The Gospel for a “Sinless” Society
I picked up Alan Mann’s book, Atonement for a Sinless Society. It is very interesting. This book is about the encounter between two stories: the story of the passion of Jesus Christ and the story of the postmodern, post-industrialized “sinless” self. I have just started the book, but basically the book is about how to present the gospel to our society…a society that has radically changed in the last 20 years. Mann makes the case that “sin does not exist as a serious idea in modern life.” Sin is no longer a description of our actions. Instead the idea of sin is now caricatured by advertisers to suggest that a product is good and pleasurable. “Sin” is more of a way to make life more exciting. Because of this shift in thinking by a post-Christian culture, Mann makes a case that the gospel needs to be reread in light of this shift so that it can speak meaningfully and sufficiently to an increasingly sinless society. He is not saying to alter the gospel message. I believe he is making the case that Christians need to alter the way we communicate the gospel to this generation. My question is, have you noticed this shift in our culture’s perspective about sin? How do your non-Christians friends define the word “sin?”
I have noticed the shift. Having only been around a mere four decades to do any comparison, I would say that political correctness has numbed two very important feelings: “Shame” and “Guilt”
Our culture puts such an emphasis on self esteem that we miss the fact that shame (who you think you are) and guilt (what you did) are important parts of being human. From a Christian perspective, an awareness of shame is the razor and alarm between absolute right and wrong. You pose the question of Christian vs. non-Christian friends, but I submit to you that Christians will also give you a multitude of meanings to define the word “sin”.
For the Christian, there is a calculated way of dealing with sin. You turn from it, confess it, address it, and learn from it. Modern culture (outside of Christianity) tries to cast it as a normal, advantageous loop-hole that may have mild side effects.
We caught an episode of Desperate Housewives last week and during a commercial break, there was a Sprint commercial showing people using their phones to catch their husbands and wives in adulterous situations. My immediate thought was “how could and why would anyone want to buy or use a product sold by a company using adultery to market their goods?!”
I wonder what the next 40 years will hold and what cool new packaging will have to be employed to bring the gift of the gospel to non-believers.