I have to teach about original sin in many of the classes I've taught in the Catholic parishes where I've worked. I say that there's something wrong with this world, something that needs to be healed. As long as that wrongness hasn't been healed, we're all responsible for it, all bound to do what we can to make it better. We all could do a little better, so we all have to share responsibility for that wrong - poverty, war, oppression - whatever. And yes, it takes more than natural people to deal with that wrong - that's where super-natural help comes in. I hope (and I believe) that we all have a bit of the supernatural in us, because this world really needs it.

I understand a mayor of Hamburg described it this way: "to the extent that I take pride in being German, I have to take responsibility for the harm that Germany has done." I think that applies to all humankind.

-Joe Offer-