None Are Righteous

I am personally not a believer in the concept of "inherited sin" in the sense that all humans are "born sinful" and therefore deserve to die for their inherited ontological sin. This idea has its roots in Augustine's view that sin was transferred biologically through sex, which in turn was borrowed from the gnostic idea that the the body is evil and the curse of physicalness was past on through procreation. Yet this morning I was thinking how we are all born into sin. We were having a discussion around breakfast and hypothesizing whether it was sinful or not to own a cappucino machine. (My father in law was railing against material excess) I made the statement that I thought it was sinful to own an iPhone (or any cell phone for that matter) due to the Coltan necessary to make the device, which comes from war torn countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and is used to fund dictators, warlords, and rapists. My anti-civilizationalist friend would make the argument that we are constantly complicit in the rape and murder and deforestation around the world, not directly but by virtue of supporting a system that facilitates these crimes. In fact, being born in the United States is to be "born into sin", that is, born into a sinful system that you cannot help but be a part of. (What do you think of that Augustine?)

It is pretty overwhelming once you start to think about all the ways in which you support an unjust system and how no matter what you do, you are supporting the death, pain, and destruction of thousands of people. This I think is where the need for grace comes in. God knows that we are hopelessly mired in injustice and She understands that. That doesn't mean that we are "off the hook" and don't have to do anything about it. It means that He frees us from apathy and the feeling that we have failed before we start. She wants us to do our best to bring the kingdom of heaven to this plot of land and spread it like mustard seed. Lord Have Mercy On Us.