
"something nobody has ever seen before."
We rounded up every kid we knew and packed the hall. When the
moment came, he pulled out an apple an sliced it open with a
penknife.
"There," he said. "Nobody has ever seen those seeds before." An
outspoken friend of mine muttered above the groans: "God has,
wise guy."
We didn't go back even though he promised to produce "fiery twins
nobody has ever seen before" at the next session. It was no
surprise to hear he had shown and ignited two big wooden
matches.
I want to discuss sin here because at times I have been
criticized for "saying little" about it. This happened last week
at lunch with an evangelical who had several objections to offer.
I told him his position is one I would consider. You can learn
more from critics than fans.
In replying, however, I made the following reflections.
1. Religion has had much, sometimes far too much, to say about
human sin and depravity. Church views, for example, are well
known: yet there is just as much sin around as ever. Indeed, in
over-emphasizing its power and adding a fiery hell to underline
its dangers, a lot of terrible psychological and other damage has
been done to many over the centuries.
2. Then, when you read the Gospels, you see that while Jesus didn't
approve of sin, he didn't go around blasting people for it
either. His approach was to offer friendship and acceptance to
sinners who then, feeling suddenly aware of their shortcomings or
their real potential for goodness, responded by dramatically
changing their lives - on their own. Apart from the religious
leaders, Jesus didn't flay people or hold them over a burning pit
until they saw thing his way. His attitude to sin was that God
forgives those who truly are sorry and want to put it behind
them.
3. In my writing, and widely in the Christian Church today, sin
is seen in a much broader, deeper context than in the past.
Wherever church and state have been closely connected, the
emphasis on sin has always been on personal sins, such as
thieving, adultery, murder and the rest. The rich and powerful
like this arrangement because it leaves them free and able to go
on committing robbery and theft - even mass murder- on a truly
grand scale. But we now understand the corporate or systemic
nature of sin or injustice. In seeking justice for native people
or an end to nuclear weapons, in fighting the causes of poverty
or exposing the inequities of global trade, today's major
churches are attacking sin on a much more profound, wider front.
4. When I write about the plight of children in the Third World or
about Project Ploughshares and its campaign to get Canada moving
on a total ban of all nuclear weapons, I'm talking about real
sin, although the actual word may not be used. It's time
religions spent even more time on such potent social evils
instead of rubbing people's noses in their own shadow or dark
side forever.
5. Morality is not all about sex or individual wrongdoing. It's
about haves and have-nots, exploiters and the oppressed, the
environment, the arms race and the dehumanizing nature of global
consumerism.
6. God grants absolution for those who repent their personal sins,
resolving not jut to change but to make amends. Forgiving
systemic sins is much harder. It's difficult to get the powers
that be to acknowledge them, let alone to repent and travel
in the path of justice and peace for all humanity.
7. I must add that there was one solid thing I learned from those
evangelists long ago. Sin, they said, is a three letter word
with "I" in the middle. In other words, the central cause of all
sin, corporate or individual, is selfishness. Our wants or needs
too often come before those of others. We know this to be so.
Tom Harpur elaborates on Jesus' approach to sin and
sinners in
his books
and gives wise insights into the emerging Christianity of the
21st century.