We begin with a simple premise: “sin” is dead. Not the state of sin, of course, or our ever-proliferating sinful acts, but the word itself, and the impact of the word, which, for the better part of human history has helped individuals and communities recognize when they were “missing the mark.” In contemporary American culture, “sin” has been filed away with leeches and bloodletting and the stuff of DaVinci Code dramas. “Sin” is a big, wagging finger, a word that pronounces judgment and blame; it means that you’ve been bad, and, more often than not, sexual in a wholly unproductive way. With the launch of oral contraceptives and the women’s liberation movement in the 1960s “a new age of permissiveness” was ushered in, “an unorchestrated attempt to shake off an oppressive Christianity that had terrorized the faithful with its doctrine of an angry and vengeful God.” In no time at all the word “sin” began to vanish from the culture, as fewer deeds— not merely sexual acts but pleasure-seeking and self-aggrandizement of all stripes— were regarded as such. The state of Original Sin, upon which the doctrine of the salvation hinges, became an artifact of the judgment era. A congenital state of sin was replaced with a simpler, easier to marginalize definition: sin, not as a condition but an act— little vices easily trivialized, rationalized, and, for the first time in history, entirely personal, “a matter between oneself and God.” Wanting the freedom to pursue their own sinfulness in peace, Americans became far less judgmental. The less we spoke or thought of sin, the easier it was to believe that it had been transcended.
Clearly, any day in the life of the American narrative will reveal that we have not transcended sin. Nor have we “outgrown” the very human need to confess and atone for our sinful ways. Only now these acts are being played out in reality TV and afternoon talk shows, rewarding viewers with a sense of superiority, and the shameful soul in the hot seat with “fifteen minutes of fame” — a far cry from eternal life.
From RECLAIMING THE WISDOM OF HOMO INCURVATUS IN SE:“MAN TURNED IN ON HIMSELF” AS AN ENTRY POINT FOR THE DISCUSSION OF SIN IN 21ST-CENTURY AMERICA by Heather Choate Davis
Heather Choate Davis 