The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’” vs. 12
Genesis 3:11-15
From the very beginning, it has been important in difficult situations to know how to assess blame! In our ancient scriptures, the very first story about human interaction with God has the man blaming the woman for his act of disobedience, and more than that, the text implies that the real culprit is God! After all, it was God who had screwed up Eden by giving him the woman! And the woman catches on quickly, it wasn’t her fault, it was that silver-tongued serpent. And there we have it! Faced with the presence of sin humans have done everything in our power to pin the blame on someone else rather than humbly bowing our heads and admitting our guilt for making a mess of Paradise. What’s even more appalling is that this true story, when taken literally, has given males the pretext for diminishing the status of women for thousands of years. Women have been marginalized and abused in every generation for being the “weaker” sex, and they have been blamed for every kind of depravity that men have fallen into. It really is a sad story and it has proven remarkably resistant even in the current generation. We wonder if it’ll ever be possible for humans to deal imaginatively and lovingly with consequences of sin without first worrying ad nauseam about who is at fault.
Thought for the Day: Who do I blame when my life gets messed up?
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