Don't Defame Human Beings

This past Sabbath I listened to a nice, pleasant preacher declare that people are miserable, self-destructive sinners. An almost direct quote: "No man has ever sat down, thought about sinning and said, 'That's stupid. I won't do it.'"

But of course, lot's of men have considered doing something evil then decided not to do it precisely because it was not only evil but it was also stupid.

People are capable of great evil.

People are also capable of great good.

If the second statement is false, the first one is also false. If people are incapable of doing good, if they are so utterly enslaved to evil that they cannot do good, then they are not responsible for doing evil. After all the same theology that teaches that people are unable to do good also teaches that this defect is something we were born with, not something we choose.

I think the common practice of Christian preachers to declaim the words of Romans 3 as the absolute literal truth while dismissing the words of Matthew 5-7 as hermeneutical hyperbole is both a distortion of the Bible and a tragic disservice to their Master and their audience.