Can small sins in the present manifest suffering for others in the future? Can a ripple today become a tidal wave tomorrow?
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As I've been preparing myself to enter into the Lenten season, I've been thinking about the nature of original sin, and sin in general. Original sin is the consequence of the fall of our first parents in Adam and Eve from original holiness in the Garden of Eden. 1, 2 Losing their trust in God's goodness, they tried to will their own good apart from God. This is the root of all sin even to this day. Yet, they were so close to God. The imagery in Genesis of God walking in the garden in the evening breeze isn't meant to anthropomorphize God, but to demonstrate how highly personal the relationship between Him and Adam and Eve was. 3 Their relationship was similar to what we have with other flesh and blood people in our lives. I suppose it's fitting that the Apostles and disciples likewise enjoyed the privilege of a similarly highly personal relationship with God in the form of Jesus Christ. The Bible begins with a personal relationship between man and God that we forsook, and it ends with God reestablishing a personal relationship with man in the form of Christ who extends the rest of humanity an invitation back into God's friendship.
We inherit original sin from our parents, but what does this actually mean?
Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. Psalm 51:5 NRSV 4
All of us are born to imperfect people who make mistakes, who themselves were born to imperfect people prone to error, and so on. We are in a sense imprinted by the relationship we have with our parents because of how close and personal it is. Likewise our friends leave traces of themselves embedded in our personalities, and help shape and reinforce the way we see and engage with the world. They too have been born to imperfect people with their own flaws, and are just as much influenced by us. So much of our experience with the created world is shaped by other parts of creation. Through this lens it becomes easier to see how sin, even in small matters that seemingly only affect the person engaging in it, can easily create ripples that affect other people and continue to negatively influence the future. This is how I understand original sin, and the nature of sin generally.
The progression of sin over time is most clearly seen in the early chapters of Genesis in the fall of Adam and Eve, followed by the murder of Abel by Cain, the curse of Canaan by Noah and finally the Tower of Babel. Sin starts out as a choice to not trust in God's goodness, and trying to will our good apart from God. At this phase it's the sinner hurting themselves directly (Adam & Eve). 5 It then progresses to the sinner hurting someone close to them as a consequence of their damaged relationship with God (Cain & Abel). 6 Next, it transitions to the sinner harming someone who is indirectly involved in the problem (Noah & Canaan). 7 Sin eventually metastasizes into an organized form of evil where people are cooperating with each other, but are doing so in an effort to will their own good apart from God (Tower of Babel). 8 In the final stage, sin becomes impersonal, and has established a highly ordered form of disorder (oriented away from God) wherein all participants are openly assisting one another into continued sin.
I think this final stage in the progression of sin, the Tower of Babel phase, is where you see things like the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany killing millions of people. This type of extreme evil was made manifest in the world through many different larger and smaller evils that occurred earlier in time, that built up to a crescendo in these specific historical events. Think of it like the beginnings of an avalanche at the top of a mountain versus the end result at the bottom. When sin progresses to this fever pitch in its destructive capacity it becomes impersonal in its dehumanization of people, and resultant suffering becomes immeasurable.
A current example can be seen in the diminishing view of the sanctity of human life in Western countries. It starts with couples or women who have conceived a child seeing that life as a burden. Seeking to will her (or the couples') own good apart from God, she (or the couple) seeks an abortion. Over time this activity becomes normalized in the culture, and is even treated as a net positive for society. 9 This progresses to euthanasia being seen as a net positive also, encouraging elderly and sick individuals to seek assisted suicide. 10 Arguably, this example is already in the Tower of Babel phase. However, it's not hard to imagine a future where this sin progresses still further; wherein human lives are extinguished, regardless of what stage of life they are in or if they desire to continue living, if the quality of their existence is considered a burden, or deemed insufficient to contribute to the perceived net good of society.
Alternatively, we could begin with a person watching pornography. This sin appears to be limited to the individual, and is seemingly small in magnitude when compared to sins such as murder. However, consider that this individual is providing clicks and screen time to an organization that is monetizing that time by providing content that is largely made through the exploitation of women, which further encourages this practice to continue. 11 Additionally, watching pornography conditions people to see one another as sexual objects rather than as human beings entitled to the dignity of the human person, disconnects people from real relationships, reduces the satisfaction with sexual intimacy in real relationships, and reduces cognitive function. 12 As this practice becomes normalized, fewer people are able to enter into meaningful and satisfying intimate relationships with one another resulting in fewer marriages and children. 13 Additionally, this effectively normalizes the objectification of human beings as sexual objects rendering sexual violence and exploitation commonplace. Eventually this leaves large portions of the population unable to form lasting healthy relationships with other people, becoming increasingly isolated, and rapidly diminishing the population causing a variety of societal problems. This progression may seem unlikely to some, but if you look at the sourcing I provided you can see this already happening in places like Japan. Also, with respect to progression of sin like this it is important to remember that we are social creatures affirming our friends and family in their behaviors as they affirm us in ours. The small things that we do influence what we perceive as being socially acceptable, and we reinforce that notion with others. Thus, even our seemingly small sins today have the capacity, in tandem with others, to become the cause of great suffering in the future.
This understanding of the progression of sin has many implications:
We cannot remain indifferent to sin, regardless of who is sinning or why
We have to actively seek to stop sinning as best as we are able
We must seek to be reconciled to God as often as needed
We must seek to make amends where we have failed to live up to our Christian calling in the lives of others
We must actively seek to extend the mercy we've received in Christ to others
I'm sure that for many these principles seem like a given, but I think there is value in considering that even minor sins today could contribute to immeasurable suffering in the future. This is why the forgiveness of sins is so important. It's the only way to effectively break this cycle. It's the reason that Christ had to die for our sins, that we might be redeemed. However, even in His mercy we must strive to return to the closeness of that personal relationship with God that was lost in the Garden of Eden, and reclaimed by the Apostles and early disciples with Christ. Our personal relationships with other people are often filtered through the lens of the worldly inclinations they hand us and that we in turn hand them, but in seeking a personal relationship with Christ we can receive and hand others the way, the truth, and the life.
Works Cited
Gen. 3:1-24 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed February 21, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/genesis/3.htm.
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church: Revised in Accordance with the Official Latin Text Promulgated by Pope John Paul II (West Chester: Ascension Press, 2022), paragraphs 388-390, 399. Also available online here: https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/100/
Gen. 3:8 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed February 21, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/genesis/3.htm.
Psalm 51:5 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed February 21, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/psalms/51.htm.
Gen. 3:1-24 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed February 21, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/genesis/3.htm.
Gen. 4:1-16 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed February 21, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/genesis/4.htm.
Gen. 9:20-27 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed February 21, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/genesis/9.htm.
Gen. 11:1-9 (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition), Bible Hub, accessed February 21, 2023, https://biblehub.com/nrsvce/genesis/11.htm.
Caitlin Knowles Myers, Morgan Welch, "What can economic research tell us about the effect of abortion access on women’s lives?," Brookings Institution, November 30, 2021, https://www.brookings.edu/research/what-can-economic-research-tell-us-about-the-effect-of-abortion-access-on-womens-lives/.
Maria Cheng, "‘Disturbing’: Experts troubled by Canada’s euthanasia laws," Associated Press, August 11, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-toronto-7c631558a457188d2bd2b5cfd360a867.
Meghan Donevan, ""In This Industry, You're No Longer Human”: An Exploratory Study of Women’s Experiences in Pornography Production in Sweden," Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence Vol. 6, Iss. 3 (May 2021): Article 1, https://doi.org/10.23860/dignity.2021.06.03.01.
"Pornography," Medical Institute for Sexual Health, accessed February 21, 2023, https://www.medinstitute.org/pornography/.
"No sex, no marriage: why Japan has so many sex-free marriages and why a rising number of people want to stay single," South China Morning Post, December 3, 2020, https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/3112258/no-sex-no-marriage-why-japan-has-so-many-sex-free.
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