Lesson 12: Sin
David Brooks recently reported on polls that show young people do not have the tools to think or act ethically. He seemed surprised when these surveys reported young people react to moral problems according to whether an option makes them feel good or not. .
My response to Brook’s article was “Where have you been?” Any kind of observant social commentator has recognized this for a long, long time. Quite frankly, the young people do not have the tools, because the adults, who haven’t a clue, have never passed any on to them.
My experience is that the young people are more cognizant of their handicap than the adults running our world right now. The Young Adult Reading Group, those in their 20s and 30s who gather at our house every other month, asked to discuss sin. And once they got on the topic they continued for months.
I sent the following paper as a discussion starter, together with a number of links to pertinent articles. As is common with this group, the young people also e-mailed each other links that might contribute to the discussion. You can check their discussion in the first comment here.
SIN
The Bible is primarily about how God rescues us from the suffering that results from evil. Evil is a broader term than sin. It is anything that causes us pain, unhappiness, or misery. The scriptures never try to explain the cause of all evil but do say we are responsible for sin. We can not excuse ourselves by saying, “The Devil made me do it”.
However, the scriptures do not offer any consistent definition of sin. It is basically doing what God tells us not to do, but the particulars of what this might be change at different times. Christians turn to Jesus for our interpretation of the Old Testament laws and find he is pretty radical. He says things such as, “Others say do not kill, I say do not be angry; others say love your neighbor, I say love your enemy; others say do not commit adultery, I say do not even look with lust; others say be fair, I say forgive”. We also use Jesus’ life as a standard, confessing with Paul that we all fall short of Christ’s glory. Life often is a struggle with sin, as we confess we constantly are doing exactly what we do not want to do.
Many believe it is difficult to know what the ancient rules mean after 2,000 years. For instance,
- If technology offers safety from reproduction, why can’t consenting adults engage in sex without making promises of faithfulness? (Do not commit adultery),
- In a free and affluent society, how do I balance the demands of job, family, church, and personal pleasure? (Observe the Sabbath, Honor father and mother),
- If the economy depends on spending, why should I regard myself gluttonous and greedy when buying all the latest electronic merchandise? (Do not covet),
- If a large international corporation engages in practices on the other side of the globe that are regarded as crimes in this country, should I buy their products? (Do not steal),
- If I contribute to global warming and pollution and if I do not help feed the starving, am I complicit in the deaths of millions?(Do not kill),
- If names do not have the power the ancients attributed to them, why should I worry about swearing in God’s name ? (Do not take God’s name in vain),
- If I lie online or stretch the truth in advertising, have I really hurt anyone? (Do not bear false witness),
- If technology seems to offer repair for any damage, why should I consider the next generation in my decisions? (Do not steal, kill, and covet).
That should be enough to get us started. So let’s discuss what sin is in our time and place.
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The discussion was particularly lively. It began, as I remember, with the recognition that too much ethics has taken on a Facebook format in which people simply express what they are feeling and others respond with “I like” or a very short comment about how they feel. However, even more they said people simply don’t talk about such things and that includes the adult community. A common observation made by our young people is that the adult world is in denial, pretending they are moral but really simply refusing to question or discuss what is happening.
Their discussion quickly moved to a very honest sharing of ethical positions and, contrary to Brooks’ article, they were quite ready to support these with arguments that went beyond “feeling good”. Quite frankly, I imagine some of their positions would shock my generation. They began discussing sexual activity. Every one of them believed once marriage promises had been made, there should be no extramarital sex. However, beyond that they had quite different beliefs and experiences. Only one thought sex was limited to marriage. Most saw nothing wrong with engaging if some form of commitment takes place. Others did not think that was necessary. Their acceptance of each others’ positions was deeper than “do whatever you feel is right”. They recognized just about everyone finds someone to live with before and after they are married.
At the end of the meeting, they asked me to send out a list from which they could chose which sins they wanted to discuss in the next meetings. From my very extensive list they chose adultery, abortion, divorce, addiction, suicide, euthanasia, participation in war, lying online, lying about credentials, and gender roles, somewhat in that order.