COMMENTARY: The high price of denial

c. 1998 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is author of “Turn Toward the Wind” and publisher of Religion News Service. She is the mother of two boys.) UNDATED _ It all started with Eve. The mother of all sinners initiated the rest of us with a one-two punch: disobedience followed quickly by denial. Thousands […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

(Dale Hanson Bourke is author of “Turn Toward the Wind” and publisher of Religion News Service. She is the mother of two boys.)

UNDATED _ It all started with Eve. The mother of all sinners initiated the rest of us with a one-two punch: disobedience followed quickly by denial.


Thousands of years of experience have resulted in surprisingly modest improvements on her technique. The disobedience part seems to come naturally; we’re still perfecting the denials.

Our training starts early, as every parent knows. Even toddlers protest innocence, often with the evidence smeared all over hands and face.

Children quickly move on to diversionary tactics, pointing to a sibling or playmate in an effort to dodge blame. And as adults, even when confronted with overwhelming evidence, we often come full circle to some version of”the devil made me do it.” We are aided in our fumbling attempts by a legal system that upholds our innocence and dares accusers to prove us guilty. And we are further abetted by an individualistic society that makes community disapproval a meaningless threat.

But the media-enhanced view we have of famous denials has begun to create a surprisingly disconcerting collage of the whole messy business.

From O.J. Simpson to the Ramseys to President Clinton, we have watched televised protestations of innocence with cynical disbelief. On one hand, we uphold the legal rights of these individuals to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

On the other hand, we have learned from personal experience that remarkable acting abilities seem to be a by-product of sin. Anyone who has doubts about this needs only remember the sobbing Susan Smith and her televised plea to the fabricated abductor of her children that came hours after she had drowned them.

And what cost is a lie coming on the heals of a more unthinkable transgression? Do we really expect someone who is guilty of infidelity or murder to get caught up in a new-found sense of morality and come clean in public?


Humanly speaking, that would be suicide. And the problem is that from Eve on down, we think very humanly whenever we get caught up in sin.

God laid out the terms from the start: Eat the forbidden fruit and you will die. Eve ate the fruit, gave some to Adam, and lived to tell about it.

At first, the whole thing seemed like a misunderstanding. God was being controlling and Eve had found a way around him.

But God wasn’t mistaken then and he isn’t any more off-track today. There are consequences to both disobedience and denial.

Humanly, the two go hand in hand. But spiritually, the first affirms our flawed mortality, while the second does the greatest damage: Denial separates us from God.

We don’t know what might have happened if after disobeying, Eve had quickly confessed and asked God for forgiveness. We do know that the Old Testament is full of examples of godly grace, even after murder and adultery.


Had Eve been less stubborn and more repentant, we might all still be living in the garden. But our sister in denial taught us well and so we continue to hone our skills, believing that if we fool a jury or the public or our spouse or a parent, we have somehow gotten away with it.

And maybe we have, humanly speaking. But with God, you can run but you sure can’t hide. If you do, you are likely to end up with a wardrobe of fig leaves and a stiff neck from looking over your shoulder.

There is only one antidote to such a foolish and exhausting condition and that is the terrifyingly simple act known as confession.

The Bible makes this equation incredibly clear:”If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Forgiveness and cleansing can be ours, no matter how heinous our sin. But the price is the antithesis of denial.

Confession in a court of law can bring heavy punishment. Just look at the late Karla Faye Tucker. Yet confession can also bring a peace that defies understanding; the ability to calmly sing hymns as lethal drugs take away your last breath.

From a legal point of view, denial makes perfect sense. But from a spiritual vantage point, it is the absolute worst option. The Bible makes the stakes abundantly clear:”What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”


DEA END BOURKE

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