Sin Brought Me Back
Sin is what caused me to leave the church and give up religion, and sin is what brought me back.
In my grandmother’s house, sin was associated with pleasure. All those things that I thought were fun were of the world, and therefore sinful. Dancing, playing cards, going to the movies all condemned me to Hell—which made it sound like a pretty interesting place. In my father’s house, sin was associated with form and ritual. Eating meat on Friday, coming into church with the head uncovered—these were misdeeds to confess. But I couldn’t feel guilty about them.
Years later my three-year-old son came running to the house to tell me that a neighbor’s boy had just told him that God would kill him if he told a lie. I decided that it was time we found a religious community that would sustain and encourage our beliefs:
that we are part of a universe of diversity and interdependence,
that the diversity of our world suggests that truth and beauty take many forms,
that God is concerned with the enhancement of life, that evil is life-destroying,
that sin is associated with self-absorption, and that salvation lies in selflessness and service.
A religious community is in the world and concerned with the world.
By Betty Bobo Seiden, from Been in the Storm So Long, a meditation manual edited by Mark Morrison-Reed and Jacqui James. Published by Skinner House in 1991.
