Blaming Sons for Sins of the Fathers

A newsletter by David Rupert posted on Patheos described the current rebellion in the U.S. this way: “We want to transfer the sins of the fathers – and their friends – on to a current generation. That is a deep and dark hole to plunge, a place in which no one is safe. Taking the innocence of a modern people and swapping that for the guilt of the ancients is neither practical nor reasonable.” 

Note the word “reasonable.” Mob rule is not based on reason but on raw hateful emotion that transfers blame to innocents. It is not reasonable for blacks to blame black store owners for racism and destroy their businesses. It is not reasonable to blame today’s whites for slavery, when most of them had ancestors who did not come to this country until after slavery was ended by the civil war. It is not reasonable to destroy monuments to the two men most responsible for freeing the slaves, Lincoln and Grant. That is not only unreasonable, it is stupid.

A dominant theme of the “cancel” culture is to erase American culture and history, on the assumption that it is all so bad we don’t want to be reminded of it. If we cancel our history, how do we learn from it? How do we avoid repeating some of the worst of it, like the racism? In fact, you could say that racism is worse now, fed by the looters, rioters, and race-baiters who constantly dredge up old grievances to poison inter-racial relationships for political gain. How does provoking people invite love and unity?

How do we escape this nihilistic entrapment? A first principle is to insist that critics and protesters have placed blamed appropriately. In the case of the current rebellion against police, for example, we should require protesters to be honest. Is it honest to blame all police or the policing system for the misbehavior of a small minority of police?  Is it fair to ignore one’s own complicity, such as being hostile or resisting arrest when you have broken the law?

In the case of slavery, is it appropriate to blame all contemporary whites, when most of them had ancestors who had nothing to do with slavery, who weren’t even in the country at that time? In case of the social and political errors of the past, Rupert gives good advice: “Rather than concentrating on the sins of the fathers, maybe we should focus on the sin of the son. That’s you. That’s me.”

Source:

Rupert, David. (2020). Sins of the father: What should we do about an imperfect past? Patheos. June 26.