Death In The Fields

Original sin is the sin that has always confused me perhaps because the concept is based on our mythological Adam and Eve – two figures serving as our inaugural human couple or our primordial domestic pair.   From Adam and Eve we got Cain and Abel - brothers and a fraticidal murder leading to the real original sin of violence with the farmer slaying shepherd.

I prefer the explanation of original sin provided by Dominic Crossan who said “sin” did not occur in the divine garden, but in the human field (by farmer Cain).  "Original sin is not a flaw in creation, but in civilization, a fault not in nature, but in culture.” 

According to Crossan, “Original sin is not about individuals and sex but about communities and violence.  It’s about humanity’s penchant for escalatory violence as its drug of choice.” He says, “Escalatory violence is our nemesis, not our nature; our avoidable decision, not our unavoidable destiny.  It is our original sin that can be overcome."

With today’s nightmarish wars around the world with millions of innocent victims, we’re constantly reminded of human original sin not caused by Adam and Eve but by brothers overcome by envy, anger, and revenge – the trio of emotions leading to death in the fields – our worldwide killing fields.  Can we confidently say, "We shall overcome?"  We had better.

Deacon David Pierce