SocraticGadfly: Sin-corrupted writing for evangelicals

May 17, 2015

Sin-corrupted writing for evangelicals

My college alumni association's newsletter prompted this.

A classmate of a relative, for his denomination's monthly magazine, has an article about "Sin-Corrupted Sex," focusing on (by Lutheran/Orthodox/Catholic/Episcopalian count) the Sixth Commandment.

Well, ignoring the first two as god-oriented, and setting aside the issue of whether any Christians besides Seventh-Day Adventists are getting the Third right (yes, the book of Hebrews talks about people meeting on the first day of the week, but neither Jesus, nor Paul, is ever recorded as promoting that), there's seven human-oriented ones.

Sin-corrupted children? That said, the Fourth Commandment was written by priests leading a society of patriarchal goatherds. Evangelicals would never talk about sin-corrupted fatherhood, sin-corrupted child or spousal abuse, etc.

Sin-corrupted murder? Well, a few evangelicals might dodge around things like the murder of Wichita, Kansas abortion provider Dr. Tiller. A lot more of them might dodge around just war and lying into war issues related to President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Sin-corrupted theft? Most evangelicals would surely never write about things like wage and hour theft by employers.

Sin-corrupted false witness? Oh, no, evangelicals, at least white ones, would steer clear of bearing false witness about calling inner-city minorities "thugs," calling all people on public assistance "lazy" or "frauds" or "cheaters" or "drug abusers," etc.

Sin-corrupted wife-coveting? The patriarchy of husband-coveting not being mentioned would not be addressed.

Sin-corrupted slave-coveting? Ahh, the last of the commandments. But, since the Civil War was not about slavery, there's no need to talk about coveting here.

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