Sin Part 2: The Culture’s View

My daughter recently hosted a book club meeting of five moms and their ten-year-old children.  The book was the C.S. Lewis classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  The group included an unchurched and probably atheist neighbor and her daughter (let’s call her Rebecca). Apparently, the discussion went well. The next day my granddaughter was coming home on the school bus and she reported the following conversation. The kids were playing a rhyming game and the word to find a rhyme for was “shin.” My granddaughter said “sin.”  Rebecca’s brother said, “There is no such word as ‘sin’.” Rebecca, who had read the C.S, Lewis book, chimed in, “Yes, it is. It has something to do with God.”

Today, the issue is not competing definitions of sin but rather the fact that for many, if not most, the idea of “sin” no longer has currency. People make mistakes, they err, they might even commit crimes, but, outside of the faith community, they do not “sin.” Bill Clinton, for example, admitted on national television, after months of lying, that his relationship with Monica Lewinsky “was not appropriate.”  Lance Armstrong never showed remorse for cheating and lying and attacking his accusers.  He said that he hadn’t felt any sense of wrongdoing when he doped; that he hadn’t felt bad; and hadn’t even thought he was cheating, because according to the dictionary, “cheating” is getting an unfair edge and he felt he was just evening the playing field.

Olympian Marion Jones admitted to taking steroids and said,” “It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you I have betrayed your trust,” she said outside the courthouse Friday. “Making these false statements to federal agents was an incredibly stupid thing for me to do, and I am responsible fully for my actions.”  She asked for forgiveness, adding that she understood that a simple apology “might not be enough and sufficient to address the pain and the hurt I have caused you.” “Because of my actions, I am retiring from the sport of track and field, a sport which I deeply love,” she said.  Further, Jones said the example of her “wrong choices and bad decisions” would “be used to make the lives of many people improve.” Despite her contrition, Jones still doesn’t get it. “Wrong choices and bad decisions” remove the moral dimension from sin.  She didn’t say she had done wrong, only that she had been stupid. 

One hallmark of the drifting of our culture, has been the disappearance of sin and shame. For many in the dominant culture, the idea of “sin” is foreign today, because many do not believe in the God of the Bible.  Some examples:

• Atheism. Assaqph Mehr has posted the following: “As an atheist, since I do not believe in the existence of any supernatural being who will look after my moral well-being, there is no sin.” 
• Secular Humanism.  The Secular Humanist Manifesto says, “We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stems from human need and interest. To deny this distorts the whole basis of life.”
• Eastern Religions. Swami Vivekananda, who helped to introduce Hinduism to the West, said, “The Vedanta recognizes no sin; it only recognizes error.” Buddhism likewise has no concept of sin. The Buddha Dharma Educational Association says, “The idea of sin or original sin has no place in Buddhism.”
• Cole Porter. “In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as quite shocking, But now, God Knows, everything goes.”

The heart of sin is disobedience to God. God’s moral laws are good because he is good, and they are good because they ultimately uplift us as people. At the center of God’s law, is not a set of lists, but two commandments: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 23:37-39). 

But modern culture has distorted Jesus’ commandment to love (in Greek agape) from its original meaning –selfless behavior in the interest of the beloved, much like the love of a parent for a child.  As Paul described it in 1 Corinthians 13, 5-7: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.'”

The image below portrays today’s notion of love–actions without obedience, morality or good works. How have we gotten to this position?  This will be the subject of future posts.