Statement on Social justice - Part 5

[yrieithydd]

So in the first post in this series I tackled Scripture from the Statement on Social Justice. Article 2: Imago Dei was the subject of part 2 article 3 was on Justice. Article 4. God's Law. Now for Sin

Sin
WE AFFIRM that all people are connected to Adam both naturally and federally. Therefore, because of original sin everyone is born under the curse of God’s law and all break his commandments through sin. There is no difference in the condition of sinners due to age, ethnicity, or sex. All are depraved in all their faculties and all stand condemned before God’s law. All human relationships, systems, and institutions have been affected by sin.

WE DENY that, other than the previously stated connection to Adam, any person is morally culpable for another person’s sin. Although families, groups, and nations can sin collectively, and cultures can be predisposed to particular sins, subsequent generations share the collective guilt of their ancestors only if they approve and embrace (or attempt to justify) those sins. Before God each person must repent and confess his or her own sins in order to receive forgiveness. We further deny that one’s ethnicity establishes any necessary connection to any particular sin.

SCRIPTURE: GENESIS 2:16, 17, 3:12,13-15; PROVERBS 29:18; ISAIAH 25:7, 60:2-3; JEREMIAH 31:27-34; EZEKIEL 18:1-9, 14-18; MATTHEW 23:29-36; ROMANS 1:16-17, 3:23, 5:12, 10:14-17; 1 CORINTHIANS 15:3-11; 2 CORINTHIANS 11:3; GALATIANS 1:6-9; TITUS 1:12, 13; REVELATION 13:8

I have no idea what they mean by all people being connected to Adam federally.

Note also the Calvinistic language here (depraved in all faculties)

Basically this one boils down to - you can't blame us for slavery!

They reference Jeremiah 31:29-30

In those days they shall no longer say:
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.

but they omit Jeremiah 32:18 "You show steadfast love to the thousandth generation, but repay the guilt of parents into the laps of their children after them, O great and mighty God whose name is the Lord of hosts". Whether the sins of the fathers will be visited on their children is an issue where different passages (even within the same book) have different emphases.

I think for me, it comes down to the fact we are only responsible for what we do, but the effects of what we do (or what others have done before us) can continue down the generations. So whilst white people today are not responsible for slavery, we need to recognise the ways in which that the injustices of slavery continue today. A friend on facebook shared a good definition of white privilege the other day - "White privilege doesn't mean your life hasn't been hard; it means that your skin colour isn't one of the things making it harder."

Colonialism and Slavery (which were both justified with reference to the Bible) have caused and continue to cause much suffering (which falls foul of loving one's neighbour as one's self if not of a specific one of the 10 commandments) and calling that out is Biblical. It's what the prophets did.

Next up, the gospel - well about 20% of it"