Let's talk about Sin!

What Music I am listening to : The Essential Simon & Garfunkel; I started listening to S&G during my formative High School years. Whenever I feel broody and introspective, S&G become the soundtrack for my life.

This morning, I am doing something I haven't done since I moved to Austin-- I am skipping my Old Testament Class. Some would say that my absence from class this morning was due to my drinking too much homemade wine last night, but I woke up at my usual time and my hangover is (mostly) non-existent. I needed to read fifty pages of John Calvin this morning in order to prepare for my Theology class this afternoon. Theology is the class where, short of the Eschaton, I will never skip.

Our "unit" this week in Theology has been "Finitude, Sin, and Evil." ( I know what you are thinking: "Wow, that sounds like a laugh riot...") Presbyterians do not like to discuss evil- it makes us uncomfortable. (Come to think of it, just about everything tends to make Presbyterians uncomfortable. Generally speaking, we spend most of our waking hours trying to avoid doing or saying anything that will step on anyone's toes. Well, this seminarian says that maybe we should quit being so damn polite and step on a few toes! If everyone wears steel-toed boots, it won't hurt so much! Do you think Jesus worried about offending anybody? Absolutely not! But I digress...)

Why does sin make us so uncomfortable? Why do we want to avoid talking about evil? And what is sin/evil, anyway? One of my theories is that we, as Christians, do not truly believe that we are sinners. Oh, we know that we "fuck up" now and then, but, at the end of the day, we tend to be self-satisfied. Real sin and evil is reserved for socio-paths, child-molesters, terrorists, etc. A fellow seminarian was asked to define evil and he semi-jokingly replied, "Saddam Hussein." But while I do not agree that Saddam Hussein is the apex of the manifestation of evil, his response is representative of a majority of Christians. Of course we will not think we are sinful and capable of evil if we compare our shortcomings with those of a merciless dictator.

Augustine defines evil as "the absence of good." Since God created everything "good" and "very good" (see Genesis), that which is not good is not part of God's plan for creation and therefore is sin. Thus, it can be argued that evil exists where good does not. Hmmm... a good, point, but raises even more questions. I am finished for now, but this discussion shall continue at a later date.