On Sin

Last weekend I went to "Compelling" in East Lansing, a evangelism conference sponsored by InterVarsity. (The full name of the event was "What's so Compelling about Jesus?") I think it's a good thing that I always return from these sorts of these events with more questions than I had when it originally began.

So the thing that has hold of my mind right now is the concept of sin. I'm not sure if this is also prevalent in other countries, but speaking for the United States I can say that there are definitely some Christians that effectively utilize sin to scare people. If you've read any sort of mainstream news regarding Christianity particularly over the past years, you must have heard of Falwell, or Dobson, or Robertson, or countless others that constantly try to convince us that sin is dragging our society down to hell, homosexuals in particular. (I use the term homosexual very intentionally, because in many debates it is crucial to examine the way things are framed - choosing to use the word homosexual rather than gay/lesbian helps to dehumanize those people as well as place an emphasis on a relatively small portion of their lives. I wrote about this issue a few months ago; the post can be found here.) In sum, what they're saying is that if we don't turn from our evil liberal ways, society is going to burn in hell.

Now, as a Christian I don't dispute the fact that sin does indeed bring down society. What I DO have an issue with is the fact that the types of sins that they feel will bring fire and brimstone raining down upon us - are almost always that of the sexual nature. Regardless of whether or not it's the truth, it's certainly quite convenient to focus on sins that aren't much of a problem for you personally. As a heterosexual guy, it's easy not to "sin in a homosexual way". But this doesn't work for me. It's wrong to selectively focus on things that you have no trouble complying with, while ignoring other aspects of sin mentioned in the Bible that many conflict with your lifestyle. For example, Biblical commandments telling us to love our enemies are often overlooked because "OMG the enemy is SO evil and we should torture suspected enemy combatants regardless of the fact that we don't know they're guilty and in fact there are confirmed instances of situations in which we have actually tortured and murdered innocent people because we're scared shitless!"

However, on the other side of the coin you also have Christians who are happy just to point out that many issues aside from juicy sexual sin are being ignored. Now, they are correct in raising this and arguing that it's also equally sinful to live selfish consumerist lives. However, because they're so afraid of being confused with the "Religious Right", they sometimes inadvertently overlook the damage that sexual sin can wreak on people's lives. Yes, we should all be more environmentally conscious and stop hating "Arabs". But in this they (and I myself am also guilty of this on occasion) are actually repeating the same mistakes that those on the right make - it's just a different set of rules to enforce - stop being racist as opposed to stop having premarital sex.

Then you have those more like me who are so uncomfortable about condemning other people that they are constantly debating what exactly constitutes sin, which also misses the point.

Something that we often forget is that in the scripture, it is taught that sin is falling short of the mark. It's just that simple. It happens to all of us, and (pardon the cliche) it's an inevitable result of living in a fallen world.

After thinking about this for a bit, I think my feeling about this is that ultimately one of the most devastating thing sin can do to an individual (besides separation) is effectively paralyze a person. This manifests itself in various different forms - paralyzed by judgmental-ism, or absolutely unwillingness to judge, or self righteousness, or self condemnation and guilt that arises when we focus on our brokenness. But we're not called to be paralyzed spiritually.

It is written in the New Testament that Jesus healed many lame men, and forgave broken people of their sins allowing them to walk again. While in some instances these were literal healings, an overarching metaphorical message that arises from his healing of the broken in important. When he leaves them, he does not say, "Now you'd better watch out for every step you take in the future so you don't break your leg again, because there isn't going to be any more healing after you screw this one up."

No, Jesus tells us something subtly different; and that is to go and sin no more. (In this situation I'm obviously referring more to the adulteress than the lame men, but since I'm talking about it in a metaphorical sense please bear with me) Stop missing the mark. Use your gifts (healthy legs) to bless the world. There are many instances where this freedom can be used for good - Go and protect our environment, Go and love people, Go and help reconcile those relationships that can be saved, Go and care for orphans and the homeless.

Of course it isn't easy - and in fact, it's impossible to actually sin no more. But that's the beauty of Christ's sacrifice in that we are freed from the tit-for-tat system that existed according to Old Testament law - we know we are already forgiven, and we do not have to trap ourselves in our own boxes of guilt. You have stumbled in the past? It's okay, we all have. Go out, be brave and help bring about the Kingdom on Earth.