“Original Sin of America”: A Phrase Wrought With Misinformation

Slavery, racism, and “colonialism” seem to be catchwords today which are usually referred to, either individually or collectively as the “original sin of America”.  From the accompanying references to “institutionalized racism” and the like that follow assertion of the “original sin”, I can only deduce that by using the term original sin is meant an act or acts which our founding fathers committed and enshrined into governmental and societal DNA, by virtue of which we too both are a result of the effect and active participants in this sin.  On one hand it seems as though the world has not lost its sense of sin: not only does it utilize the word itself, the world seems to also retain a clear conception of the possible effects that an original sin would have on society.  Not only this but we attest that the natural law is written on the hearts of man so that we know right from wrong.  On the other hand, a clear disconnect between what constitutes an actual sin and the word they use is apparent.  So, has the world lost a sense of sin?

Firstly, what do we mean by sin, and by Original sin?  Sin in its “original form”, as laid out in the Genesis narrative and upheld throughout the Old Testament, “is understood as ‘disobedience’, and this means simply and directly transgression of a prohibition laid down by God (Dominum et Vivificantem, paragraph 36)”.  This original sin of Adam was directly, of course, the sin to eat the fruit of the tree.  In this, our own individual sins are not unlike this original sin inasmuch as we form our consciences properly, retain a sensitivity towards the ability to call good and evil by their proper names and yet choose what we decide to be good anyhow.  We too commit the sin of disobedience, which itself “means precisely going beyond [the limits set by God], which remain impassable to the will and the freedom of man as a created being (paragraph 36)”.  

The culpability and participation in that Original Sin of Adam is Adam’s alone, however; we do not partake in the responsibility for actions that we did not commit.  The effects of original sin however is another story entirely.  Through the sin of Adam all of creation fell, and with this fall we inherit the darkened intellect, weakened will, and heightened passions that come with having the sinful cake and eating it, too.  This does not mean that our own sins are completely divorced from that sin of Adam, however, for just as Adam disobeyed God in that first sin and turned away from him so too our own “disobedience always means a turning away from God, and in a certain sense the closing up of human freedom in his regard,  It also means a certain opening of this freedom - of the human mind and will - to the one who is the ‘father of lies’” (paragraph 37)”.  Not only do our sins, actions of “conscious choice” in disobedience to God “involve a certain consent to the motivation which was contained in the first temptation to sin and which is unceasingly renewed during the whole history of man on earth (paragraph 37)”, but we add to the collective and hereditary effects of sin within the world.  We reaffirm and participate in the sin of Adam through our own sins, but do not actively participate in it by our mere existence, though we are not free from the effects of sin.

So much for sin itself.  Has the world lost its sense of sin?  Inasmuch as sin is in itself a disobedience and turning away from God, yes it has.  In order to recognize sin as what it is, the working of the Holy Spirit in the conscience of the individual is necessary to convince him concerning the nature of sin.  To recognize something as an offense or disobedience to God you must first admit the existence of a God, which of course the world rejects time and again.  This is the only way to correctly see sin in the world as “a stage in ‘a dramatic struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness’ which characterizes ‘all of human life, whether individual or collective’”(paragraph 43)”.  This said,  the world always retains the natural law upon its heart, and can to a greater or lesser degree recognize and act upon it as we cooperate with this law or reject it.  A properly formed conscience, utilizing the dictates of reason and cooperating with the moving of the Holy Spirit equips the individual (who in turn builds society) to see sin for what it is: “the result of an upright conscience is, first of all, to call good and evil by their proper name”.  

The use of the phrase “the original sin of America” is a misnomer, resulting from a lost sense of what sin truly is and demonstrating a dramatic disconnect in understanding the truth about Original Sin itself.  Though we always have the law of the moral order written on our hearts, our cooperation with evil and the social environments we allow to build up around us stifle this inner voice and mask the Holy Spirit’s beckoning, adding to the lost sense of right and wrong.  For this reason, “the Church constantly implores from God the grace that integrity of human consciences will not be lost, that their healthy sensitivity with regard to good and evil will not be blunted (paragraph 47)”.