Sin is one of those words we want to avoid today, and the reality that we are all sinners.
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I remember the people arguing to remove religious instruction from schools decrying how harmful it was to tell children they are sinners.
Yet it is a strange philosophical paradox. It is only when you honestly face your own sinfulness, your own capacity for evil, that you can ever hope to cultivate good.
Until you realise you are flawed, you can’t fix those flaws, or ameliorate your behaviour to protect others from them.
If you live in the fool’s paradise of thinking yourself perfect, incapable of sin, you become the most malevolent of beings.
There is none so dangerous as the one who thinks himself incapable of evil.
A world in denial about sin would be one hell of a place.
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au.
