Article October 12, 1987 Issue

Who sins?

The Christian Science Monitor

We had occasionally gone to films and debated their merits over dinner. We had driven to my home city—my dearest college friend and the young, rather dashing professor to whom she was informally engaged. Then, without telling her, he started calling me. Flattered and intrigued, I found it easy to drift along, seeing him in out-of-the-way places. After all, such things were common enough in matters of the heart, weren't they?

During this time I happened to read the Biblical narrative of Jacob. He just took what he wanted, rupturing family bonds and the social order. Reluctantly, but clearly, I saw that his story was speaking to me. For me, my betrayal of a close friendship implied disregard for all human affection. I felt it put me at odds with God, divine Love, the source of the good in stable human ties.

Yet the Bible also records Jacob's nighttime struggle with an adversary. He emerged with a new name and nature, able to restore his relationship with the brother he had deceived.^{See Gen., chaps. 32–33.} I had tended to picture God's power as arrayed against Jacob as he fought. (Don't we sometimes conceive of God as creating men and women with sinful inclinations and then punishing them when they commit the deed?)

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