What I'm about to blog about is not what I personally believe, nor do I personally disbelieve it. It is an unexplored idea I just had that I thought was worth sharing.
A conversation I've been having on someone else's blog has gotten me thinking about something...
Christianity has been criticised for creating a culture of guilt, and using guilt as a means of controlling its "believers." In some cases, this might be true, but I don't think that that is what Christianity is supposed to be about. In fact, I believe the opposite, that Christianity is supposed to be about freedom from guilt.
But this got me thinking about what I believe about original sin. The general belief amongst many Christians is that because of the original sin of Adam and Eve, all the descendants of Adam and Eve, that is, the human species, bears original sin from the moment they are conceived that they need to be forgiven for.
Now, I certainly understand why this seems unfair. Should I be punished for something that happened before I even existed? Should I need forgiving becase my parents are humans, which is something I've never had any control over, nor my parents, for that matter? Is there really such thing as original sin? Do I bear personal responsibility?
Then I thought, the answer to that last question, might be no. I don't bear personal responsibility. I don't bear personal responsibility.
I thought about our aborigines. For many years the Australian indigenous population has been asking our government to apologise for the way our ancestors treated them, which today many aborigines are still suffering from. Our previous Prime Minister, John Howard, from the Liberal Party, thought that although the way the were treated was terrible, he should not be the one to apologise, or bear moral responsibility for. After all, everyone who was involved in those acts towards aborigines were dead, and he wasn't even born at the time. Although some Australians agreed with him, he was rather unpopular with a large number of them, aborigines and white people alike. We all felt a national guilt that, even though none of us were personally responsible, we should bear the responsibility of the actions of our forebears. In our last election, John Howard was voted out and Kevin Rudd from the Labour Government was voted in, and one of the first things he did as Prime Minister was make a public announcement on behalf of the Australian people, apologising to the indigenous Australians.
I also thought about the African slave situation in America. Although slavery is now illegal, and Americans of African descent have as much rights as any other American in America, many white Americans still feel white shame, and I have met a few over the internet that have felt ashamed of being born white because of the actions of their ancestors, even though they had nothing personally to do with it. And even though some might not feel it as keenly as others, there is still a "sensitivity" between the races.
Do any Germans feel ashamed that theirs was the nation that produced the Nazis? I don't know a lot about the German mindset, but I wouldn't be surprised.
Anyway, this got me thinking. Maybe original sin is simply species shame. Eating a fruit from a tree versus crimes against humanity? Okay, not quite the same ball park, I'll warrant, but this story is full of symbolism. The seven days of creation? Science tells us how unlikely it is that the universe was created in seven days, but the number seven itself was highly symbolic to the Hebrews, a number representing wholeness. The fruit that they ate wasn't just any fruit, God didn't forbid it for just any reason; it was the fruit from the knowledge of good and evil. There's some symbolism right there.
So people use the story of Adam and Eve to make people feel guilty for something that happened before they were born. But maybe it's not about having personal guilt, because it's not our personal sin. But maybe it's the responsibility we all have as human beings, to be resonsible for each other and not to seperate ourselves from our shared past. Maybe us Australians do bear some responsiblity for the actions of our ancestors. The consequences of their actions are still existing, after all, and they're not around to fix it, so maybe it's not enough for us to say, "tough luck, I feel bad, but it's nothing to do with me." Do I feel personally guilty for the way our aborigines were treated? Of course not. I had nothing to do with it. Do I think I should share at least some moral responsiblity? Maybe so.
There is a resonsiblity we have as humans towards other humans, when we see one part of humanity committing atrocious sins, even though we are not a part of that "part," maybe we, as humans, need to take action, and not just sit back and do nothing; because maybe the acts of one human reflects on all humans. Maybe, I thought, this is what original sin is about. Not personal guilt, but shared responsiblity.
And as for Christianity? I mentioned before, is about freeing us from the shackles of guilt. All types of guilt, whether guilt that we feel we deserve when we don't, guilt that we don't feel when we do deserve to, and guilt that we feel that we rightly deserve. Whether that guilt is our personal guilt, or the shared guilt of humanity. Responsiblity will still be there, though, of course.
Anyway, this is just a thought, nothing more, nothing less. Chances are, I'm way off.
guilt
