Do Christians still believe in sin?
Standing in a long line for coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts one Saturday morning, I looked up at the flat screen TV to see Max Lucado being interviewed on CNN. I couldn’t believe it. I looked around. I didn’t know anyone in the place. In desperation, I tapped the young woman in front of me on the arm and pointed at the screen.
“I went to college with him,” I said with a dopey look on my face.
“Hmphm,” she said. She pulled her purse tighter up on her shoulder, stepped forward, and ordered a medium skinny latte and two regular glazed Munchkins. She didn’t look back.
I don’t know what I expected her to say. I just needed to share that moment with somebody. Lucado is a Christian writer well-known and widely read in certain circles and a pastor of a large formerly Church of Christ congregation in San Antonio, Texas. He’s famous, and I knew him when. OK, I didn’t really “go” to college with him; we were at the Christian college for one year. But I did meet him once.
Lucado was promoting his new campaign to urge people to do something for their neighbors. That was his message: You may not be able to solve the world’s problems, but you can do something to make better the lives of people around you. That message is a long way from the message he touted in 1970-something: “You are sinners who need to be saved by Jesus.” As the broadcaster began his segue to commercial, Lucado managed “and that is what gives glory to God.”
Mercifully, we all grow and change. But I found Lucado’s Girl Scout motto-sounding campaign not helpful as theology. I thought he was a public theologian. Earlier that week, I had talked with a new seminary student, fresh out of college and newly married. She was just starting her whole adult life. She joined me right after the Evangelical Students Association meeting. Looking at her sitting there, I thought she was in pain.
“I grew up believing that we are all sinners and that we need to be saved and that we can be saved by faith in Jesus Christ.” She twisted her fuchsia-stained hair. “But when I got to college, my suitemate said she didn’t think she was a sinner. She thought she was a pretty good person. A lot of people think that.”
She looked at me with the most grave, serious, troubled eyes I have seen in a long time.
“I don’t know what to do with that. I have to believe that we are sinners because that is what I read in the Bible. But I don’t really think that’s true.” She paused. “I just try not to think about it.”
She acknowledged that she would have to deal with these questions in her theological education: “I guess that’s good.” But she is evangelically committed to the literal truth of the Bible (even though she doesn’t fit the stereotype). “That’s why I dyed my hair. So they would know I am different.”
Whatever did happen to sin? I doubt Max Lucado would be on CNN if his lead were “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” instead of “Ya’ll go ahead and help ya’ll’s neighbors.” He is appealing to people who think they are pretty good people -- and will feel even better when they mow the yard of the elderly woman across the street.
That is a good thing. But is it a Christian one?
Melissa Wiginton is Vice President for Ministry Programs and Planning at the Fund for Theological Education.
