It Has Never Been Just Me, Myself, And I

This is the first time that we are repeating a review on the same talk or article. This talk, which comes text for as well, is by Tim Keller (click here for a bio) and it addresses the subject of corporate responsibility/guilt and systemic sin. We should note that Keller has attracted a lot of negative attention simply because he has drawn a lot of positive attention. Though much of that positive attention is well-deserved, but some of it is a result of the authoritarian mindset that many of us religiously conservative Christians (a.k.a., flaming fundamentalists) have either been born or born again with. And that latter positive attention has irked more than several people.

In his talk (click here for the talk that comes with a transcription), Keller wants to challenge us western white people on part of our emphasis on individualism. And Keller makes a special point of saying that our obsession with individualism is unique to us. That individualism says that we are only responsible for what we have done. Keller challenges that notion in a few steps. First, he uses Joshua 7 (click here for Joshua 7) to show that the Scriptures teach corporate responsibility/guilt at a family level. For Achan and his family were put to death for something Achan alone did wrong. Why were they all put to death? It was partly because Achan was a product of his family. But we should also note that all of Israel was punished because of what Achan did as well. And if we don't understand that, it is because we have seen the world through the lenses of individualism.

Keller proceeds to show corporate responsibility/guilt of time and space. For he shows how Daniel not only prays for God's mercy because of the current sins of his fellow Israelites, but also for mercy because of the past transgressions of his ancestors (click here for Daniel's prayer). Why is that necessary? Keller explains by saying that Daniel recognized he and his people are simply a product of the same culture of those ancestors who had sinned. That the sins of his ancestors were a reflection of that culture.

Finally, Keller takes us to Romans 5 where Paul tells us that we are judged because of the sin of Adam and saved because of the righteousness of Christ (click here for that part of Romans 5). And if we stay with our inherited individualist script, we won't be able to understand either state especially how we are saved by what Christ did for us. 

Next, Keller explains corporate responsibility/guilt and systemic sin in our communities, both small in terms of our local communities and large in terms of our cities, states, and nation, and our responsibility for what happens in our communities. He notes that all of our communities rely on systems to get things done. Systems that are unfair or that neglect and/or oppress others have systemic sins. And we, even by our mere existence, participate in those communities. At this point, Keller notes 4 levels of responsibility we have for what happens in our community. They are:

1. You know what's going on in the community and fully support it.
2. You know part of what's going on in the community and are either apathetic or at least partially support it.
3. You know what is going on in the community but do nothing about it.
4. You don't know what is going on in the community because you don't want to know
   
   

Keller applies these levels to the varying levels of responsibility the German people had during the Holocaust. We should note that as the Allied forces discovered the German camps for Jews and other undesirables, our military made the residents of the nearby towns walk through those camps so they could see what they had done.

Now as Keller applies this to racism and as vitally important as that is, there are other corporate responsibilities and systemic sins we also need to tend to. Some of them are rather obvious, like our responsibility for climate change and for wars, while others may not be as obvious but they are discoverable such as how poverty can be, at least in part, a product of our economic system. If anything, and I don't know if Keller would agree with this conclusion, by addressing corporate guilt/responsibility and systemic sin, Keller has opened the door for the development of a religiously conservative Christian "Social Gospel." Calling it a 'Social Gospel' is a bit of a misnomer because instead of resisting of systemic sin in order to be saved, such resistance plays a role in our sanctification--that is it plays a role in how we should strive to live for Christ. For we are not only learning to resist personal sins, we should love our neighbor enough to learn about and resist systemic sins of the community.

In the end, the Christian life is not just about dealing with the personal sins of me, myself, and I; it is also about learning about our corporate responsibilities and the systemic sins we participate in as members of our communities so that we can properly respond to those sins as well. Responding appropriately to those sins is another way of another way of learning to love our neighbor as ourselves.