Sin and Systems

Soon after the catastrophic failure of the Texas electrical grid during February’s frigid weather, Paul Krugman took aim at the deregulation of essential utilities. Krugman, a nobel prize winning economist, contended in the New York Times (February 22, 2021) that Texas politicians’ ill-conceived commitment to the application of unregulated free market principles led to much suffering in the state.

Krugman identifies three main problems with total dependence on the “market” in the case of electrical supply. First, he contends, electricity is essential to modern life. Unlike other commodities, the lack of electricity can be life-threatening in emergency situations. Skipping to his third point, the economist posits that hypothetical future financial rewards offered through the market are rarely sufficient to push companies to protect consumers against rare but deadly weather events.

Both these points seem supported by the recent debacle.

But it’s the second point of the editorial that caught my attention. Electrical production and distribution are organized in an interlocking system. That system is composed of a myriad of components, developed and maintained by multiple private businesses. Failure of one component in the event of an emergency can break the entire system.

Thus, even if one company truly did see the threat of the polar freeze coming and thoroughly prepared for it in order to continue operation of its part of the grid, it would likely not be enough. Failure in other parts of the system would render preparation meaningless. Electricity would still stop flowing.

As Krugman illustrates, “Even if the owner of a gas-fired power plant insulates and winterizes its turbines, it can’t function if the gas pipeline that supplies its fuel, or the wellhead that provides the gas, freeze up.”

The editorial contends that states need to understand the limitations of deregulation when essential services exist in tightly entwined systems. Particularly required is what Peter Senge famously termed, “the fifth discipline” — i.e. systems thinking.

In his book by that name, Senge illustrates what “systems thinking” means by referring to a common natural event.

A cloud masses, the sky darkens, leaves twist upward, and we know that it will rain. We also know that after the storm, the runoff will feed into groundwater miles away, and the sky will grow clear by tomorrow. All these events are distant in time and space, and yet they are all connected within the same pattern. Each has an influence that is usually hidden from view. You can only understand the system of the rainstorm by contemplating the whole, not any individual part of the pattern.

Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, 1. Currency paperback ed (New York, NY: Currency Doubleday, 1994), p. 6f.

There are few things in our world that are not best understood in systems. Even our own behavior. While we may believe we are making decisions and acting independently, in large measure we respond to a host of relationships and environmental factors which shape and limit our choices.

Because humanity exists in a system, we debate philosophical questions related to free will and determinism. Is it nature, nurture, or unfettered choice that causes the response to a particular stimulus.

While I firmly believe we are not wholly determined by our genetics or environment, it is extremely naive to think that we are completely free individuals. We are caught in systems. And more of what we do is shaped by the systems of which we are a part than most of us are aware of.

The Evangelical churches I’ve participated in over the years have had a large blind spot when it comes to systems thinking. Generally, when the gospel is preached, it is a gospel of the discrete, solitary person. The good news of salvation is that an individual can be forgiven of his or her past bad choices and can, going forward, largely avoid future sin by following Christ through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

I know I’m being a bit over simplistic here, but in general, the American church has focused on the unique individual. We are independent units and Jesus came to save each unique solitary soul — or so it seems to say.

But what would it be like if we applied systems thinking to the question of salvation?

Perhaps the “good news” is more than just forgiveness for my individual sin. Perhaps the Word became flesh in order to liberate the world from the plague of sin that infects the entire created order. Perhaps salvation is the fix of a deeply broken system.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in his brilliant novel, The Brothers Karamazov, clearly builds the case that what we do and experience as humans deeply affects all humankind. We are not independent. Nor can we absolve ourselves from the responsibility for sin, even when we ourselves have not acted sinfully.

Both the tacit theme of the book’s central murder mystery and the theme explicitly articulated through the teachings of the novel’s saint, Father Zossima, is a systems-based gospel. As Zossima shares his personal biography and philosophy a simple phrase is repeated multiple times.

Everyone is really responsible to all men, for all men and for everything.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (New York: Signet, 1957), p. 264.

For Dostoyevsky, Ivan’s personal skepticism wasn’t a private matter, but led to the death of his own father at another man’s hands. His father’s reprehensible conduct had ripple effects among all the brothers. Zossima even hints that a monk’s dour countenance might plant the seed in a child that leads to their destruction. No one is free of the intertwined system.

You see the same sentiment articulated by the 16th century poet and cleric, John Donne. In his famous “Meditation XVII” he puts it this way:

The Apostle Paul extends the system to the entire universe in his pregnant statement in Romans 8:19-23. Because of humanity’s sin, all Creation is locked in bondage and futility. He says it “groans.” Nothing escapes this sin-system.

So when we Christians talk about salvation, we need to go well beyond the individual. It seems to me that we must look at salvation as freedom from a broken system. God created a wonderful system which was designed to give life and joy. Sin broke that system more effectively than the polar vortex crippled the Texas power grid.

But Christ, through His life, death, and resurrection, has set the stage for an entirely new and perfect system. Those of us who have turned away from the broken system and chosen the new creation, have been brought into new life by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is not just freedom from punishment, it is the destruction of a death-system, and the introduction of a joyous and life-filled ecology with a loving Creator-God at the center.

Admittedly, we are still waiting for Christ to bring the new heaven and the new earth. And that waiting period comes with its share of “groans.” But for those of us who are “in Christ,” it also comes with HOPE. The futile system in which we now find ourselves will end soon. Thanks be to God. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 16:22; Revelation 22:20)