I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect.
Audre Lorde
O Lord all my longing is known to you. My sighing is not hidden from you.
Psalm 38
I first approached the question 'what is sin, and what does it mean to be a sinner' as a theological problem when I was a seminary student back in the early 1990's. A logical place to begin such an inquiry for the most part my concerns, at least at the beginning were intellectual ones. I wanted to know what was wrong with us as a human race. What was the substance of our tendency to stray so far away from what was 'good' or 'right' or 'true' such that violence, degradation and the perpetuation of systems of social injustice -- on a large and small scale -- seemed to be the recurring and inevitable theme of human existence? Why God, I queried, are we like this? WHAT is wrong with us?
At that time the desire to understand if not alleviate the grandest injustices of human existence fueled my interrogations. Racism, classism, sexism, homophobia -- these obvious distortions of our individual and collective capacities to recognize, engage or cultivate the full humanity of ourselves and one another -- these sinful-'ims' begged for a critical spiritual analysis of their causes and continuations. And while my liberationist commitments animated my belief that such queries could make a practical difference in the struggle to interrupt their worst social and political effects, still I recall approaching the question from a decided scholarly remove. The facts, apostle Paul, St. Augustine, Martin Luther, and because I was trained at a liberal seminary - James Cone, Rosemary Ruether, Gustavo Gutierrez -- just give me the theological facts.
And then in 1999 I began to starve myself to death, and with an experience of sickness that infiltrated into every fiber of my physical, mental and spiritual being, Christian sin-talk no longer appealed to me as a grand theological problem to be interrogated. Instead 'what is sin' and 'what does it mean to be a sinner' became intensely personal questions for me. They became personal not because I equated having an eating disorder, or indeed any sickness with being sinful. By the grace of God, I was never tempted to go down that road. But rather it was the window my sickness provided into what it means to be undone by a thing; to be twisted by a desire; to be unmade by a willing whose force pulled me away from the recognition of the good thing God had created me to be in the world, that gave me a sudden and visceral sense of what is wrong with us.
I am a sinner and I sin; we are sinners and we sin when we would stand outside of, or in opposition to the fundamental rightness of our status as beings created in the image and likeness of God. Genesis 1:31 says, 'And God saw everything that She had made and indeed it was very good.' But when we lose sight of not only God's goodness all around, but the personal and singular aspect of that goodness we are called to embody for ourselves, and with and for one another in the world we fall into sin. We are, by God's design and for God's holy purposes His own very good and beloved people. But it is our tendency to fall so utterly and completely outside of this knowledge; to forget at the most profound and intimate levels of our lives that this is who we are - broken in fact, but beloved indeed -- that is the substance of our unmaking.
I recall what it felt like to fall away from this knowledge, and the larger backdrop against which that falling away took place. Caught up in the usual struggle to believe in and enact my belovedness as a Black Queer girl in America, one day the enormous weight of this struggle just became unbearable. 'Dear God, how can I continue to stand upright,' I cried, 'when there are so few practical and real-world affirmations of my existence on which I can consistently rely?'
I let myself feel the pain of the persistent failure of Christian communities on either side of the so-called Left/Right divide to embrace me as an integral as opposed to an exotic member of the faith. I let myself feel the anxiety around and take on the disdain for my flesh that is in part a sorry outcome of the historical ordering of the tradition. And as these feelings began to well up inside of me I responded, not by beating a path toward God's always ready embrace. Instead I began to long for, desire and actively refashion my being as something small, starved and disappearing right before the unseeing eyes of almost everyone around me.
An Eating Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified was the official diagnosis attached to my condition. And today, more than a decade later, when I can claim to be on the other side of that experience, I neither dispute the categorization nor the blessing of the medical interventions that saved my life. But there is also that part of the story that begs to be told beyond both the clinical certainty of a label of sickness and the kind of grandly theological articulation on the human condition that I first pondered.
How best to fully speak of it remains unclear; but twenty years after I first began to wonder 'what is sin' and 'what does it mean to be a sinner,' I know that our small and seemingly private tales of brokenness and shame; of fear and longing matter. They matter, not because we are called to heap blame on ourselves, or anyone else because of them. But we are called as a people, broken in fact, but beloved indeed, to bear witness to all that we are, as a testament to the fullness and richness of our Maker.
Body Image Issues: The World's Most Comprehensive Eating ...
We are instructed from the beginning on what is "good". We, created in God's image, are good, as is the earth and all creation. The only thing that is "not good" in the description of creation is that man is alone. He is given a companion, a helper - the woman. This is what is intended for mankind and for our future, for one man and one woman to join in a life-long one-flesh union, to be fruitful and multiply, becoming co-Creators with the eternal God.
What is sin? Is it not our refusal to live our God-given purpose? When sexual relationships become recreational; when we refuse to obey His commandments, is that not sin? Sin brought death into the world, and we all suffer from it, experiencing violence, pain, sickness, and death. It was not meant to be so. Obedience to a loving God is life-giving. Turn back to Him in repentence and love.
This is the true marital relationship, the two become one, open to life, both unitive and procreative - this can only happen between one man and one woman. Heterosexual relationships that are loving but outside marriage are missing the dimension of a life-long marital commitment. Homosexual relationships cannot fulfill this possibility by nature. So although these relationships may be loving, it is not what God has shown us by imprinting it on the human body, and it does not fulfill His command.
The spousal meaning of the body. Natural, beautiful. Many of us have fallen short of living out its truth, myself among them. That doesn't mean it is all the same in God's eyes.
John Paul II's Theology of the Body is the answer to a deeper understanding of human sexuality and love.
Why are any of us made the way we are? Why are some beautiful, some have terminal illness, some handicapped, some shy, etc? I am not sure, but I think what matters is how we handle the challenges we are given and how we treat one another. Christians are called to meet a standard set by God. Meeting that standard often means that we must practice self-control and also mercy towards others, With God's grace, both are possible although not always easy.
Since sexual intimacy is a gift given to be shared within the marital union only, that means that single people as well as those who are attracted to same sex partners would be call to remain celibate, and so are priests, nuns, monks, etc. Again, with God's grace, this manner of self-denial is possible, not always easy. We also have His mercy if we fall.
As a Catholic, prayer and the grace of the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist give me strength. For others, healing prayer might give them strength. A favorite of mine is to go back in my memory to times when I suffered hurt and invite Jesus into that memory. I ask Him for a message in prayer about where He was at that time and often receive an insight that allows me to let old injuries go. This brings healing and helps me to forgive.
There is no God. As will become more and more apparent to all as we progress and flourish as a species. It makes me weep that it's taking so long.
Like most here in our country, I come from families that have a history near 300years in this country. My diverse ancestry is filled with people that were part and multi-generation preachers from tens of different Christian sects. Each had particular things to say about sin. Most except for the Quakers in my family were very big on the list of sins and what would happen to one when one died.
I respect my ancestors religious traditions and fanaticism that made them be pioneers over and over moving westward. I wouldn't be here without them and what they did. About the time of the Civil War, many of my ancestors on one side stopped attending organized church institutions. The reason was the obsession with sins and everlasting life.
Instead of harping on the sins and everlasting life, make this life one of kindness and compassion by loving thy neighbors, practicing forgiveness, helping the least among us and letting go of material goods obsessions. By this practice of serving, one serves oneself and makes one a better person in the practice. You'll find that one can practice kindness for oneself far more easier with this path. This was a practice of my mother's grandmother (who raised her).
She also had a saying ..."child, this too, will pass".
"Instead of harping on the sins and everlasting life, make this life one of kindness and compassion"
Words so beautifully used to shift ones focus from a realization that we are all sinners and the repentance of sin is essential towards eternal life with God. In a few paragraphs you so eloquently have preached the gospel of Lucifer. God is irrelevant, man does not need God and your eternal life with God is irrelevant.
I do identify sin as a turning away from God, a loss of relationship with God.
However we can't really bridge that..there is a fissure between man and God...but we can get to "know" God as we grow in relationship with him.
Mat 27:50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
Mat 27:51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.
The curtain seperated the Holy of Holies from us was split in half symbolizing anyone has direct access to God through the redeeming work of Jesus on the cross.
Jesus allows us to access our own Divinity, that is God within.He is relatable because he was human, and this makes him accessible,
THe fuissure between man and God is permanent.
We can never comprehnd, describe or experience God as He is.
We get snippets, consolations, flashes of insight etc. but we are not made to see Him as He is.
"We are, by God's design and for God's holy purposes..." Were that true, how could that not be "outside agency"?
When we feel that something happens to us by and outside agency. We have a tendency to become a victim. When we own our creation and what happens to us as our creation, that allows us to better move through life with skill and ease. Of course its not easy when something "big" happens, but the more we can accept "what happens to us" the more we can attempt to deminish the feeling created from it. Being a victim eat our you innards, causes cancer etc. It is never healthy.
Yes to the last part. If we were by gods design and for his holy purpose... that would be outside agency. We could be messed with, we could be for his unholy purpose.
P.S. Religion is fantasy, not reality.
The so-called commandments, for example, are absolutes that are impossible to circumvent without breaking at least one. Is rule (short for commandment) an absolute in the eyes of this god?
Yes, there is no way you can worship another one but him, period, without breaking it. No leniency.
Is the rule against stealing an absolute? Yes. So, if a man steals food to save his family from starvation, is he guilty? Yes, and to the full penalty of the law because there is no possibility of leniency; it's an absolute.
If a man kills another, is it a sin? Yes. There can be no possible leniency and a killer must be punished to the maximum of the law; it's an absolute, even if he is defending his family or his country. There are those who will tell you that the OT makes place for exceptions, but the laws are absolutes or they are not, and the Bible is true or it is not; not one comma can you change without putting god's word into doubt and destroying the authority and infallibility of it.
With this kind of religious philosophy there is no circumventing the law. Only secular law has the ability for leniency, because it is not an absolute.
1) Jesus did it.
2) This shows a basic misunderstanding of the commandments of God. Jesus shared two insights that you should filter into your understanding: a) There is a priority among commandments (Matthew 22:36-40), and b) thoughts were equal to actions (Matthew 5-7). While all other ethical systems show equal commandments, Christianity shows that there is a priority of two above all others. When Jesus was accused of healing on the Sabbath (and was threatened with stoning), He replied I'm about my Father's business (Love God) or who would not help a neighbor get an animal out of the ditch (love neighbor).
Ref; "There are those who will tell you that the OT makes place for exceptionsÂ, but the laws are absolutes or they are not, and the Bible is true or it is not; not one comma can you change without putting god's word into doubt and destroying the authority and infallibilÂity of it."
1) Please see above comments with respect to "laws are absolutes". There are absolutes but there are priorities.
2) The law was put in place to show humanity's sinfulness. It has done an admirable job of that. That is why God from the very beginning had a salvation solution apart from the law to save humanity.
1) I will agree there is no circumventing the law, but God has already established the redemption salvation solution that frees those who believe from the punishment of the law.
2) Your argument for secular law appears to focus on leniency. When you divorce the law from the purpose of the law of following God, you have eliminated the basic characteristic of the law and fallen into a chasm that unfairness is the rule of day. With the allowance of leniency, doesn't the cries of unfairness deafen all ears? Who gets the breaks and why? Rationalizing sin is one of humanity's strengths. I would doubt that you would commonly find anyone willing to declare that the action they took was wrong. We can always find some way to justify our actions. Without an absolute standard, who could argue against such a statement?
Sinned, there would be no need for atonement and no need for a Jesus.
But, did Adam sin on purpose or because he was flawed? Did he steal (sort of), did he kill, did he commit adultery (though he never married)? We can all tell which rule he broke of course and, by golly, he was punished to the full penalty of the law. And so are we, according to this religious philosophy.
Now every time we hiccup, we look over our shoulder and shiver at the thought of having broken some rule; working on a Sabbath, watching TV on a Sabbath, saying hello to our gay neighbor....
Since there isn't a definite line between 'good' and 'bad-evil', we are prisoners of a Guilt-forever-Syndrome.
something is very amiss/
If there is a god and if He dictates certain laws that are not to be broken, breaking one is a Sin.
Consequently, religion scrambles to establish a set of steps in the attempt to allow for what it calls repentance or "repair" of the crime. And it winds up by proclaiming that we need god to save us and give us some sort of contorted salvation. The god in question, magically transforms himself into his own son, and dies to save mankind.
So believers will say that we need god, to save us from our sins.
But, the corollary is that if there is no god, there are no divine laws, no crime to commit, no laws to breach and consequently, no such thing as a sin. The absence of god, is the absence of sin.
It the OT, it is clearly established that Adam is the pillar of Christianity, not Jesus.
If Adam had not “sinnedâ€, there would be no need for a Jesus. But even without Jesus, there are provisions for the atonement or forgiveness of sins in the OT, of which the sacrifice of animals (sheep, cows, bulls, etc.) are a part. Human sacrifice is simply the epitome of the sacrificial “lambâ€.
I am just saying that, philosophically speaking, the concept of divine laws is not a necessary standard. If one needs an invisible deity to set and dictate ones moral compass, … one can only wonder.
Adam is the source of the problem. Jesus is the source of the solution. The problem was described in the OT. The solution was described in the NT. Christianity is related to the solution and not the problem although it recognizes the problem. Therefore, Jesus is the pillar of Christianity, not Adam.
Ref: "If Adam had not “sinnedâ€, there would be no need for a Jesus." Also, there would be no need for sacrifice of animals or any of the other OT requirements because we would be following God's will exactly.
Ref: "Human sacrifice is simply the epitome of the sacrificiaÂl “lambâ€. " This is only necessary if humanity has sinned. Since Adam sinned, everyone has fallen and needs this solution to satisfy our rebellion from God.
And no doubt you'll reply with more noise...
It still is the case.
I understand that it is your belief that you have divine guidance on these topics, but nothing is superior or even more wise with your rules. Most have been dropped from the human pantheon because they are unhelpful and in many cases, unjust and cruel.
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But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!"
~ George Carlin
1) Who is this Religion dude? I need to correct him on several points: a) He's not a man, b) He's not living in the sky because He is everywhere, and c) it's every second of every day.
2) Religion (via the Church) has constantly had its share of hypocrites and wrong understandings of God. How can such a fallible organization have such persuasive power without God empowering it and proclaiming His message through it? There are other man-made religions but please show me the message from God that are empowering them?
Ref: "special place, full of fire and smoke" and "But He loves you." Would God show more love by not telling you the truth?
Ref: "He needs money!" Money is just one sign of our obedience. God wants more than our money. God wants all of us. Money is just one of the outward indicators of our love for Him.
Ref: "somehow just can't handle money!" This is a funny line but it also shows God's great love for us. God doesn't need us or our money. I'm for one am thankful that God allows me to participate in His mission. God could have left us as nothingness.
Just what are the attributes of this god you refer to?
1) You say he is everywhere; is that ubiquitous you mean?
2) He knows what is going on (every minute); is that Omniscience you refer to?
3) It seems that he is invisible; but would you agree?
4) He seems all powerful; but would you agree?
5) He seems eternal; but would you agree?
6) Is he in this universe or somewhere beyond it looking in?
If so there is a problem with your concept of him.
But you have. If you are looking for intelligent critiques you read the atheist comments. If you are looking for a critique based in fantasy land, then read the comments by theists. Simple!