I recently found an article on the Associated Baptist Press
pointing to Albert Mohler’s use of Original Sin as an explanation for toddlers’
bad behavior. Mohler was responding to a Wall Street Journal article that
discussed aggressive behavior in 2-3 year old boys and girls. Mohler’s
response: it is the fault of original sin.
Great.
Very helpful.
That must be why many Southern Baptist are baptizing their children before the age of 5. The kids are brats, they are brats because of
original sin, therefore if you “wash them of their sins” via baptism they will
no longer be brats. But that doesn’t seem to work. Instead what you end up with
is a 3-year-old who is now selfish and angry and wet and not fully
understanding why they were forced underwater. That will make for great therapy
sessions in the future (and when is that no different from infant baptism?).
What does it help to tell people that their kids are acting
out because of original sin? Instead of helping it seems to take away any hope
for the parents to teach their child the behaviors of sharing, empathy, fairness,
etc. It is saying that no matter how much you try your child will always act
out because they are born rotten. Unless, of course, you hit your child because
“spare the rod” and all that crap, and a good beating will set the child
straight. Mohler is quick to tell us that “time-outs” wont work but says
spanking is. Based on what theology? This is an arcane kind of logic that leads
to more therapy.
Let it be said, there is never a good reason to hurt, hit,
beat, or use any kind of capital punishment on a child. It does not help or
beat the sin out of them in any way at all. That is just stupid. Spanking is
stupid (are you angry at me yet?).
What kind of message are we sending when we tell people that
they are born bad, rotten, evil, broken people. Yes, we are all born with tendencies
to be selfish, hurtful, prideful, envious, mean, and cruel. We are also born
with tendencies to be gentle, compassionate, loving, merciful, and in general
good. Often time children are a mixture of all of these things in a single
moment. That is what makes them so much fun.
What kind of message are we sending that says we believe in
a God who holds us responsible for someone’s misguided decisions based on the
hissing of a serpent thousands of years ago (i.e. the Adam and Garden of Eden
story)? This is a God who just cannot let it go. What does it further say that
the only way this God will stop blaming us for what someone did thousands of
years ago is to demand a human sacrifice, and that the sacrifice be his own son
(who is also him, but not so much because atonement theory favors Jesus more as
the son then as God incarnate… do I smell a heresy?).
Can we please move beyond the idea of original sin? Can we please
excise it from our lexicon of Christian theology, tear it out of our Sunday
School books, stop teaching it, pushing it, and basing our faith and commitment
to Christ on it? Let the cruel, inhumane doctrine of original sin fester in the
heap of theological ideas whose times have come to pass with: biblical literacy,
patriarchy, the notion of the elect, damnation, and hell (and I am sure that
there are others… are you angry at me yet?).
We are born searching, yearning, and desiring relationships.
We are born with an original need to be in communion with others and with the
divine. Part of being human is learning how to be in a relationship that gives
and takes and grows together. Sometimes toddlers are just cranky, or mean, and
are still learning how to be a good person. Sometimes grown people are still
learning that as well. Maybe some day I’ll learn how to like and respect Mohler’s
writings; while he keeps pushing his outdated, and dangerous and bad theology,
respecting and liking Mohler will be difficult to achieve.
