THE GREAT AMERICAN SIN

If you had to name the worst sin in America, what would it be? Abortion? Pornography? Child abuse? Murder? Sexual perversion? Substance abuse? True, these are horrible, but what if I defined worst not as "bloodiest" or "most spectacular" or even "most reported by the media", but as "the most rampant, pervasive, influential sin, the one that defines our existence as a nation"? What would you say then?

While you’re thinking, have you ever heard of "the ugly American"? This phrase from the late ‘50s or early ‘60s referred primarily to tourists, although not necessarily to fat guys in Bermuda shorts, knee socks, sandals, and loud Hawaiian print shirts, with five cameras around their necks and peeling, sun burnt noses. The post-war prosperity had made it possible, for perhaps the first time in U.S. history, for the average middle-class family to afford vacations beyond the borders of this country. But while they gawked at scenery and architecture and art already ancient while America was finding its national feet, they splattered their host nations with their ugly, offensive attitudes. They demanded that everything suit their comfort; never mind that they were there only for a few minutes or, at most, a few days. They complained that the amenities or the people or the service or even the scenery wasn’t "up to" American (i.e., their) standards. Although they occasionally offered a mangled phrase or two in the local tongue, for the most part they insisted that their hosts speak English. And then they proceeded (in the name of "helpfulness" and "friendliness") to "educate" those "foreigners" on the superiority of the American Way. Is it any wonder that the Ugly American was soon greeted around the world with "Yankee Go Home"?

Yet, for the most part, the Ugly American wasn’t ugly by choice, by accident, or even by simple ignorance. He was ugly because it was his nature to be ugly. For America’s greatest sin, individually and collectively, is pride.

How can a sin as simple and basic as pride be greater than any of the others I mentioned? Well, first let me explain what I mean by "greater".

Sin can be defined, quite simply, as "defying God" or "breaking one of God’s laws". It doesn’t matter which; as James said, "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10, 11). A lie condemns us as thoroughly as murder. The ideas of "mortal" ("subject to death") and "venial" ("forgivable") sins, different levels of heaven, or even a purgatory to work out "lesser" sins, were all forced onto Scripture by men unwilling to face their own guilt. James makes it clear: There’s no such thing as a sin of "greater" or "lesser" quality. Sin is sin.

By "greater" sin, therefore, I don’t mean something that is more horrible or more deadly or more - well, sinful. "Greater", here, refers not to the quality of the sin, but to how pervasive its effects are in the heart and life of the one committing it, how wide or long lasting of an effect it has on those touched by it, and how many other sins are fostered by that one. In that sense, a lie can sometimes actually be a "greater" sin than a murder. And it’s in that sense in which Jesus said to Pilate, "the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin" (John 19:11), even though it was Pilate who ultimately permitted His execution.

Pride is simple and basic, and that’s why it’s so powerful. Everyone is touched by it. Everyone. Even those who have learned to live in humility (Mother Teresa and Corrie ten Boom spring immediately to mind) have (or had) to be constantly on guard against it. Even those who struggle with low self-esteem are infected by a twisted form of pride that keeps their focus on themselves (one thing you can’t accuse Satan of is a lack of creativity!). But in observing America over the last couple of decades - and especially over the last few years - I’ve been struck by how pride and its offshoots, arrogance and self-centeredness, have become a social epidemic.

Americans must be the best and have the best in everything. Why? Because we want to honour God with our excellence? Hardly! We want the best because we deserve the best! Not because we’ve earned it or even because we’ve recognized our worth in God; we deserve the best simply because we are who we are. This is arrogance, this is conceit, this is pride at its bombastic height. This is Man proclaiming, "I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas" (Ezekiel 28:2); "I am perfect in beauty" (Ezekiel 27:3); "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God…. I will make myself like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13, 14). This is Satan’s own sin. This is the most basic sin of all, for it was the sin Satan used to destroy Adam and Eve’s relationship with God: "God knows that when you eat of [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God" (Genesis 3:5). "Hey," he said to Eve, "God is trying to keep you from achieving the heights that you deserve! You deserve a break today! Be all that you can be! Have it your way! You deserve it!" And Eve, in her pride, took the bait - with Adam not far behind. (And lest anyone claim that Adam ate out of ignorance or out of love for his wife, thereby putting all the blame on the woman, note that when God confronted him, his first reaction was to save his own skin: "The woman You put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it" [Genesis 3:12]. He was fully aware of his own guilt, and in that awareness, he tried to pass the buck: "It wasn’t my fault, God. She blew it first. And anyway, You’re the one Who put her here in the first place. I deserve better treatment than this!" Not only was Adam proud, he was a coward!)

Pride, conceit, arrogance, and self-centeredness - these have always been with us as humans. Occasionally, societies can overcome their base natures, if only temporarily. John F. Kennedy challenged, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country", and thousands of young adults abandoned the post-‘50s prosperity to join the Peace Corps and live in abject poverty here and abroad just to bring education or basic agricultural skills or running water to the poor, sometimes their only compensation being the grateful tears of a mother whose child could now drink clean water. Yes, this was still based in pride, and it showed that pride can have some good to it, too. But it also showed that man’s best efforts to overcome his sinful nature can never be good enough or last very long: One generation later, not only do you seldom hear of the Peace Corps, but young Christian adults shudder at the thought of abandoning their PCs and Big Macs and cell phones and $20,000+ cars and career tracks to do for God what their parents did 40 years ago for a man.

Oh, we are an arrogant, stiff-necked people! Even the majority of our other sins are rooted in self-service. We permit abortion because it’s convenient and we’ve decided what life is and when it begins, and, after all, the woman has the right to control her own body. We abuse substances because our pleasure is paramount, and no one can tell us what’s right or wrong for us. I am the most important being in my universe. If I want sex, I’ll take it, whenever and from whomever I want. If I want money or power, I’ll get it, no matter whom I have to trample. If you have something I want and I’ve got more firepower than you, I’ll take it. Why? Because I can! I’ll kill and steal and lie and cheat to satisfy my desires and look out for Number One, and if someone tries to blame me for anything, I’ll shift the blame to someone else; and anyway, what right do they have to force their beliefs and your morality on Me? And along the way, I’ll condescend to "tolerate" your beliefs - as long as they don’t infringe on Mine!

Almost 3500 years ago, the nation by which God chose to demonstrate His love and mercy and sovereignty to the world turned away from Him to their own pleasures and comfort. They’d been freed from harsh slavery and constant fear of national extinction through events so spectacular only the most hardened could deny the hand of God. They’d been led dry-shod through a sea that minutes later drowned an entire pursuing army. Seventy of their tribal leaders actually saw God and ate in His Presence. Time after time they had every need met, even against the greatest odds. Yet they complained if they faced the least hardship, turned to other gods when Moses wasn’t quick enough down the mountain to suit their time schedule, and put their own pleasure and convenience and comfort over the specific commands of God. And when they finally decided they knew more than He did about warfare and what they were capable of, He said, "Fine, have it your way," and sent them back out into the desert for another forty years until they finally began to get the point. And now here we are, 3 ½ millennia later, so much superior in our own eyes to those backwards primitives. And I guess, in a way, we are superior. When it comes to stiff-necked, arrogant, conceited pride, those ancient Israelites were rank amateurs.

The sin of America is pride, and we’ll pay for our sin. (Some believe the absence of any reference to America, symbolic or otherwise, in the Revelation indicates that, by the end times, America will have collapsed into insignificance. I hope it’s because America will have been so thoroughly and successfully evangelized that almost all of it will have vanished in the Rapture, but, at the moment, I’m afraid the first option is more likely.) The frustrating thing is, we don’t have to pay for our sin. Like every other sin, it’s been paid for us. Of course, a lot of people are too proud to accept a substitutionary payment - if they can’t do it themselves, they won’t do it at all. But even many of those who’ve taken that first step are still ruled by their pride.

The bad news is, pride is almost inextricably linked to self-awareness - one of the basic requirements of humanity - so it will always be with us. The good news, however, is that pride need not master us. But our focus must be shifted from ourselves to the rightful center - God. Start with prayer, of course. Even "me" oriented prayer is better than nothing, since it at least opens communication with God. But move beyond that as soon as possible into prayer with the focus on others and, especially, prayer with the focus on God - i.e., praise and worship. Asking for humility or a humble heart is good - but that heart has to be exercised, and prayer is the best place to begin giving it a workout. And don’t stop there. Here’s a curious equation: Works by themselves count for nothing. Prayer by itself counts for a great deal. Normally, nothing added to something results in no increase. But when works are added to prayer, the increase is tremendous. Try to beat down pride and build up humility by yourself and you’re doomed to ultimate failure. Pray for humility and you’ll be answered with the raw material. Work with the material by actively placing God and others first, and you’ll have crafted a servant’s heart that’s pleasing to God.