Original sin. I’ve often wondered what those two words mean. Certainly different things to different people. The Christian doctrine of original sin was formulated by Augustine, a man who had led a dissolute life until he became a Christian. He ended up as a bishop who wrote many works including the famous City of God.
The idea of original sin is that we are all born with a sinful nature that needs redemption. Our Puritan ancestors really bought into the idea and constructed a theology around it. The phrase is now being used regarding slavery in America, the subjugation of people based on their race or ethnicity.
It’s more complex than that. It’s too easy to grasp onto phrases that have a certain meaning in one context and using them in another. Prejudice and racism are sins and rear their heads even among our elected leaders as we continue to see even now. As we head into Lent let us consider how our society can repent of these sinful scourges.
Prayer for the Day
Light of our souls, we come to cast away the darkness
That holds us and contains us in its prison.
More than knowledge of the mind, we seek wisdom of the spirit,
That frees us from our past and moves us into the future.
Illumine us with your presence and shape our response
So we live the radical equality of the Gospel preached.
In the name of the One who is your Gospel,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thoughts for the Day
Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.
- Charlotte Bronte, English novelist (1816-1855)
Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.
- Michael Crichton, American writer (1942-2008)
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore, teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psalm 51: 6-7