The Fall From A Biblical Perspective

I am deeply concerned about how we perceive ourselves and others.  It bothers me deep down inside to hear people—human beings—referred to as “animals.”  It bothers me greatly to hear those in authority and power refer to a 17-year old shooter as an “evil” person. It irks my soul to hear religious folk do the same. I’m not naive.  I don’t live in an ivory tower.  I’m not a bleeding heart.  For many years I visited jails and prisons across the United States—I am aware of the so-called criminal, drug addict, sex offender and deranged person.  I am aware of his or her ignorance, arrogance, dishonesty, brokenness,  addictions, ugliness, rejections, alienations  and loneliness. But he or she, unloveable and fallen as they may be—are yet a man, and she a woman, whom God loves.

We have distorted the biblical view of the Fall.  We have held the false notion that the Fall means as a consequence only human or individual sin—which we have defined as willfulness, selfishness, or pride—greed, duplicity, lust, dishonesty, malice, depravity, and other vices. (The biblical version of the Fall puts all of us in the same basket—whether we are caught or uncaught.)

The biblical version of the Fall, however,  is about the alienation of the whole of Creation from God—“the rupture and profound disorientation of all relationships within the whole of Creation.”  Human beings are fallen, to be sure, but so is everything else, including cows, lions, governments, ideologies, corporations (which the Bible on occasion refers to as “creatures” or as “principalities and powers”).  Even our so-called “justice system” is flawed and broken!  We already know that our political system if flawed and broken!  What’s the difference between a government that condones “torture” and the use of “Agent Orange,”  or soldiers who degrade prisoners (Abu Dhabi), or a Klu Klux Klan that lynches a man or woman because of color, or a senator who abuses women, or a clergy person who hates certain groups while proclaiming a God who loves the world?  What’s the difference between these principalities and powers, these creatures,  and the man or woman in prison or on the street or involved in a school shooting? 

We are all human beings—and we are all broken.  This “Cain and Abel” world of labeling “good” and “bad” is precisely what the Bible terms a “fallen” creation—it is the “whole of Creation” not just him or her—not just them.  We, too, are among the fallen.

Iris of the Day