Collective Sin and Evil
Friday, March 13, 2026
Richard Rohr describes how moving beyond an emphasis on personal sin allows us to focus on larger forces at play that create systemic harm:
For some reason, the word “sin” now seems old-fashioned and no longer helpful or even clarifying in most discussions. It can send any conversation down a rabbit hole of side comments, judgments, and clarifications that derail the original direction of the conversation.
Perhaps so many of us stopped using the word because we located sin inside of our own small, cultural categories, with little awareness of the true subtlety, depth, and importance of the broader concept. As each culture and religion defined sin in its own idiosyncratic way, the word itself ceased being helpful. Instead, we simply used it to designate various taboos and cultural expectations, usually having to do with bodily purity codes. (Some Christians are into dancing and drinking, whereas others consider it almost obscene).
My assumption and conviction are that sin became a less useful idea for many of us because we needed to move around in a different field to regain our notion of the deadly nature of true evil. No one can deny that evil is very real, but what many of us now observe as the real evils destroying the world—such as militarism, greed, scapegoating of other groups, and abuses of power—seem very different from what most people call sin, which has mostly referred to personal faults or guilt, or supposed private offenses against God. These did not actually describe the horrible nature of evil very well at all. So, we lost interest in sin.
We also lost interest because we usually heard the concept of sin being used to judge, exclude, or control others, or to shame and control ourselves, but seldom to bring discernment or deeper understanding, much less compassion or forgiveness, to the human situation. In my observation, the more sin-obsessed a religion or culture became, the more unloving and cognitively rigid its people tended to be.
If we are honest and perceptive, we surely see that actual evil often seems to “dominate the very air” (a phrase found in Pauline texts such as Ephesians 2:2) and is more the norm than the exception. In fact, evil is often culturally agreed-upon, admired, and deemed necessary, as is normally the case when a country goes to war, spends most of its budget on armaments, admires luxuries over necessities, entertains itself to death, or pollutes its own common water and air. Evil seems to be corporate, admired, and deemed necessary before it becomes personal and shameable.
Sin and evil must be more than personal or private matters. Convicting people of individual faults does not change the world. I believe the apostle Paul taught that both sin and salvation are, first of all, corporate realities. Yet, we largely missed that essential point, and thus found ourselves in the tight grip of monstrous evils in Christian nations, all the way down to the modern era.
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1.
“Be persecuted, rather than be a persecutor. Be crucified, rather than be a crucifier. Be treated unjustly, rather than treat anyone unjustly. Be oppressed, rather than be an oppressor. Be gentle rather than zealous. Lay hold of goodness, rather than justice.”
– Isaac of Nineveh, 7th Century Syrian Bishop
The early Church understood goodness better than we do today.
It would be an interesting thought experiment to go through human history and catalogue all the evil that was done in the name of trying to be the distributors of justice.
The first mention of the word “sin” in the Hebrew Bible is in Genesis 4, when Cain kills Abel. It is as if to say that the first true sin was when humanity turned to violence against fellow man.
2.
“He who busies himself with the sins of others, or judges his brother on suspicion, has not yet even begun to repent or to examine himself so as to discover his own sins.”
– Maximus the Confessor, 6th Century Monk
My lovely wife got me a daily devotional that goes through the sayings of the early desert mothers and fathers of the Church.
Some of the stories are fanciful.
Some are just plain odd.
But one thing is for sure: a constant theme is awareness of one’s own faults. The path to humility, the path to compassion for others, the path to forgiving others for their sins begins with remembering your own capacity for sin. If we are able to gently and consistently remind ourselves of our own past follies, we will be less likely to get too high up on our horses and succumb to the proud condescension of others.
I am feeling rather humbled this week, just thinking about the mistakes that I have since learned from.
You know that old saying, right? “If you don’t look back and cringe at who you used to be, then you haven’t grown as a person.”
The way forward for all of us is humility, humility, humility.
3.
“I never so much as take a step onto the ladder of spiritual progress without placing death before my eyes.”
– Amma Sarah of the Desert, 5th Century Desert Mother
This past December, I turned 42.
In addition, I began serving as a pastor at a retirement community.
I’m not sure if I have thought about or talked about death as much as I have in this season of life.
My time is limited. I want to make good use of it.
And it seems that for Amma Sarah of the Desert, remembering one’s mortality is a sure foundation for making spiritual progress in the life of faith.
This actually pairs rather well with the reflection from quote #2. Remembering our faults and remembering that our time is limited are both spiritually beneficial things to keep at the forefront of our minds.
4.
“For if we all took only what was necessary to satisfy our own needs, giving the rest to those who lack, no one would be rich, no one would be poor, and no one would be in need.”
– Basil the Great, 4th Century Cappadocian Theologian
I think that conservative Christians misunderstand sayings like this.
It sounds too much like Marxism.
However, as I understand it, Marxism demands the equal distribution of goods. Meanwhile, Christian charity leaves it to free will.
I wonder what God thinks about our scarcity mindsets. I admit that I struggle with a fearful mindset toward scarcity. God must look at our stockpiling, at all our various types of wealth, and wonder why we keep goods under lock and key from people who need food to feed their children. God must weep that there are kids who do not have school lunches. God must grieve that there are elders in our communities who may not have heat or running water.
God designed the universe to operate on abundance rather than scarcity, yet here we are, keeping more than we need.
Again, I struggle with a scarcity mindset myself, so I am not trying to throw anyone under the bus with this.
Lord, have mercy.
5.
“The sages of Israel teach that those who would be wise must aim, not at power, but at goodness.”
– Scot McKnight, New Testament Theologian
This one packs a punch.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said something similar, that Christendom has acclimated itself too quickly to those with power.
If the focus is on being good rather than on power, that is absolutely more in line with the teachings of Jesus.
