Tag: Christianity

Communal/Generational Sin

Many white evangelical Americans have a very individualistic view of sin, wherein we cannot understand how we could carry any responsibility for something that our ancestors/relatives/friends/police/leaders did or continue to do. [I’m sure that’s also true for some other types of Christians too, but I see this view being especially prevalent among fellow white evangelicals]. Yet that is not a fully biblical view of sin: God calls his people to enact justice and righteousness for the entire community, not just in their own personal lives. Hence the prophets’ warnings to the entire nation of Israel, or Jesus’ warning to entire groups of people like the priests and Pharisees. It is tough to shed our solely individualistic view of sin and adopt the Bible’s more balanced view, but understanding communal guilt is absolutely essential if we are able to ever tackle massive, widespread sins in our society like racism. 

In 2017 Tim Keller, a white pastor from NYC, gave a short talk explaining the biblical view of communal guilt. It is more of an overview than a deep-dive, but it’s a good overview of the concept. However, I will say that the absolute best way to adopt a biblical view of sin is to just soak A LOT in the Bible and learn more about the ancient Middle Eastern culture(s) in which the Bible was written. As a start, check out these Bible passages below that address the idea of systemic/communal/generational sin and evil. It took me barely about an hour to find all these passages, and I know there are many, many more!

As you read them, ask yourself: What would it look like for white American Christians to adopt a similar mindset in our day? What would it look like to actually confess, repent, and make amends for the systemic sins that are present in our culture? And what are the costs if we continually reject the Bible’s complex and multi-faceted view of sin in favor of a purely self-centered one?

Daniel 9:4-5 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.”

Isaiah 6:5: “5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Ezra 9:5-7 “5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God 6 and prayed: “I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days of our ancestors until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today…”

Leviticus 26:40-42: “40But if they will confess their sins AND the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, 41 which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.”

Judges 9:56-57: “56 Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelek had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers. 57 God also made the people of Shechem pay for all their wickedness. The curse of Jotham son of Jerub-Baal came on them.”

Matthew 23:31-36 “31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started! 33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.“

Deuteronomy 24:7: “If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.”

1 Corinthians 12:25-26: “25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.”

Matthew 25:31-33: “31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left….”

2 Chronicles 7:14: “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Matthew 12:41-45 “41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here. 43 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

Isaiah 24:5-6: “The earth is defiled by its people;
    they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
    and broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
    its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,
    and very few are left.“

Malachi 3:8-9: 8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.“

Revelation 18:1-5: “After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2 With a mighty voice he shouted:
“‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’[a]
    She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit,
    a haunt for every unclean bird,
    a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
3 For all the nations have drunk
    the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
    and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“‘Come out of her, my people,’
    so that you will not share in her sins,
    so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
5 for her sins are piled up to heaven,
    and God has remembered her crimes.“

A Dialogue in Heaven

[NOTE: The dialogue that follows below is an example of “satire.” Satire often utilizes exaggeration and silly images, and is certainly NOT meant to be taken literally. Rather, satire uses hyperbole and shock to illustrate a point.]

“The Temptation of Christ” by Ary Scheffer, 1854

Setting: Heaven’s Throne Room. God is seated on the throne. Satan enters.

Satan: Hey God, it’s me.

God: Oh really, you again, what have you been up to?

Satan: Prowling around, looking for who I can devour. You know, the usual. But today I wanted to run something by you.

God: Oh really? What’s that?

Satan: I’d like to bring forth another anti-Christ, designed to deceive your people, particularly in the United States.

God: You know my true Church always stands strong in the end; I don’t know why you try all these pointless schemes. But sure, what do you have planned this time?

Satan: Well, I have a person in mind, and I’d like them to run for President. They’ll claim to be the most pro-Christian candidate ever elected. In so doing they’ll lead a majority of American Christians to become utterly confused about right and wrong.

God: Righhht [skeptical]…tell me more about this person.

Satan: Well, without getting too specific, this person is known to be very greedy and proud, and has a tendency to have lots of affairs and touch people inappropriately—despite being married! They’re also known to twist the truth and lie, even over very tiny facts-in other words, they’ll be fluent in speaking my native tongue. Not to mention, this person has a habit of cheating employees out of wages owed to them.

God: Wow—and you think this person can deceive my Church? Well OK, go on.

Satan: They’ll use foul language a lot.

God: Uh-huh.

Satan: And they’ll generally just criticize, insult, and relentlessly harass anyone who doesn’t immediately bow down in support before them. That’s especially true against women, foreigners, and people who aren’t white, but the target can be anyone.

God: Surely they’ll repent and asked for forgiveness for all these sins?

Satan: That’s the thing—the person I have in mind is so stubborn that they will never publicly repent, and will even claim they’ve never even had to ask YOU for forgiveness either!

God: Haha foolish indeed…now tell me about this person’s political priorities.

Satan: Well, this person LOVES hanging out with dictators and cutting backroom deals with them. Particularly those from North Korea, Russia, China, and other places where your people are persecuted. Not only that, but they’ll dramatically limit the number of Christian immigrants and refugees that are allowed to come into the United States.

God: [Scoffs] Hah-no way my people will let that happen. They love their brothers and sisters around the globe! I really doubt your plan will work, but go on.

Satan: This person also will discourage people from stewarding your creation, and instead will reward people who pollute the air, water, and soil.

God: [Shaking head] I’m sure by now my people in America will know better than to let that happen, but sure. Go on.

Satan: The key to my plan is this–I will deceive your people into affiliating so strongly with this person, that many of them will refuse to hear even the smallest criticism. They’ll call true statements about wrongdoing “fake”, and believe any embellishment that makes this person look good. It’ll get to the point, that people will lie about the truth in legal proceedings, even after swearing an oath on a Bible!

God: Look, I’m really struggling to believe you’ll get my entire Church in the US to actually follow this person.

Satan: Well, no, it won’t be everyone. Some will denounce this person, and others will vote for them only reluctantly and half-heartedly. But I figure if I can get a high enough percentage of your people (especially if they’re prominent figures in the Church) to publicly worship, whole-heartedly support, and even lie for this person, it will make you look so bad, that you’ll see a whole generation flat-out rejecting your son Jesus and the Church.

God: Wow. That is ambitious. But OK–you gotta tell me who you have in mind for this plan. This feels too far-fetched, who are you thinking? And which political party?

Satan: I’ll tell you, but I’m keeping it a bit secret right now, so keep it under wraps for now: [Satan whispers the person’s name in a low voice].

God: Hahahahha—You’re kidding right? THAT person?! Running in THAT party?

Satan: It’ll work!

God: No way. But I’ll tell you what. You have my permission to go ahead and try your plan. If my people in the US actually are deceived by this person, then they deserve every last judgment that is coming to them. I’ll let you sift each of them as wheat, to see whether their faith will fail–and if it does, whether or not they will turn back to me.

Satan: Understood. I’ll see you around.

Master Yoda

[I find it fascinating that a significant portion of Jesus’ teachings are in the form of parables: simple narratives used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. More frequently than logical arguments, sermons, or speeches, Jesus utilizes the power of story to communicate truths to his followers. Despite that, modern Christians often prioritize logic over narrative. In order to push back against that a little bit, here is one of my past attempts to communicate a truth about God via a parable. I have titled it “Master Yoda.” ]

Master Yoda? Credit: British Library

A young Jedi Knight once sent a request for a meeting with Master Yoda. Master Yoda sent back a message– “Meditating, I am, in the Room of a Thousand Fountains.” Not wishing to disturb, the young Jedi waited. The next day, he sent the same request. This time, Yoda replied: “In the training room, I am.” The next day, the young Jedi sent his request a third time. This time, Yoda wrote: “Eating in the cafeteria, I am.” Annoyed at Master Yoda for dodging his request, the young Jedi Knight gave up.

Weeks later, the same young Jedi ran into Yoda in the Main Atrium. Yoda asked him why they had never had a meeting. Exasperated, the young man cried out, “Because you always had an excuse! You never made time for me.” Yoda slowly shook his head. “My child, sadly mistaken you are. My heart was to see you, and I told you where to find me. Wanted you to join me, I did. Sad was I, when you never showed.”

Whoever who has ears to hear, let them hear.

My Take on Trump’s Impeachment

My Earliest Political Memory

My earliest political memory is a discussion I had with Eggbert, the talking egg. For those of you without the privilege of growing up in New York’s lower Hudson Valley, Eggbert is a royal egg who comes out every holiday season to greet the children (and their parents) who visit Devitt’s Nursery and Supply. Through a camera and speaker cleverly hidden within his throne, Eggbert can talk to the children, ask what they want for Christmas, and even tell jokes. No Christmas tree is complete without an ornament of Eggbert hanging from one of the prominent branches, and now you can purchase cans of Angry Eggbert IPAs from the local Newburgh Brewing Co. Suffice to say, Eggbert is basically a celebrity.

Children talking to Eggbert (Courtesy of Devitt’s Nursery & Supply)

So that’s why, in December of 1998, I proudly walked up to Eggbert and asked him, “Eggbert, what do you think of the ‘Clinton crisis?'” You see, while I had just turned 8, I was already interested in politics, and I had absorbed some of the key details of Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. I didn’t know what sex was, but I definitely knew what lying was. Whether from my evangelical church, my Christian school, or my parents, it sounded like President Clinton’s actions were really, really bad, and I was transfixed by the idea that he might be removed from office.

I lament to say that I can’t remember Eggbert’s reply to my earnest question. But the moment stuck with me, and I’ve continued to be fascinated by politics ever since.

Evangelicals’ Rationale for Impeachment in 1998

From my perspective as an evangelical Christian looking back at the impeachment of Bill Clinton, there seemed to be two main issues conservative Christians had against him. By and large, they argued on the basis of morality, saying:

  • A President who told lies was not fit for leading the nation. As evangelical magazine Christianity Today wrote in 1998, “The President’s failure to tell the truth—even when cornered—rips at the fabric of the nation. This is not a private affair.”
  • A President who cheated on his wife showed a lack of character. Dr. James Dobson from Focus on the Family wrote: “Character DOES matter. You can’t run a family, let alone a country, without it.”

Moral Hypocrisy?

In 1998, Bill Clinton apologized for his indiscretions, the Democrats swept the midterms, and the Senate voted along party lines not to remove him from office. While Republicans were upset, it seemed that they had proven themselves the party of integrity, of truth-telling, of morality, and of character.

Much has been written about the fact that now, just a few elections later, most of the same evangelicals who lambasted Clinton’s sins have rallied behind Donald Trump. Trump, of course, has violated all three of his marriage vows, lies frequently, and despite all that, has said he doesn’t ask God for forgiveness. Some evangelicals justify their strong support for Trump with claims that he has truly repented and changed, but to me it feels hard to see evidence of that. Instead, evangelical support looks like moral hypocrisy, a partisan shift of values to justify voting for a candidate they wanted in office. The data seems to back this up:

In 2011, only 30 percent of white evangelicals said that an “elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life can still behave ethically and fulfill their duties in their public and professional life.” In 2016, that number skyrocketed to 72%.

PRRI/Brookings

Obviously, not all evangelicals strongly support Trump: “If I were to support, much less endorse, Donald Trump for president,” conservative theologian Dr. Albert Mohler says, “I would actually have to go back and apologize to former President Bill Clinton.” Moreover, while the data indicates that White evangelicals remain staunchly in favor of the president, the support drops dramatically among evangelicals who are Black, Hispanic, or other ethnicities. Regardless, the level of evangelical support for Trump is striking.

How this feels different from 1998

One could argue that the charge of hypocrisy points both ways: In 1998 Democrats opposed impeachment while Republicans supported it, and now it’s the other way around. Neither party has been wholly consistent when it comes to concern for a president’s morality; partisanship is a two-way street.

The key difference I see, however, are the differences in the rationale for the impeachment. In 1998, the main crimes Bill Clinton were accused of involved sexual misconduct and lying under oath. Republicans argued that while these merely involved Clinton’s personal wrongdoing, such private actions disqualified him from public leadership. And maybe they were right.

But right now, Democrats are not impeaching Trump for his personal moral failings, egregious as they may be; they’re making the impeachment argument much bigger. For Democrats, impeaching Donald Trump is a matter of defending the Constitution, saving the 2020 election from cheating, keeping the Executive Branch from taking too much power, and preventing Russia from having malignant influence in American affairs. And unlike Bill Clinton who asked for forgiveness in 1998, Trump still claims his behavior is “perfect,” and seems willing to keep doing it.

In 1998, a significant number of Democrats crossed party lines to investigate and impeach Bill Clinton. There is virtually no chance that Republicans will do the same to Donald Trump today; indeed they seem unwilling to even allow witnesses to publicly testify. The increase in our country’s partisanship, driven by gerrymandering, social media algorithms, and straight-up bias, has unfortunately led us to a situation where a politician who dares to show an iota of character will be relentlessly criticized if they dare to go against their party line (Check out these replies to Republican Matt Gaetz when he voted with Democrats on a nonbinding War Powers resolution). Meanwhile, under Bush, Obama, and now Trump, the Executive Branch has consolidated more and more power, while Congress bickers over proper procedure.

I’m really not sure what the ultimate result of the current impeachment trial will be. It seems likely the Senate will acquit Trump, but it’s an open question as to whether the impeachment process will hurt his odds of reelection or not. Sadly, even if the full truth comes out during the Senate trial, it’s far less likely that people will believe it than in 1998: in our postmodern era, people are deeply entrenched into their political biases and automatically reject any evidence that goes against it. The most likely result is that, if acquitted, President Trump and his associates will be emboldened to continue using the office of the presidency for personal gain, and to continue lying to protect themselves. In 1998, Bill Clinton seemed chastened and publicly apologized, concluding his presidency without further scandal. I hope for the best, but I fear the opposite will happen with our current president.