WE'RE ALL CRACK BABIES (Blogging the Articles of Religion, Article #7)

Article VII

Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.

“Neonatal abstinence syndrome occurs because a pregnant woman takes opiate or narcotic drugs such as heroin, codeine, oxycodone (Oxycontin) methadone or buprenorphine.  These and other substances pass through the placenta that connects the baby to its mother in the womb. The baby becomes addicted along with the mother.”

At birth, the baby is still dependent on the drug. Because the baby is no longer getting the drug after birth, symptoms of withdrawal may occur.  (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007313.htm )

In the 90’s we coined the term “crack baby” for a child born damaged and addicted because it’s mother used crack cocaine.  A 2013 USA Today article  claimed that the crack baby epidemic of the 90’s was overblown; the long term effect on kids was exaggerated.   Those kids are just fine.

What USA Today and most of the other media outlets didn’t say was that the actual study concluded that the “crack babies” did experience long-term negative effects.  The babies did enter the world addicted, in pain, and going through narcotic withdrawal with their first labored breaths.    They do lag behind developmentally, but the cause wasn’t just the cocaine.  The children were damaged by a combination of their mother’s tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol use in addition to the cocaine.

The crack-baby epidemic was real, but the cause was drugs in general, not just a specific narcotic.

There is another, underreported epidemic of addiction that is even worse.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.  (Psalm 51: 5)

Every single descendant of Adam and Eve, every human being ever born came into the world ADDICTED TO SIN.

We are all “sin babies.”

Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned (Romans 5: 12)

You don’t have to teach a child to lie, or hit, or take what’s not theirs, or demand all of the attention. You do have to intervene and train a child to speak truth, have empathy, share, and be humble.  Why is that?

Because children come into the world seeking to appease the compulsory taste of sin their parents passed to them.

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child (Proverbs 22: 15)

We are all born sin-babies.

The proper term for when a child is born with an inherited chemical addiction is neonatal abstinence syndrome.  The theological term for how human children are born with an inherited need to do wrong is ORIGINAL SIN.

Lately we’ve been trying to convince ourselves that the original sin epidemic isn’t as bad as they said it is.  We go through all the Old Testament thou-shalt-nots and some select New Testament works-of-the-flesh, and we conclude that, “Upon review of the current data, these things are not nearly as negative as we were led to believe.  Being a sin-baby isn’t bad at all”

Go back and read the actual research in the Bible.

The problem is sin, not just a specific sin.

Some are born with a sin-addiction to greed.

Some are born with a sin-addiction to sexual promiscuity. (Bet you haven’t heard that word in a long time.)

Some come out with a sin-addiction to homosexuality. (Yes, you can be born that way.)

Some are addicted to being mean.  (If you’ve never met a mean toddler, work in a daycare center for a few weeks.)

The specific sin-tendency that is passed from parents to child varies, but the long-term negative effects of original sin are universal.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23); and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6: 23)

Which is why God provided a universally accessible intervention program.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Jesus came as the last Adam to cure the genetic disorder that the first Adam started (1 Corinthians 15). 

Without Jesus as Lord, Savior, and Mediator, you and I are doomed to pursue sin.  We can’t help it.  We’re addicted to doing wrong.

But with Christ, in Christ we can fight the compulsion to disobey God.  In Christ, we can, over a long, sometimes hard, process, break the strongholds of sin addiction and live free from our neonatal compulsion toward evil.

There is help.

Call now.

For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10: 13)

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church (5220 Myron Massey Boulevard) in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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