We Must Take Responsibility For Our Actions
When God questioned Adam about whether he had eaten the forbidden fruit, Adam figuratively pointed his finger toward Eve and blamed her for his sin. "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate" (Genesis 3:12). Actually, Adam implied that it was also God’s fault; after all, it was God who created the woman to be with Adam! God then questioned Eve about her action. Rather than simply accept responsibility for her action, she followed Adam’s lead and noted that the serpent had deceived her.
Adam and Eve were the ones who started the ball rolling, but the "shift the blame" defense has been in widespread use since then. When Samuel rebuked King Saul of Israel for disobedience, Saul claimed that it was the people who had actually saved the Amalekite livestock contrary to God’s instructions (1 Samuel 15). Despite the fact that Saul attempted to shift the blame to the people, Samuel pressed him until he admitted that he was the one actually responsible for the failure to follow God’s commandment.
Reaction to the recent rampage by Mark Barton, a frustrated day trader in Atlanta, Georgia illustrates our propensity to shift blame. His killing spree spawned renewed cries for stricter regulation of handguns and even the outright banning of handguns in America. I am amazed at the number of people who are quick to blame guns for the actions of the people who pull the triggers. If we could just get rid of handguns, we could prevent such violence, so the argument goes. Naturally, it is easier to ban handguns than to teach people how to behave toward their fellow man, to control their passions. I suppose that it could be argued that if Mr. Barton had not been able to buy a handgun, he would not have been able to kill nine people in two brokerage houses (perhaps he would have turned to other more lethal alternatives). That would not have saved his wife and two young children who were beaten to death. It is not my purpose to argue the pros and cons of gun control. However, I believe that much of the gun control issue is simply a refusal to assign blame/responsibility where it belongs – to the people who are committing the crimes. It is as if some are convinced that the guns are to blame for these killing sprees.
As a people, we Americans have become proficient at shifting the blame for our own sins or the sins of others. The sad truth is that until more people are preaching the idea of individual responsibility, we will continue to seek to fix social problems with solutions which will not work. God did not excuse Adam and Eve’s sin simply because they pointed the finger of blame to someone else. Nor will He excuse our sins because we attempt to shift the blame to adverse circumstances or the actions of other people.