Is Slavery America’s “Original sin” or is it bad theology?
Last week was the 4th of July.
On social media, holiday wishes were mixed up with Independence Day denunciations. The complaint was independence was declared for a new nation while it practiced slavery and that made slavery America’s “original sin”.
I empathize with the sentiment, but is it accurate?
If you separate the phrase and define the two terms the inaccuracy is apparent. “Original” is rooted in the word origin, where something begins, and “sin” is a transgression against Divine law. Slavery didn’t originate in America and there is no Divine commandment against the practice.
That’s a logical dismissal, but it’s deceptive.
By separating the words I deluded the phrase from its theological depth. For semi-religious people that repeat the charge against America the phrase “original sin” is interchangeable with evil.
Now, there’s a biblical story about a boy named Joseph that was sold into slavery by his older brothers. Joseph rose to prominence by saving Egypt and his brothers from a famine. At the end of the story the brothers sought forgiveness and Joseph forgave their treachery in this popular passage: You meant evil against me, but God meant if for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (ESV)
Here, evil is associated with the brother’s motive and not the institution of slavery. It was human beings that declared slavery evil after morality evolved over millenniums. By this time evil was defined as profoundly immoral or malevolent, and slavery was associated with evil because it was a transgression against humanity not Divine law.
So evil and “original sin” are not interchangeable.
Religious people understand “original sin” is derived from disobedience in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve, “humanity’s parents”, ate the forbidden fruit they transgressed against Divine law and infected human nature with sin.
But this doctrine of “original sin” is not a single concept that means mankind is permanently doomed. The whole point of Christian theology is that God sent a redeemer. That’s the story of the crucifixion, where God’s son is the sacrificial lamb to redeem humanity from Adam and Eve’s “original sin”.
So in Christian theology the doctrine of “original sin” comes with redemption.
If slavery was America’s “original sin” then the Civil War would be equivalent to the crucifixion. But it’s not comparable to those that use the “original sin” metaphor because they don’t believe in America’s redemption.
They reject the outcome of the Civil War and claim slavery just evolved into different forms of oppression. But in Christian theology, after the crucifixion, Christians were persecuted from the first to the four century.
That's a time span of 400 years. (Sound familiar)
Redemption doesn’t mean a return to the Garden of Eden. The purpose is to eradicate the wrong. If slavery was America’s “original sin” than abolishing slavery was America’s redemption. Since America’s redemption is rejected, slavery can’t be associated with “original sin”.
An accurate theological metaphor would be slavery is America’s unpardonable sin to those that inherited Pharaoh’s hardened heart.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 7/12/17
On social media, holiday wishes were mixed up with Independence Day denunciations. The complaint was independence was declared for a new nation while it practiced slavery and that made slavery America’s “original sin”.
I empathize with the sentiment, but is it accurate?
If you separate the phrase and define the two terms the inaccuracy is apparent. “Original” is rooted in the word origin, where something begins, and “sin” is a transgression against Divine law. Slavery didn’t originate in America and there is no Divine commandment against the practice.
That’s a logical dismissal, but it’s deceptive.
By separating the words I deluded the phrase from its theological depth. For semi-religious people that repeat the charge against America the phrase “original sin” is interchangeable with evil.
Now, there’s a biblical story about a boy named Joseph that was sold into slavery by his older brothers. Joseph rose to prominence by saving Egypt and his brothers from a famine. At the end of the story the brothers sought forgiveness and Joseph forgave their treachery in this popular passage: You meant evil against me, but God meant if for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (ESV)
Here, evil is associated with the brother’s motive and not the institution of slavery. It was human beings that declared slavery evil after morality evolved over millenniums. By this time evil was defined as profoundly immoral or malevolent, and slavery was associated with evil because it was a transgression against humanity not Divine law.
So evil and “original sin” are not interchangeable.
Religious people understand “original sin” is derived from disobedience in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve, “humanity’s parents”, ate the forbidden fruit they transgressed against Divine law and infected human nature with sin.
But this doctrine of “original sin” is not a single concept that means mankind is permanently doomed. The whole point of Christian theology is that God sent a redeemer. That’s the story of the crucifixion, where God’s son is the sacrificial lamb to redeem humanity from Adam and Eve’s “original sin”.
So in Christian theology the doctrine of “original sin” comes with redemption.
If slavery was America’s “original sin” then the Civil War would be equivalent to the crucifixion. But it’s not comparable to those that use the “original sin” metaphor because they don’t believe in America’s redemption.
They reject the outcome of the Civil War and claim slavery just evolved into different forms of oppression. But in Christian theology, after the crucifixion, Christians were persecuted from the first to the four century.
That's a time span of 400 years. (Sound familiar)
Redemption doesn’t mean a return to the Garden of Eden. The purpose is to eradicate the wrong. If slavery was America’s “original sin” than abolishing slavery was America’s redemption. Since America’s redemption is rejected, slavery can’t be associated with “original sin”.
An accurate theological metaphor would be slavery is America’s unpardonable sin to those that inherited Pharaoh’s hardened heart.
First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 7/12/17
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