Some days I marvel at the intersection of threads in my life. Marvel, lament, give thanks and wonder.
Today is very much one of those days.
First, it's the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, so I was reviewing past blog posts on Ash Wednesday and Lent and came across one from 2017: Start with Repentance. I've just been writing a report that has me digging through records from that year, so it was interesting to reflect back on that time and what I was thinking.
Second, today is the 212th anniversary of Elbridge Gerry's signing of the distorted district map that was yielded the word "Gerrymandering." (The full Smithsonian backstory on that is available here.) A decade ago I had never even heard the word - or if I had, it hadn't registered. Now, I've explained gerrymandering and the harm it does in churches, classrooms, restaurants, Rotaries, libraries, living rooms and more, from Philadelphia to Scranton to Erie to Pittsburgh and dozens of towns and cities in between. Distorted districts, drawn to benefit one party, or to keep incumbents in power, create a distortion of representation and yield distorted policies, bent to benefit some at the great expense of others.
Third, today, for the first time since I left youth ministry fourteen years ago, I found myself talking with young teens in a confirmation class at our church. The new youth minister, Jessica Campbell, was in my first small group when I started youth ministry in 1999. Now she's back from years in youth ministry in the mid-west, leading the Good Samaritan youth ministry and teaching the youth confirmation class. I was an invited guest and loved every minute.
The curriculum she's using has some fragments of a curriculum I created twenty years ago, with some wonderful changes and additions across the years. Jessica sent me a preview and I found myself drawn to some Hebrew words I'd never seen, three different words flattened into "sin" in modern translations. I'll likely circle back to all three but for now I want to point toward the Bible Project Iniquity page and pause on the explanation of one Hebrew word for sin.
The word avon is related to a Hebrew verb avah, which means “to be bent” or “crooked.” The poet of Psalm says his back is avah'd, that is, bent over in pain. A road that isn't straight is one that avah's, that is, it's twisty and crooked.It occurred to me reading this description: if "avon" refers to all kinds of crooked behavior, it refers to gerrymandering. Crooked lines. Distorted representation.
Another fascinating thing about the word avon is that it refers not only to distorted behavior but also to the crooked consequences––the hurt people, the broken relationships, the cycles of retaliation.
Elbridge Gerry was not the first to bend district lines to benefit his own party. And not the worst by any means. Two years past the last redistricting deadlines, multiple states are still in litigation over distorted district lines as both major parties vie for control of Congress and voters struggle for fair representation.
Distorted districts yield distorted policies. The more I learn the more I see that. Distorted districts also deepen the partisan divide, and fuel "us vs them" cycles of retaliation.
Crooked actions and distorted ideas ripple far past their beginnings to harm all they touch. Lies travel the globe, stirring more lies as they go. Hate begets more hate, with tragic consequences. The disturbances of sin shape our personal lives, but also our politics and policies, twisting and troubling everything they touch.
I started this blog in 2010 in part to keep myself thinking about questions that came up with young friends during my years in youth ministry. In part my goal was to dig into words that have been flattened by misuse or mis-translation. And in part, I wanted to continue conversation, across space and time, about what it means to live as followers of Christ in ways that might not always fit with the distorted words we've been given.
