Is Anyone Guilty Anymore?

Let’s start off with a question that our modern society will find difficult to answer:  is the recent Ft. Hood gunman “guilty?”  The slow, incredible answer, one that has already started to trickle down through media sources, is that  even if the man is guilty, ultimately someone else must be at fault—in this case, the U.S. Army.   Interesting habit, how that human beings admit to only interim guilt while looking to attach final responsibility someplace else.  Is anyone actually guilty of anything anymore?  I’ve heard many colorful variations on the theme of why we do the awful things we do.  The list of culprits that typically get blamed include mothers, fathers, culture, genes, God, the devil, abuse in the home, an unfair world, and jerks in the office.  People talk about “being born that way” or “being raised that way.”  Many had negative experiences or weren’t loved or were never understood.  And so that is why they did…that.   Still, after everybody makes their cases (many of which I cannot answer or argue with), God somehow steadfastly assigns personal responsibility to everyone who sins.  The book of Romans says, “Tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil” (2:9).  You won’t find much wiggle room there, no courtroom defense that says “Not guilty by reason of coworkers who teased me.”  God holds us accountable even when there is a dotted line of influences that led us into that bad spot where we finally succumbed to the alcohol or the violence or the sexual immorality.  Victims of sin are sinners themselves.  Imagine the wholesale change that would take place if  everyone stopped for a moment and said, “Okay, I’m wrong, regardless of what the other guy did.”

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