Every February, Black History Month helps us reflect on how our nation’s racial past informs our present—to acknowledge the enduring effects of racial injustice and the need for systemic reform, both in society and in the church.
Systemic sin refers to the idea that human sinfulness is not just about wrong actions of individuals; communities, governments, nations, cultures, and other social institutions can also be sinful. As a result, the call to repentance and justice extends beyond personal morality and applies to broader systems. This means we don’t just have our own personal duty; our societies also carry a collective responsibility to combat racism.
As theologian José Ignacio González Faus writes, “When human beings sin, they create structures of sin, which, in turn, make human beings sin.” Insofar as laws can be sinful, Christians have a responsibility to oppose them and try to create just systems. This should not be controversial. Yet many of the same Christians who advocate for laws banning abortion or protecting free speech and religion simultaneously oppose talking about systemic sin.
Still, one objection I often hear is that the concept of systemic sin isn’t found or mentioned in the Bible. Critics say the biblical definition of sin is strictly an individual matter rooted in personal choices and responsibility, not systems and laws.
Some go as far as saying concepts like systemic sin and institutional racism are unbiblical because placing blame on systems, institutions, or communities waters down what has historically been most important about the Christian doctrine of sin: personal responsibility. Yet in my study, I have come to the opposite conclusion: Not only do we find systemic sin in the Bible, but also we may be more culpable for sin than if we were only personally accountable.
In a handful of examples from the Old Testament, entire communities, not just individuals, are implicated and held accountable for their sinfulness. These instances do not require less but morethan the responsibility of the guilty parties involved. This concept is also underscored by examples in the New Testament, where the apostle Paul outlines a relational dimension in the way early Christian communities responded to sin.
In fact, sin in Hebrew thought was a community issue more often than it was an individual issue.Most passages on sin are about how the whole Israelite community had sinned and how this affected individuals in the community. As Old Testament scholar Mark Boda puts it, “Sin and its accompanying guilt and punishment is understood in terms of corporate solidarity.”
The Prophets often condemned entire nations for their sinfulness or referenced the sins of previous generations in order to explain the wickedness of their audiences. Israel is condemned as a nation for injustice toward oppressed peoples, despite some individuals not participating in the injustice. I have written about this at length elsewhere, but let’s look at a few key examples here.
First, God condemns the whole nation of Israel for worshiping the golden calf despite opposition from Levites (Ex. 32). Later, he allows Israel to wander in the desert for a generation as a consequence of their mistrust in God, despite Caleb and Joshua’s faithful response (Num. 14). On Mount Horeb, when Elijah bemoans Israel’s wickedness, God reminds him of 7,000 who remain faithful (1 Kings 19:14–18). Still, God goes on to pronounce judgment on Israel as a whole in the next chapters (20:42; 21:21–24).
Even the repentance for such national sins is shown to be a community activity rather than just an individual one: Nehemiah prays a prayer of repentance for the sins of the nation and the previous generation (Neh. 1:6), and Israel responds with national repentance (Neh. 9:2). Daniel also offers prayers of repentance for the sins of Israel, both for the present and for the previous generations (Dan. 9:16). In these examples, something more than an individual’s actions is at fault in the eyes of God—the whole nation has done something to offend God and is therefore responsible for repenting and fixing those mistakes.
This is perhaps most evident in the case of Achan, who takes plunder from Jericho against God’s commands (Josh. 7). When the Israelites go up to Ai, they find the Lord’s favor is no longer with them. Joshua cries out to God, who tells him that “Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant” (v. 11, emphasis added). God condemns the entire people of Israel for the sins of Achan—and it’s not until all people consecrate themselves and destroy his stolen goods and family that God’s anger toward them relents.
What is going on with sin in this story? Does this water down Achan’s responsibility for his sin? I think not. Achan is still identified as the one who took plunder and provoked God’s anger—after all, he and his family suffer the brunt of God’s penalty. Their guilt is not lessened by the rest of Israel’s liability for breaking covenant with God. Instead, it seems that Israel is held accountable in addition to Achan and his family.
One reason for this communal responsibility is the social and institutional structure of Israelite life. Because Israel as a community is in covenant with God, when one person violates this covenant, it affects the whole community. Sin is not just a personal issue (though it is never less than that). Sin occurs at a community level, and individual sins affect the community—sin is a community problem.
Okay, so sin in the Old Testament was a community ordeal—but that was then. Jesus changed the covenant from a relationship between God and Israel to personal relationships with Jesus, which means now all we have to do is focus on our own sins, right? Surely the concept of systemic sin is absent in the New Testament! Not quite.
In fact, Paul’s letters are even more focused on communal dimensions of sin. When Paul calls out individuals for their sin, he seems equally concerned about how it affects the whole community’s righteousness.
Paul admonishes entire congregations for sins that run rampant in the community, like the Jewish Christians’ mistreatment of Gentile believers. When congregations give partiality to those of Jewish background and treat Gentile converts like second-class citizens, Paul admonishes these congregations, calling them to live together without partiality and repair the malformed ways they relate to one another (Gal. 2).
Paul’s understanding of sin as a community problem demands that, in the words of Esau McCaulley, we go “beyond naming.” McCaulley adds, “There has to be some vision of the righting of wrongs and the restoration of relationships. The call to be peacemakers is the call for the church to enter the messy world of politics and point toward a better way of being human.”
For this reason, Paul warns that we as individuals can become weapons of injustice, so even those individuals who are not actively participating in a particular sin can be guilty of passivity toward it. Notice Paul’s words in Romans 6: He does not say to simply refrain from sin but says that we must not allow sin to reign in our bodies or allow any part of ourselves to be controlled by sin (vv. 12–13). This implies a need for active resistance to sin, not just avoidance of it. For instance, Paul directly calls out Peter, who had been an early advocate of Gentile inclusion, for remaining silent on this issue (Gal. 2:11–14). Paul’s command for churches to be holy is not just a call not to sin but a call to oppose sin in their midst. To be passive to sins in our communities is to be used by the Enemy for injustice.
Another example is when Paul admonishes a man who slept with his stepmother. Paul calls out the Corinthian church and not just the individuals involved (1 Cor. 5:1–2), making it the responsibility of the entire congregation to deal with the sinner in their midst.
In Galatians 6, Paul advises the church to gently restore fellow members in sin by leading them to repentance while cautioning them against being tempted in the process. He makes a profound statement: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (v. 2). Likewise, in Romans 14 Paul argues that reconciliation requires certain rights and freedoms be laid down by all for the sake of some weaker brothers and sisters.
In both cases, Paul is clearly concerned about the collective impact of individual sins, so he makes everybody responsible for everyone else.
Now, what does this mean for the Christian response to systemic racial injustice? It means that whenever we see racism in our churches and communities, it should be dealt with as a problem that affects the whole community, not just the individuals involved.
After all, it took generations of people to create and maintain entire systems of law, economics, and culture built upon the transatlantic slave trade. This means racism exists in part because of sinful systems created by sinful people. And just as Paul takes a case of sexual immorality and makes it a community problem, racial prejudice needs to be seen as equally symptomatic of our passivity toward unjust systems.
So, what is the Judeo-Christian solution to a systemic sin like racism?
When the Prophets call Israel to account for its lack of care for the poor, the solution is for Israel to return to its observance of God’s law. In that case, this meant returning to the community-wide practice of leaving the corners of each field unharvested so the poor and refugees could glean food from the margins of others’ abundance (Lev. 23:22).
Likewise, when Paul calls out congregations out for allowing sin to spread throughout their communities, his solution is for Christians to take responsibility for their weaker siblings by changing practices at a social level to avoid becoming stumbling blocks. In one case, this meant a community-wide ban on the eating of meat sacrificed to idols to avoid causing others to sin (1 Cor. 8:9–13). In this way, Paul prescribes a collective cure to stop the spread of sin.
Community problems require community solutions. Challenging systemic sins like racism goes beyond dealing with individual prejudices to changing the societal and church structures that encourage our brothers and sisters to persist in their racism.
As McCaulley puts it, “According to Isaiah, true practice of religion ought to result in concrete change, the breaking of yokes. He does not mean the occasional private act of liberation, but ‘to break the chains of injustice.’ What could this mean other than a transformation of the structures of societies that trap people in hopelessness?”
A failure to properly contend with systemic sins like racism in our churches is comparable with Peter’s passivity toward Jew-Gentile conflict. When we do not stand up to community issues, we allow them to grow and fester into bigger problems. We become, to borrow Paul’s words, weapons of injustice (Rom. 6:13).
Finally, the Christian call to deal with systemic sin goes beyond our churches. Both Paul and the Prophets regularly called out not just their own God-fearing communities but also sinful communities around them. The Prophets condemned other nations based on their mistreatment of the poor, and Paul called out the sinful practices of the culture surrounding the early churches. So whenever the church sees systemic injustice against people of color in the world, we must take up our prophetic voice and condemn it for what it is: sin.
We must call our societies to repent of their racism and demand changes to the structures which allow this sin to persist. Anything less amounts to passivity, and churches become weapons enabling injustice rather than instruments of justice. If the church is to be the hands and feet of Jesus, then we must be active in resisting sin both within and outside our ranks.
More than this, the church must be known for acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God (Mic. 6:8). And by this, we invite the world to be transformed by the powerful love of Jesus in the same way he has transformed our own hearts.
D. T. Everhart is a lecturer in theology at the London School of Theology, where he directs the BA Theology and Liberal Arts program.
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