destruction of our rural and agricultural communities. We are destroying our farmlands, our forests,
our water sources. We are polluting the air, the water, the land.Wendell Berry, farmer and writer (1993)We see this sort of thing all the time-the Fall is repeated every day. People know they should exercise,
but they don't. They know they shouldn't eat so much garbage, but they do. They know they should help the
needy, but they don't. They know they shouldn't toast their brains sitting in front of the TV hour after hour,
but they do. They know they should foster trust by being reliable, but they don't. They know that lying
destroys relationships and that they shouldn't do it, but they do.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:7Every sane person would agree that life would be better if everyone could abide by the Sermon on the
Mount.
Every sane person would also agree that the chances of that happening in this world are zero. Not
because it's an inherent impossibility, but because people are self destructive. That's the Fall-repeated
daily.
Much of the world's "natural evil" isn't really natural. Kids starve in Africa because the scumbags who
run their countries hoard food sent by aid agencies. Poverty and crises in the "developing world" are
increasing because people who can't feed or care for the kids they already have keep having more
children. The climatic calamities we can expect as the rain forests continue to be ravaged will be our own
fault.
Even in its most basic form [in Genesis chapters 2 and 3], the story of the Fall not only speaks of the first
man and the first woman naked before each other and God ... it also faces the mystery of the perverse will
that listens to the voice of the beast rather than the voice of God, and chooses death rather than life.
Dennis Danielson, professor of English (1992)
There is, of course, much suffering in the world that has no relation whatever to human action, and that
is difficult to account for if one assumes that God is just. But I don't see any conflict between the belief
that God is just and the recognition that people are responsible for the vast majority of the suffering
people experience. God is all-powerful in the sense that he is much more powerful than we-and people
will have to give an account to him for what they did in life. But he isn't so powerful as to change the
basic rules of the game: People are free agents.
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your
own eye? How can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when all the time
there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you
will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Jesus, Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:3-5
Jesus provides us with a behavioral regimen that would rescue us (the Sermon on the Mount)-but