Not long ago a friend and retired cleric, knowing that I struggle with (rather, against) the traditional Christian doctrine of Original Sin, sent me the following quotation from Reinhold Niebuhr:

“…the doctrine of Original Sin – in the sense of a bias toward self-enhancement at the expense of others – is the only empirically verifiable theme in Christian thought.”

I responded with gratitude and with the suggestion that we might carry on a discussion, by snail mail or e-mail, based on the comments and questions that I sent him.  The following paragraphs, with slight editorial changes, are taken from my letter (now that I’ve told you that, we can dispense with quotation marks):

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The daily news would seem to validate Niebuhr’s statement as defining the primary and most basic characteristic of human nature, and who am I to quarrel with Niebuhr whom I have respected ever since meeting his writing when I was in seminary 50 years ago?   If he were here, I would want to ask a few questions to be sure I understood what he meant and to clarify my own position.  For too long I didn’t ask enough questions, just accepted what I was taught.

These questions occur to me:

1. The news media do not often note acts of generosity, altruism, and compassion, yet they, too, are everyday occurrences, most notably in people like Mother Teresa, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others who have given, even given their lives, without hope of personal gain.   Aren’t they just as representative of what it is to be human as, say, Adolph Hitler or Bill Clinton or Bill Gates or Grey Austin?

2. How do we balance this sinful nature with such Biblical statements as “only a little lower than the angels,” “In God’s image,” “salt of the earth,” “light of the world,” “the Kingdom of God is within you”?  Are these also true descriptions of what it is to be human?  More so?   Less so?  In some balance?

3. I don’t remember the main points of Niebuhr’s book, Moral Man and Immoral Society, but the title suggests that collections of people are more likely to be insensitive, selfish, bigoted, mean, etc. than are individuals.  I heard something of the same from Marcus Borg recently when he spoke of “systemic evil” – as when an economic system, which works well in many ways, loses some people through the cracks into homelessness and poverty.

4. A friend reminded me that Karl Barth, perhaps the most eminent Christian theologian of the twentieth century, said that we should hold a newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other, suggesting a balance in our understanding of the human condition.  Is it also a balance between the love message of Jesus and the sin-salvation message of Paul?  Are we potential saints as well as potential sinners?  Where is the balance?  Is one more true than the other?  If so, which?

5. Or does “sin” simply mean “less than perfect,” as we all are, and therefore there is no shame or blame, but simply fact, and therefore to be accepted?  Does originally sinful mean, “broken, less than whole,” in which case healing rather than salvation seems to be the need?

6. I’ve never really understood the rationale by which an omniscient and omnipotent Creator, the source of unconditional love and grace, can be thought to have created humanity with such a flaw.  I understand that we have freedom, and therefore the possibility of going in “wrong” directions, but why a bias toward such self-centeredness, such disobedience?

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My hoped-for discussion hasn’t yet materialized, but perhaps it will, and if not with my friend who sent the quotation, perhaps with someone who reads this “Musing.”  The invitation is open.

Other questions might have been asked, or might develop if the discussion were to take place:

What are the implications for self-image and self-esteem, and therefore for quality of life, when we take on a primary identity as “sinner”?  Do two traditional Christians greet each other with the (unspoken) words, “the sinner in me greets the sinner in you”?  How different are the implications of being greeted with the Hindu word “Namaste,” which means, “the divinity in me recognizes the divinity in you”?

What are the implications for nurturing children toward healthy adulthood if they learn in Sunday school that they are forever cursed with sinfulness because First Man and First Woman committed an act of disobedience?  Where is the incentive for living a joyous and compassionate life?

What is the appropriate primary identity for a human being, the identity that is most likely to contribute to the health and wholeness of the planet and its inhabitants?  I submit that it is not a national or racial identity, nor denominational or occupational, nor gender or sexual orientation, nor disability or victim of abuse.  Each of us has several identities, including a few of these, but all of these are partial identities and divisive if taken as primary.  The identity I seek is one of universality, of my oneness with all that exists, all humanity, all with which I am one in spirit.  (All right, so I moved beyond posing questions for discussion.)

And the BIG QUESTION: If we are not, at a basic level, sinners, then do we need, at any basic level, a savior or a blood-sacrifice?  We may need mending or healing, but these are do-it-yourself projects, perhaps with someone to show us how.  Can it be enough for us that Jesus was (and is) teacher and example?  Can it be enough that Jesus taught us and showed us what it is to live a life that, like ours, embodies divinity?

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A few pertinent quotations:

“If your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat everything [everyone] as a nail.”
                                                                         -- Abraham Maslow

“If I don’t see God in the next person I meet, I am not living correctly.”
                                                                         --Gandhi

Finally, an expanded version of Namaste:  “I recognize the God in you, and if you are at that place, and I am at that place, then there is only one of us.”

 
(Copyright 1999 by C. Grey Austin, all rights reserved.)

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