America Has No Sense of Sin

In a nation where Christianity has played such a pervasive role, with all of its yacking about sin, what's quite astounding is that the nation, itself, has no sense of sin.

For most of American Christianity, sin has mostly been about drinkin' and smokin' and dancin' and lately, gay sex and/or other personal/individualistic peccadillos.

But when it comes to the nation, no go … America gets away with murder, literally, and no one raises a question. And domestically, millions of Americans are eagerly discarded and dismissed because they're lazy, and whatever other character defect can be applied. A surprising number of Christians have no mindfulness of this, and some even encourage it, even as they tearfully sing "Amazing Grace."

While most Americans "remember" Pearl Harbor because it was a sneak attack, America has engineered any number of sneak attacks (remember Grenada?) and has often acted the bully around the world.

This much for Japan - at least they picked on someone their own size, and were simply doing what America has been doing ever since Reagan with Grenada and Bush with Iraq - preemptively striking.

Christianity pretty much affirms a personal truism - knowing one's sins is the essence of humility, the essence of spiritual maturity. To know God, it's said, one gets to know "how far short of God's glory a human being has fallen," and by the Holy Spirit, compelled to seek God all the more through the forgiving grace of Jesus Christ.

Christianity has made this clear for the person, but not for the nation. For the nation, alas, it's assumed that we're a "Christian" nation, and that's that.

Jeremiah and Isaiah stand in a tradition that made it clear for Israel and Judah that sin is not only personal, but national. John the Baptist makes it clear, and so does Jesus and Paul.

Abolitionists in England and the United States understood the "sins of a nation," but vested interests, i.e. the wealthy and those churches invested in the status quo, reacted quickly and decisively … sin is personal, never corporate … sin is what a person does, but the nation is a "Christian" nation endowed with divine purpose to Christianize and civilize the world.

Ah well …

If "knowing one's sin" is the essence of spiritual maturity, what about a nation?

It's interesting to note that an immature person is characterized by a sense of "innocence" - they always see their behavior in the best light, excusing all of their behavior and blaming others.

It would seem that America, as a nation, remains spiritually underdeveloped.

It refuses to face its sins of war and mistreatment of the poor.

It chooses, rather than responsibility, the strange and adolescent attitude of "innocence."