Before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, there was harmony between them and there was harmony between God and them. There was no fear and no shame, but everything changed immediately after they ate the forbidden fruit. The most significant change was the spiritual death experienced by Adam and Eve. Death is simply a separation, in this case, there was a separation between God and Adam and Eve. This spiritual death resulted from this original sin that Adam and Eve committed.
The original sin also brought with it physical death, pain, decay, and disruption of the harmony between humankind and between God and humankind. The manifestation of this havoc caused by this first act of disobedience is seen in every society and has been part of the human experience for thousands of years.
This implies that all humankind has the propensity to discriminate and to be racist if not checked. Until we start looking at racism from this vantage point, we will be chasing our tails trying to solve a problem that has eluded humankind for millennia. Many may make us feel that the American experience, or the Holocaust in Germany or the transatlantic slave trade or genocide in Rwanda or the murder of millions by the Khmer Rouge are some of the worst things that ever happened. Their assessment is correct, but it is not the complete picture. There will be no attempt to measure the degree of outrage of any act of discrimination and racism because any one person affected by racism is one person too many. The sin of Adam and Eve ushered in brokenness in human relationships that not too long after this incident, we have a record of the first murder. Adam and Eve gave birth to two sons, Cain and Abel. Both of them chose two different trades. Cain, who was the older brother, became a farmer and Abel, a shepherd.
These two brothers decided to bring an offering to God. It turns out that things did not go too well for Cain because his offering was not good enough and was rejected by God. This did not sit well with Cain as the following verses report:
And Abel also brought an offering — fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, He did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Genesis 4:4–5 (NIV)
For the first time, anger is mentioned to describe that state Cain was in. He became angry, apparently driven by jealousy, envy, and hate. Can you imagine how these two brothers have, all of a sudden, become “enemies” because one of them focused intently on what another one was having, instead of on what they were having? Cain might have been driven by fear of his younger brother becoming more than him. According to Cain, God’s disapproval of his offering was an indication that his brother Abel was now God’s favorite and will be placed above him or get more blessings. It did not cross Cain’s mind that he could get a second chance by asking God what he should do so that his own sacrifice would be acceptable in the future.
Cain was not going to work on himself. Instead, he was going to eliminate his brother completely so that there will be no competition. But while he was contemplating this, God tried to reason with him and warned him of the disastrous consequences of not making the right choices. This was an opportunity for Cain to come around and face his own shortcomings, but he was not willing to listen to what God was telling him. God asked him the following questions:
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:6–7 (NIV)
There was still hope for Cain to escape out of his predicament because he was reminded by God that he could rule over sin. The choice was his, and it was within his power to make the right choice. But Cain had made up his mind on what he was going to do: to completely eliminate his own brother, in fact, the only brother he had. This is how Cain went on a devilish act:
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Genesis 4:8 (NIV)
Just like the final solution implemented by the Hitler’s Nazi Germany that murdered more than six million Jews in the 20th century, we are seeing a firsthand experience of where this idea of eliminating other humans that we are envious of or do not like started. Cain deceived his brother to go out to the field with him, and he attacked him without any warning and brutally murdered him in cold blood.
Why did Cain do such an evil thing against his own flesh and blood? How come these two brothers who looked the same and came from the same household ended up in such a mess? What did Cain think killing his only brother was going to do for him? I brought up this case of the first murder that was committed by one brother against another to highlight the negative impact the original sin had on the first humans and why we are still having a lot of difficulties getting along with each other today. If two brothers from the same household could not get along with each other, how much more of people from different backgrounds?
While Cain was not racist towards his brother Abel because there was only one human race, he was motivated by fear, anger, envy, and jealousy. Unfortunately, these vices took the better part of him, and he ended up killing his brother. One can add that Cain stopped looking at his brother Abel as created in the image of God. There is no way Cain would have attacked his brother if he still valued him. He allowed his anger and jealousy to cloud his judgment, and he ended up brutally killing his brother because he was no longer human enough in his eyes. The place of his brother had been replaced by the desire to be at the top.
Can you see some of the parallels between what prompted Cain to murder his brother with some of the same things that fuel racism today? People feel that they are better than other people, and the next logical step is to treat those they consider inferior to them in whatever manner they deem appropriate. In the eyes of those perpetuating this havoc, they have the power to do whatever they want. In other words, they have become their own god. We are going to take a closer look at this later on.
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[1] Quotes & key text excerpts. (2017). In H. V. Conde, Human rights and the United States (3rd ed.). Amenia, NY: Grey House Publishing. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/greyhuman/quotes_andamp_key_text_excerpts/0?institutionId=951