I wasn’t raised in a church that focused a lot on Original Sin; actually, there wasn’t a lot of talk about sin in general. We were a pretty middle-of-the-road church that, like so many Mainline churches, was more about being nice and doing things together than it was about saving souls and condemning those who didn’t listen. And while we didn’t learn a whole lot about the Bible – which has hurt the Mainline churches generally – we did learn a lot about caring for each other, which is really important. I used to joke that we were more the church of Mr. Rogers than of Jesus, and there’s a lot to be said for that. We should be both.
So, I never understood why Original Sin mattered so much to so many Christians. In a nutshell, orthodox theology claims that it is the entire reason God was incarnated in the person of Jesus. Paul sets the stage by putting Adam and Jesus side by side, arguing that Adam didn’t do his job, so Jesus is the second Adam. Curiously, Paul doesn’t include Eve in the blame game; that comes from the misogynist who wrote 1 Timothy. The idea is that Adam and Eve’s sin – disobeying God by eating the one fruit God said not to – was so bad that every person forever would go to hell if they didn’t accept the second Adam, Jesus. If there is no Original Sin, there is no need for salvation. We have the church of the early 5th century to thank for this. They accepted the teaching of Augustine over Pelagius, which I think was a mistake. I don’t mean to claim that people aren’t flawed/sinful/broken/incomplete. My point is that this transgression – eating that piece of fruit – is really a metaphor. I don’t believe that God is that petty and mean-spirited.
Original Sin is the reason only those baptized with water get to go to heaven, even though Jesus when John the Baptist asked Him why John was baptizing Jesus, said it was to “fulfill all righteousness” (whatever that means). Here He was, in front of all these people, and He didn’t say, “To wash you of the sin of Adam and Eve for when they ate the wrong fruit.” This reasoning comes later on in the New Testament and from the early Church Fathers. Maybe they were having a hard time explaining this too. It is also curious that the vast majority of Christians will tell you that it was Eve who was to blame (the force of misogyny is strong!), even though, as I wrote earlier, Paul didn’t use that argument. Original Sin tells us that the world is corrupt. I would rather see it as a blessing, as a place of beauty.
Matthew Fox, a Catholic priest and theologian, wrote a book called “Original Blessing” as a way to counteract this fixation we have with a God of anger and wrath. He wrote, “The doctrine of the Incarnation is itself an invitation to all believers to love the earth, cherish it, find the divine in it.” Our relationship with God and each other should be one based on mutuality and creation, not death and fear. We should think of Jesus as the love antidote, not the death-fixer. Original Sin is the sword of Damocles, not the cure for a fractured world. I say, good riddance to Original Sin – I would rather have the Blessing.
Prayer – We thank You God for this amazing world we live on. Teach us to love it as much as we say we love You. Amen.
Today’s art is “Blessing” by Shanye Huang.