It's All of Us

The loudest voices of Christianity are echoes of congregations of my youth. It's strange, now, to consider the rules that I once knew as the primary way of being a person of faith.

No alcohol or at least no public consumption of alcohol. And one could never readily admit to consuming alcohol, of course.

Tattoos were a problem, but not as much as piercings.

"Cussing" was off the table, of course, and certain settings placed even stricter parameters on what qualified "cuss words." 

Swimsuits of any sort were suspect. 

Let's not even talk about sex.

One should read their Bible and pray daily.

It was a tradition, as is most of US Christianity, of personal piety. In the long run, those marks of personal piety would mean that you would be just fine when answering for your actions at the pearly gates of Heaven. 

Personal piety also fits well with the intensely individualized culture in which I live. It's a world of personal responsibility; how would faith be any different?

While I'm not willing to completely discount personal piety, it does have less to do with the reign of God than most believe. The reign of God--kingdom of God for those less worried about gendered language--is a political claim. It's a system. It's corporate, not individual. 

And so is our sin. No, we shouldn't completely stop talking about personal sin. But we have to figure out a way to name our corporate sin, too. Corporate sin creates racist systems. Corporate sin creates opportunities for some, but certainly not all. Corporate sin builds wealth on the backs of the poor. 

Corporate sin is why we must talk about the redemption of the world, not a single person. Corporate sin is the need for a corporate solution. The kingdom of God--all of us, not one of us.