Acknowledging collective guilt
Greg Yatarola
class of '99
In his second inaugural address, the great Abraham Lincoln suggested that the devastation our nation suffered as a result of that war was punishment for our sins as a nation. Strangely, I do not remember reading anything to the effect that he had no right to claim any knowledge of the will of God.
Yet today, when a few outspoken preachers make an analogous statement about the recent tragedies in this country, they get lynched in the press (see the Monday column by Scott Flipse), and this even though our sins today are worse than they were 140 years ago. (Horrible as beating a man and making him pick cotton may be, it pales in comparison with pulling a baby half out the womb, piercing her skull, and sucking out the contents). And this disaster was not nearly as bad as the Civil War. So what is the big deal?
True, Falwell and Robertson do not have quite the stature that Lincoln had and continues to have. But that does not mean they cannot call a spade a spade. Flipse seems to think these guys claim to know the "secret will of God." Well, that will is not so secret. It is no secret that God does not want unborn babies slaughtered by the millions. It seems the only time that will is considered secret is when it does not correspond with what most people want it to be. If you proclaim that racism is wrong, and racists get what they deserve when bad things happen to them (true enough), nobody accuses you of knowing the "secret will of God." But if you were to say the same when a pornographer got hit by a brick from the sky, you would just be a bigot.
Flipse also seems to deny collective guilt for the sins of society. On the contrary, just as we believe in the communion of saints, we must also acknowledge our membership in the communion of sinners. We are all complicit in our public crimes, even those of us who condemn them. Unless we spend every ounce of energy and every moment we have in fighting the blatant injustices around us, we cannot say we have no part in those injustices. We are all guilty to some extent; even you, Scott Flipse, and especially me.
What makes me respect what those preachers have said is not just that it is true, but that they would apply it to themselves. From what I have heard from them before, I am sure they would tell you that they deserve misfortune also — their faith tells them they are sinners, even if it were not obvious otherwise — but it is only through His mercy, which they do not deserve, that God spares them.
I do not think those attacks were just; nor do Falwell and Robertson. But we can either use them to make us angry at "religious extremists" or we can see them as a call to repentance. I think the choice is clear; skewering the men and women who point out the wickedness of our culture does not lessen our own guilt at all.
Greg Yatarola
class of '99
Oct. 8, 2001
All Viewpoint Stories for Tuesday, October 9, 2001
