Agnus Dei, or the Christian Moral Accounting
"Agnus Dei" means "Lamb of God". Jesus is considered by Christians as the "lamb of God". ¿What does it mean?
One of the central concepts of many moral systems is what some authors describe as "moral accounting". This is a moral metaphor indicating that every time we do something bad, we accumulate debt, and that by doing good things, we can pay that debt back.
To be sure, the idea is not that every one of us carries a book for keeping record of his/her moral debt, but that in our conception of morality it is deeply rooted that bad deeds have to be paid (as debts are paid).
Certain forms of self-punishment can balance our accounts and increase our "moral credit". This is the reason why the sacrifice of animals (valuable possessions) was, and still is, a prevalent religious practice. Muslims during their pilgrimage to Mecca sacrifice a goat, or other animal, to commemorate when Abraham was asked by God to kill his only son -- but in this case God does not appear in the last minute to cancel his order. Jews sacrificed animals in ancient times, and the idea that Jesus is the "lamb of God" is precisely that God offers something much very valuable to be sacrificed.
George Lakoff in "Moral Politics" explains very well how a large number of Christians (those with a "strict father" moral view) understand this story:
"Being made of flesh, human beings are morally weak. This inherent moral weakness is called Original Sin, as exemplified by the moral weakness of Adam and Eve, which resulted in God's taking everlasting life away from human beings. Because of their moral weakness, everybody starts off with a large moral debit-big enough to guarantee that ordinary people would go to hell.
But God loved human beings so much, he wanted to offer them a way out of this horrible fate which arose from their inherently sinful bodily nature. So he made his only son a human being who was free of sin, and hence had no moral debits. Then God allowed his son to be crucified, and in so doing had him suffer more than the total possible suffering of all mankind forever. Through all this suffering, Jesus built up a huge amount of moral credit, much more than enough to pay for the Original Sin of all mankind. Through his crucifixion, Jesus paid off mankind's Original Sin debit. This made it possible for human beings to go to heaven if they were righteous enough.
But there were those human beings who, over the course of their lives, had sinned so much and run up such a moral debit that they were destined for hell no matter what they did for the rest of their lives. But Jesus loved all people so much, including those sinners, that he suffered on the cross enough to pay off their moral debts too. This was an enormous act of love, but not unconditional love. There had to be a condition. It would have been wrong to let wrongdoers get into heaven without doing anything at all to get there. That would have undone the whole point of the moral accounting system, which is to get people to follow God's commandments.
So Jesus offered sinners a deal. If they would truly repent, accept him as their lord, join his church, and follow his teachings for the rest of their lives, he would pay off their moral debts with the moral credit from his crucifixion and wipe their slate clean. It would be as if they were born again, with no moral debits. That way he would save them from hell; he would be their savior. The contract was made available to all sinners at any time.
As their part of the deal, the former sinners would have to accept the authority of God and follow his commandments for the rest of their lives. This would be hard. It would require a character one did not have before being born again, a new moral essence-not being rotten to the core, but being rock solid.
To acquire this moral essence, you have to take Jesus into your heart. The heart is the metaphorical locus of moral essence. You have to take the essence of Jesus into you and make it your essence. That is not as easy as it may sound.
It requires building up moral strength through self-discipline and self-denial. It requires obeying moral authority, the moral authority of God, as revealed through the Bible and his church. It requires staying within moral boundaries and not deviating from the path of righteousness. And it requires remaining pure and upright. Jesus' offer was one of love-not unconditional love, but tough love.
Unfortunately, there is a large loophole in this contract. Allowing people to repent at any time and still go to heaven is an incentive to keep sinning as long as possible. Then, at the last minute, you can repent and go to heaven. That's not an incentive to be good; it makes sinning pay off up until you're about to die.
This loophole is closed by the last judgment, the idea that, at some time which human beings cannot predict, the world will come to an end and the moral books will be closed. At that instant, you will be judged, and if you are a sinner-if you have more debits than credits at that instant you will be forever damned to hell. Because the last judgment could happen at any time, the only way to guarantee that you will be able to take advantage of the deal Jesus has offered is to accept it immediately."
¿Can this fable be the guide to a moral behavior? ¿Can we build a free and happy society based on a fairy tale like this? Absolutely not. This idea of Jesus sacrificed by God for God to pay a debt with God is stupid, cruel, and harmful.
It is wrong to teach children to behave based on this tale. Catholic priests harm kids by teaching a moral based on guilt. Protestant pastors harm by snaring the poor and the desperate with this absurd story.
Atheists and freethinkers are always asked ¿where do you get moral from? Francis Bacon gave an excellent answer 400 years ago:
Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.
Photos: UniversalProject, ChaTo, Henribergius, Patrick Denker.
