Christian Fundamentalist Myth #1 - The cause of all pain is Sin.
The implication is that pain/suffering could've been avoided with righteousness [non-sin].
A first response is "well, I didn't sin. and yet this bad thing happened to me (causing pain)."
The American Christian fundamentalist's response to that would be something like, "well, maybe you didn't sin, but someone did."
[this is where it gets a bit muddy.]
"Either the person who put that pain upon you (obviously the murderer, the thief, the adulterer, the liar, etc.) - you were a victum of disobedience to God."
OR
"Your own actions of sin caused this pain/suffering. You brought it upon yourself."
OR
"The cause of the pain was the sin of your forefathers - even if we have to go all the way back to Adam and Eve who did the first sin."
These answers are not good enough - though they contain enough truth to muddy up the issue causing you to feel at fault for your own pain.
The part about evil men hurting you holds true. Their sin did cause your pain. A bad man hits me over the head with a baseball bat, sending me into a coma, depriving my family of an income and a father. His sin caused my pain.
The other view is you caused it yourself. The normal implication from an evangelical preacher would be something like, "Well, maybe you was sinning by hanging out with bad people, or you did some hidden sin that caused this [karma-like] evil to come upon you." This is often thought, implied, and used as an excuse to distribute guilt and ignore suffering.
Another twist on this thought is: "well maybe its just your response to the situation that holds the sin that actually causes your pain" Something like, "If you didn't try to play God and be in control of your own life in the first place (implying that you don't trust God to make your decisions for you and somehow don't metaphysically manifest Himself in you) then you would not feel this pain/suffering or notice it as painful. (see, it gets muddy)
They call it "putting God/Christ on the throne of your life") - [Pastor Mark of Wimberley First Baptist preached a whole sermon on this thread yesterday].
The implication of this is some kind of evangelical twist involving the truism that if we respond positively to a negative situations we can still be happy - even in sad settings. (This has some obvious mixed truths and lies that we can't go into now.)
The part of all this I don't like - is somehow it's still your fault. You COULD avoid the suffering if you were somehow less sinful, more spiritual, or a better responder. (or something like that).
Jesus' first disciples had this mistaken and harmful view also. They came upon a blind man from birth and they asked him, "Who was it that did the sin - causing this man to be born blind? The man himself or his parents?" [John 9:2]
Jesus responded, "Neither."
Neither. Nobody did some kind of sin that caused this man to suffer. Not the man, not the parents. And by implication, not the parents' parents' partents' parents.
Then why was he born blind? Why was his whole life one of suffering - the loss of eyesight and begging on the streets? - life as a burden to himself and to all. I don't know. Jesus really didn't answer them other than healing the man and telling his disciples the reason was so that God's glory could be revealed.
That's a bit mysterious.
But it wasn't because the man or the man's parents caused it by sinning.
We do Christianity and our brothers and sisters a grave disservice by perpetuating this myth that "the cause of all suffering is Sin." We also allow grief and suffering to continue by believing this lie.
We should be healing the people that suffer. Not explaining their pain with non-Jesus theologies.
Our call is to heal.
