Sin's Impact on the Social Fabric

My typical consideration of sin centers around the individual.  This is in keeping with my western civilization mindset where the individual trumps the collective group.  The separation it inflicts between the person and God, the individual consequence it brings or how a person can be restored is how the furniture in my mind is arranged.  Seldom is its consequence on the society as a whole considered.  The following are additional thoughts from last week’s post by Tim Keller:

“Sin does not only have an internal impact on us but also a devastation effect on the social fabric….human society is deeply fragmented when anything but God is our deepest love.

“If our highest goal is the good of our family, then…we will tend to care less for other families.  If our highest goal is the good of our nation, tribe, race, then we will tend to be racist or nationalistic.  If our ultimate goal in life is our own individual happiness, then we will put our own economic power interests ahead of those of others.  Only if God is our…ultimate good and life center will we find our heart drawn out not only to people of all families, races and classes, but to the whole world in general. 

“How does this destruction of social relationships flow from the internal effects of sin?  If we get our very identity, our sense of worth, from our political position, then politics is not only really about politics, it is about us.  Through our cause we are getting a self, our worth.  That means we must despise and demonize the opposition.  If we get our identity from ethnicity or socioeconomic status, then we have to feel superior to those of other classes and races.  If you are profoundly proud of being an open-minded, tolerant soul, you will be extremely indignant toward people you think are bigots.  If you are a moral person, you will feel very superior to people you think are licentious.  And so on.

“There is no way out of this conundrum.  The more we love and identify deeply with our family, our class, our race, or our religion, the harder it is to not feel superior or even hostile to other religions, races, etc.  So racism, classism, and sexism are not matters of ignorance or a lack of education…it is far harder than we think to have a self-identity that doesn’t lead to exclusion.  The real culture war is taking place inside our own disordered hearts, wracked by inordinate desires for things that control us, that lead us to feel superior and exclude those without them, and that fail to satisfy us even when we get them.”