Denying Sin

                                                                                                                                                        Vol. XXIII, No. 3, March 2010

... Denying the reality of sin may appear to be enlightened and uplifting, but ultimately it is demeaning and destructive. It denies the significance of our choices and actions, and it unleashes our worst impulses. Christianity, on the other hand, enables us to address societal issues such as welfare, crime, human rights, and education. Christianity provides the basis for a welfare system that is both compassionate and morally challenging, reinforcing recipients' dignity and self-respect. Christianity undergirds a criminal justice system that holds people accountable for their actions rather than reduces their stature as moral agents through the psychobabble of victimization. Christianity affords the basis for a solid theory of human rights, regarding all individuals as equally created by God and equally fallen. Christian education treats children with the dignity of beings made in the image of God. In each of these areas, as we have seen in the preceding chapters, a comparison exposes the utter bankruptcy of modern utopianism and its central tenet of natural goodness.

[Chuck Colson & Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live, (Tyndale House, 1999) p. 201]