Sinful Nature and the Changeling

The reading for this past week’s Sunday school class was Romans 5, to provide an opportunity to bring our last two topics (Jesus’ life and work, and evolution) together. We didn’t actually discuss the evolutionary aspects to any great extent, but we did focus on the question of what is meant by the “sinful nature” (NIV) or “flesh” which Paul refers to in his letters.

The image of an angel and a demon sitting on one’s shoulders making suggestions was mentioned, not as a literal explanation of what is going on, but as a traditional image of what we all experience, namely feeling torn at times between something we “know is right” and another option that seems seductively appealing. Tom and Jerry seem to have had the same experience from time to time.

Understanding how much of both our morality and our temptations are genetic is not irrelevant. Nor is understanding the role of culture and upbringing. To the extent that Christians are dedicated to overcoming sin in their individual lives and standing against its systemic expressions, there is an urgent need for clarity on this topic.

I find particularly helpful the Rabbinic idea (which Paul may have presupposed) of humans having what they called a “good impulse” and an “evil impulse“. There most important insight was that the “evil” impulse was not inherently evil – indeed, the impulse that drives us to eat and to procreate is essential for our survival. What brings evil into the picture is when we do not allow our values and our reason to at times override these basic instincts. Such a viewpoint seems compatible with our current biological and psychological understanding of human beings.

A couple of days ago I saw the movie Changeling, and it provides an interesting opportunity to discuss our concepts of evil, nature, and sinfulness. The instinct in each of us is to focus our attention on the character of Gordon Northcott. But if our notion of evil stops with the serial killer, however heinous his crimes, then our understanding is superficial. Nor is it enough if we ask about his parents and upbringing (a story to which there was more in real life than was included in the movie), or even whether he was better described as evil or as deranged and mentally ill. We ought also to notice that, while Northcott was free to roam about as a man, the mental hospital featured in the movie was filled with sane women who had in some way become an inconvenience to the police. Also important is that many of those entrusted with the responsibility for protecting citizens were not fulfilling that duty. If terms like “sin” and “evil” are to have any meaning at all, they must be allowed to challenge us by encompassing all our varied participations in individual actions and social interactions that allow or even directly cause or at least encourage such things to happen. It is too easy to punish the serial killer, or the single mother forced to leave her son at home while she went to work, or the corrupt police, but Christianity’s power lies in the fact that it challenges us to see how we are capable of and/or contribute to the same things, and to not merely denounce others but also seek to overcome the same tendencies in ourselves, and work for changes to society so as to prevent avoidable tragedies, foster justice, and bring healing. But it is much easier to envisage a battle between good vs. evil as “us vs. them” rather than as a battle the front lines of which run through each and every one of us.

The issues of “nature” and “naturalness” (both in their modern sense and as used in Paul’s letters) come up in discussions of homosexuality, and so the present topic should provide a fitting segue to a consideration of that specific concrete subject about which Christians disagree. We’ll begin with what the Bible may have to say on the subject, but here too there is a danger unless we are aware of the many parts of the Bible that we do not actually practice or believe ought to be put into practice today. It simply will not do to say “the Bible says” about homosexuality while ignoring what it says about violence and vengeance, about possessions, not to mention about subjects like slavery, marriage and genocide. Hopefully some of the discussions we’ve had about the Bible thus far will have laid a helpful groundwork upon which we can build as our series continues.