Isaiah Roman

Sin, the Nemesis of Mankind

Usually sin does not usually come to a person “full blown,” in an instant of time. Though, according to Christian belief, since Adam mankind has inherited a nature prone to sin, actions of sin becomes a part of the person over time, through small steps. How fast this happens depends entirely on the environment in which the child is raised. When a person is born into a family that cultivates virtue, there is a tendency to consider the norm that which is virtuous. This does not make one immune to sin, but the example is to do what is right. With this as a basis, as it was in Eden, sin has to be introduced from outside one’s normal environment.

There must be a temptation to rebel against the inherited family nature. There must be a spark, some reason to try something novel or different from what has previously been learned. Sometimes there is a desire to please, or make a favorable impression on another person. Peer pressure can be applied to render a person amenable to a different way of life. Most people want to blend in and not appear confrontational.

There is an old saying; “he who stands for nothing, will fall for anything.” A great number of people start out with one idea of right and wrong, but are then slowly shifted away from that ideological underpinning. Once moved from their foundation they are susceptible to being easily swayed. Each step away from the base and the movement becomes more and more rapid. This is the reason for the invention of another idiom; “the slippery slope.”

In the society of my generation parents taught by precept and example that one should “do unto others as you would have others do to you” and “honesty is the best policy.” Children were taught to respect constituted authority. These virtues were taught in public schools and the community naturally reenforced those values. Because those values were so deeply ingrained, the persons who you were supposed to respect were more generally respectable. People expected a certain level of decorum from those who had been graced with public authority.

It was best to be a law abiding citizen prone to exemplify truth, to live a peaceful life free of strife to avoid difficulties with one another. There were always rebels; but, they were not lifted up as examples of virtue. There were always places of ill repute; but, a good reputation was a thing to be held as a high goal and desired. That was a thing to be guarded as a mark of respect for the family.

The general attitude then was always stand for honesty and truth; but, live and let live. There was a healthy respect for the right of the sanctity for personal property ownership. There was little theft or disrespect for someone else’s property. As a matter of pure fact everyone was mindful of personal property rights and most people had respect for their neighbor’s as well. Few were Bible thumping, pontificating overweening prigs but there was much more honest residual Christian virtue abroad in the land even from those who were not particularly mindful of one religious view.

There is a phenomenon that evolves in time. People speak the same language i.e., use the same words; but, the meaning of those words change; sometimes entirely. As an example, the three word letter word, let, in Elizabethan times meant to prevent; presently it means to aid or give permission even give license. The language of eighty years ago is understood very little. It seems the widest generation gap ever seen exists today. The primary drive to change is pressed on young people by the “celebrity” mentality. Celebrities are afforded a much higher place than the common lot. They are held as idols who are to be revered, even worshiped as gods. One particular group boasted “we are more popular than Jesus.”

The radio age influenced young people greatly; but, the cinema and video is receiving from two to eight hours a day more play than the previous radio audio only media. Pictures are surely worth a thousand words and children’s minds are more susceptible to pictures and words than words alone. The more senses involved through special effects used by cinematographers force a greater negative influence on viewers. Pictures leave little to the imagination they are vivid and highly impressionable. This present media not only tells one how to do a thing but shows a life size moving picture to reinforce it.

Add the computer age to the mix and negative change in mores and morals is more rapid. The computer, and computer enhancement has changed the intimate habits and relationships of society and especially young people than did automobiles to the post World War II generation. The automobile added secrecy and mobility while the computers add anonymity and encouragement toward endless novelty. Both make privacy more easily accessible for many more young people. To keep up with the pace of change, third grade children are now learning to use computers in public schools whereas sixty years ago they were learning their math times tables without calculators.

If one’s individual base can be shifted over time, then what of a society? What happens when the entirety of a people, through slow erosion and coercion, begins to move away from what might have been considered “normal” fifty or sixty years ago, to what is considered “normal” today?

When looking back to the past it’s easy to get nostalgic, to begin to pine for a more “simple” time, when things seemed more clear, but the truth is, they weren’t all that clear then either. Rather, what you had back then was an understanding that righteousness is the hard thing, and hard things require more effort; more work. People spent their time doing the right thing, because doing the right thing takes more time. Today everything is about convenience.

This is the slow rot of sin. As more things change it becomes easier and easier to be distracted from the core things that make a people righteous and it is righteousness that makes a people great. At the heart of it all is a set of parents, who pass on a set of teachings which encourage children to remember what righteousness is. That’s a hard thing. It takes a lot of effort. Yet, the subtle shifts away from personal responsibility towards external checks and measures bleed away one’s internal sense of right and wrong, and place those decisions into the hands of others who themselves are more likely to consider convenient and expedient than what is righteous. We begin to distrust our leaders, to look on them with derision, until we come to the point where we almost expect them to be corrupt. This, in turn, gives us excuse to be a little less righteous, and to expect a little less righteousness from those around us.

It takes centuries to break the chain of righteousness found in people founded on righteousness. Yet, once those people have been moved from the foundation, it takes mere decades to shift them to the slope. Once on the slope, it takes mere years, months, hours even, to get them all the way down to the bottom. Once you’ve hit bottom, there’s only one way to look. The question is, how do you get back up to the top?

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.” – Proverbs 14:34