Phase One, Week 4, Exercise 2: The History of Sin and Disorder

This exercise should be experienced between November 30 and December 3.

In the first exercise of this week, we reflected on the nature of sin and disorder. Sin disrupts my relationship with myself, God, others and the ecology. In this exercise, we will consider how disorder was present at the origin of human culture and how the dynamic of sin and disorder is mimetically passed down from generation to generation.

Through the years, the notion of original sin has been understood in primitive, pseudo-biological terms and, as a result, it has been rejected by some people. At the same time, it cannot be denied that human beings seem to continually be drawn back into social dynamics that discriminate against others. In some cases, these social dynamics lead to overt violence against others. Why is this?

The cultural anthropologist Rene Girard has provided a theory that helps to answer this question. According to Girard, one of the most resilient human characteristics is the tendency to copy others. As toddlers, we learn language by copying the adults in our families. We continue to learn by copying throughout our lives. The problem is that we copy more than language.

In his book Violence Unveiled, Gil Bailie, one of Girard's students, tells a story all parents know. He asks us to imagine a nursery. In the middle of the room lies a toy. One child enters the room. He touches the toy in the middle of the room, but he shows no real interest in it. He then goes to one side of the room and plays with another toy. A second child enters the room. He walks to the center of the room and begins to play with the toy that the first child rejected. What happens next? Most people can tell you: the first child copies the desires of the second chid and, as a result, wants to play with the toy the second is playing with. As he reaches for the toy, a conflict develops. If the adults in the room do not intervene, the conflict will become physical.

This copying of others Girard calls mimesis. Everyone does it--from teenagers copying each others' clothing to adults copying the actions and desires of others when they see people flocking to a store on Black Friday. What then does this have to do with the origin of culture, sin, and the on-going dynamic of culture?

It helps if we take a stroll down the lane of human evolution to the beginning of human culture. Imagine, if you will, two nearly human beings. Let's call them Ug and Oog. They live in close proximity of each other and in close proximity of several other nearly human beings. Ug has been wandering around the countryside in search of food when he finds an animal tooth. The object interests him so he picks it up. Oog has been watching Ug from a distance and, influenced by his mimetic tendencies, wants to know what Ug is fascinated by. As he approaches Ug, Ug is looking at the animal tooth. Oog copies Ug's gesture, but to do so, Oog needs to hold the tooth. He reaches for the tooth. Ug pulls the tooth away from Oog. Oog imitates Ug, attempting to take the tooth from Ug. Ug responds by pushing Oog away. Oog copies the gesture. Ug responds by hitting Oog. Oog copies Ug and hits him back. Now the scene becomes a prehistoric version of the three stooges, what Girard and Bailie call mimetic violence.

Other nearly human beings who happen upon Ug and Oog's fight get drawn in. At this point, there is no justice system to intervene and stop the violence. There is no developed language to communicate a desire to end the violence. There is just mimetic (copying) activity. We see such behavior when modern and post-modern human beings place themselves in the primitive state of drunkenness in a bar. One drunken man punches someone on the other side of the bar then someone far removed from the original punch breaks a chair over someone's back. Ug and Oog's neighbors behave in the same way. They just mindlessly copy Ug and Oog's violence. They fight with whoever is near them. They may even pick up stones and throw them at each other.

The brawl continues until someone is injured and grunts a startling accusatory gesture at the individual who has harmed him. This accusation is so loud that it is copied by the others. Now a whole crowd is growling at and pointing at one individual. The anger spills over and the mob kills the individual. At once, there is a hush. The crowd is amazed at what it has done: at first each member notices noone is hitting him or throwing rocks at him. Second, each member is shocked by the presence of the corpse. Third, each member is amazed that he was part of some kind of collective act. Before the collective murder, there was chaos. After the collective murder, there is order. In this way, primitive social solidarity was born.

This group remembers the order that came after the group murder. When chaos again appears, they decide to use the collective act that gave them peace: they ritualize human sacrifice. Nearly all of the great human civilizations have engaged in human sacrifice in some form. Their creation myths mirror this: frequently the ancient creation myths (except the Hebrew myths and a few others) report that the world is created from the body of a murdered god.

Many societies left behind the ritual of human sacrifice, but retained the dynamic of collective discrimination: those who did not abide by the rules of the societies were cast out of the society. This is another form of scapegoating. Modern society claimed that it had evolved out of religion only to fall prey to the worst forms of collective violence ever--the Nazi Holocaust and the killing fields and death camps of communism.

Even today in the United States of America, there is scapegoating--of gays and lesbians, immigrants, Muslims, the homeless, people with mental illnesses, people who are religiously and culturally different. In a milder and yet still insidious way, people scapegoat those who belong to a different political party than they do.

Ask yourself: Have I ever scapegoated? That is, have I ever engaged in social bonding at the expense of another? What led me to do so? Was I afraid of being scapegoated myself? Was I unaware of the scapegoat mechanism that was at work in the group?

Do I scapegoat people who belong to a different political party than I do? Do I demonize them? Why?

Now, in prayer consider the story from the Gospel of John about Jesus and the woman caught in the act of adultery (of course, we should wonder about the man who was caught with her). If you feel so moved, use your imagination to enter the scene. Which character are you drawn to? How do you feel about the social bond that the Pharisees have at the expense of the woman?

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.* a
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But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them.
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Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.
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They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.
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Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.* So what do you say?”b
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They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.*
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* But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them,c “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
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Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
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And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him.
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Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”d
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She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin any more.”]e
(John 7:53-8:11)

Do I need to spend some time with Jesus who will gently just tell me "go and sin no more"? If I am not Christian, is there an appropriate text which offers me words of healing now that I am aware of my sin or disorder?

Speak from your heart to the God of your understanding. If you are Buddhist, choose whatever text or meditative approach is appropriate.

Shalom!