Mennonites believe that in the beginning sin, or the turning
away from God with the purpose of us or idols becoming gods, entered the world
through the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
Sin involves our choice of doing unrighteousness and injustice, or by not
doing good when we have the choice to.
"Through sin, the powers of domination, division, destruction, and
death have been unleashed in humanity and in all of creation." At the hands of sin, people groups,
societies, and nations can be twisted in evil ways.
In today's world, we do not like to talk about sin because
sin means that there is a moral code or law to follow, and we are very wary of
authority, religion, and "absolutes" like laws. We find in today's culture a sense that sin
is simply a perspective, and changes from situation to situation even then. It does not help when
certain groups declare "sin" with anger, hate, and even violent
tendencies. Perhaps this stems from the
sin of pride, trying to prove that they who declare what is sinful are better
than those in sin. It gets even messier when we start looking at social,
cultural, and systematic sins that take place at large levels, almost at the
level where we can't even see it.
Into this mixed up, confused situation, the Mennonites
proclaim sin simply as turning away from God.
We proclaim hope in Jesus Christ, redeemer and savior of people from sin
through the cross and resurrection. And
we teach Jesus model for healing sin - inviting people to meet and
encounter Jesus Christ, with love and hope, carrying a cross instead of a
protest sign. However, while we proclaim these things, Jesus is working among
us still to help us to follow him ever better.
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