More on original sin

Peggy #24 wrote “I am unwilling to embrace either original sin or total depravity because of the ultimate consequences they have regarding how we are to perceive humans. That is where I cannot follow Augustine, Calvin and Luther.”

I’m thinking that how we see OS is dependent on one’s personal church history; mine is fuzzy liberalism followed by 30 years of friendly and flexible evangelicalism. The reason I’ve started reading and trying to participate in these discussions is that our little community here in the UK has been thwacked from out of nowhere with some startling form of conservatism that I’ve never seen up close before.

As a theological pipsqueak, I’d never heard the term “total depravity” before this week. But as a woman of God I’m determined to develop a vocabulary to explain why I reject the concept.

So when I say Original Sin, I mean a natural tendency to put self first. If we believe that everyone is afflicted, no matter how “well” they appear to be (ie the Pharisees), then no one can be beyond Grace just because of current behaviour.

I guess I see it as the only real level playing field in the world of poverty and exclusion by class, education and opportunity. (in any country or culture). I hate the thought of wounded people being battered into the Kingdom. I’d much rather be able to say – actually, the basic problem is not that you rob banks/take dugs/are a racist thug (we’ll deal with that later); it’s that you and I both care more for ourselves than for God or the people around us.

Thanks for helping me get my thinking straight and I apologise is this all sounds simplistic.