“Sin is not what it is usually thought to be; it is not to steal and tell lies. Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.”
—Shūsaku Endō, Silence
A lot’s changed for me in the past 12 months. This time last year I had no desire to go back into my previous career, health and safety. The fact that I’d applied for several roles was a leap of faith. I didn’t want to ‘give up’ on the dream of full time pastoral ministry—a journey I’d grieved once it vanished in 2016.
Nowadays my work life is incredibly full and fulfilling, working in fire and emergency services, serving as I would as a pastor, though they see a health and safety professional.
I’m no longer working in the Christian environment, apart from my one-day-a-week role as associate pastor at my local church, which in all fairness is easily two-days-per-week.
No longer working in a Christian environment means I’ve pulled back on writing about God, because, let’s face it, I’ve got a lot of new friends who I’m focused hard on. I want to find middle ground, so I’m focused on writing mental health.
But then I read this quote that Chuck DeGroat tweeted. Instantly I thought nobody likes this idea of someone walking brutally over another, and completely ignoring the effect of that trauma.
When anyone imagines this scenario, immediately we think, “crime.”
It’s criminal to walk brutally over someone, but there might be recourse to forgiveness if only there’s acknowledgement, apology, making it right.
What makes the idea of someone walking brutally over someone else especially criminal is when they’re oblivious and don’t care.
We all owe a duty to our neighbour. To treat them much the way we’d have them treat us. Anything less than this is sin. Might not be a great word for a non-Christian, but that’s what it is—a failure to do one’s duty of reasonable regard toward another, which means all others.
Fail our duty of care and we deserve the consequences. Nobody has a problem with that concept. It’s not the wrong that’s done that’s the game changer—it’s the idea that “I can sin [i.e., violate someone] and get away with it.” This is not to be simply ‘forgiven’. The law is designed to moderate society based on what is an ethical principle—that has always seemed to exist over the breadth of secular life. Why? Because trauma hurts and it destroys lives.
Whether you’re Christian or not, one thing we agree on is it’s not good to violate people.
The real wounds to people are often not the initial hurt, but the compounding of hurt when the person won’t own up or be held to account. This is the real wrong.
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash
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