Shaming and Blaming (thoughts on Genesis 3)

Genesis 3 is the story of how people can be dragged into a sinful cycle, which becomes more and more destructive. It seems to me to be a story of shaming and blaming.

Adam and Eve have two significant reactions to eating the fruit and to being caught; they come in verse 7 and in verse 13-4. In verse 7, the immediate response to eating the fruit is that they realise that they are naked and they cover themselves. Now I'm quite happy to accept that having to sew things is the first fruit of sin (being completely unable to sew a straight seam) but the deeper issue is their sudden sense of uncomfortable exposure. What is shame? Psychologists have a straightforward way to distinguish between shame and guilt; I feel guilt over wrong actions but I feel shame over a sense that there is something fundamentally wrong with me. Shame can have many manifestations and results, embarrassment, humiliation, the sense that if people really knew what I was like they would not want me; but at its root lies a horrible sense of unwanted exposure before a gaze which we assume to be critical. It can be an agonizing experience, far worse than many forms of physical pain. I am deficient, I need to be hidden, there is something wrong with me. So the Adam and Eve's first action after eating the apple is to cover up; to cover up not simply their actions but their selves.

Which leads directly to the second action. For one of the problems with shame, is that it makes it difficult if not impossible to accept responsibility. So in verse 13 and 14 they explain that it was not their fault. I've always liked the way that Adam carefully points out not only that it was the woman who did it, but it was the woman 'you gave me'. (Get the point God, see who really caused this?). If you are convinced that there is something fundamentally wrong with you, it is incredibly difficult to take responsibility for your wrong actions. Worried that to do so will expose you in the very way that you fear, the easier option is to shift the blame to someone else. The problem, of course, is that this simply creates a vicious cycle of hatred and blame.

It is argued that the problem today is not guilt, but shame. Very few people (even Christians) will speak of being conscious of sin, needing to repent of wrong actions. But a growing number of people apparently struggle with sense of shame, (if they knew what I was really like, they would not want me). And the accusation is that Christianity addresses only guilt. So how fascinating that the very first story, which has been so dominant in the history of the understanding of sin, actually deals with shame. A hint, perhaps, that we have misunderstood and need to dig further.

And how fascinating also, at the end of the story, it is God who gently covers the couple's nakedness far more permanently than their fig leaves. A story of blaming, shaming and grace.