CREEDE HINSHAW: When the church avoids sin

I am two-thirds finished with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Atkinson’s “The Guns at Last Night,” the concluding volume in his massive World War II trilogy describing the United States’ liberation of North Africa, Italy and Western Europe. These volumes have been inspirational with descriptions of our army’s valor and courage and our nation’s growing determination to sacrifice whatever necessary to win the war.

They have also been depressing in their description of the deaths of so many young warriors, indiscriminate and widespread destruction of non-military targets, atrocity by all combatants upon enemy soldiers, the slaughter of millions of civilians and razing of proud cities across Western Europe.

Atkinson holds back nothing. He describes the wisdom of the allied leaders (Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton, Montgomery and dozens more) alongside their jealousies, rivalries, backbiting, pettiness and failures. This well-rounded description should not surprise, but here in the South we tend to set our military leaders, past and present, on a pretty high pedestal.

I have been reading Paul’s Letter to the Romans at the same time I’m reading Atkinson. Although this was an unintentional choice, it has provided a helpful balance. Paul stresses repeatedly to the church at Rome that every person on this planet is a sinner, marred and distorted from God’s intent. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

The church has often been accused of speaking too frequently and eagerly about sin – especially the sin of other people, a propensity which is in itself a sin, Paul points out.

But something rings true with Paul here. To be separated from God and to fall short of God’s glory is the human condition. One proclaims this with sadness, with repentance, and with the certainty that Paul is describing each of us. The recognition of this sin is perhaps nowhere clearer than when one writes the history of war: nations lusting for power, domination, wealth, ethnic cleansing and control. No person can escape falling short of God’s glory. Nor can any nation.

The desire of congregations to avoid sounding judgmental combined with the depressing message of inescapable, universal sin has led many congregations to avoid the topic altogether. Those in the pew would perhaps rather hear how Jesus can make things better in every way and how we can succeed as a Christian.

Tempting though it is for the church to avoid mentioning the fallen nature of humanity, to do so only leads to naiveté, cynicism and despair. One cannot address the radical nature of the gospel to save the world from the principalities and powers without understanding that sin is tenacious, personal and corporate and still very much alive.

If one is going to read about war or open the daily newspaper or even take an honest look at self one had probably better be fortified with Romans, which offers an unvarnished diagnosis of the human condition and a healing prescription for all creation.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].