Everything's in the DNA

Sin is so sinful it blinds the mind to its presence, reality and horror, convincing the heart that it's just not that bad.

An article from the Los Angeles Times by Denise Gellene reports a new study that says, "Die-hard liberals and conservatives aren't made; they're born. It's literally in their DNA." Unnamed scientists studied 46 people and discovered that a person's political "bent" can be explained by the DNA make up. "The study added to the growing research suggesting that over millions of years, humans have developed two cognitive styles -- conservative and liberal," wrote Gellene of comments by James H. Fowler. Liberals want gun control, conservative want none; fear is the denominator. Conservatives have higher levels of fear and so favor the possession of guns.

Jon A. Krosnick, a Stanford poly-sci prof said this was a bogus "study." "I don't' believe any of this. The people who are most scared are less in favor of gun control. Why wouldn't they be more in favor? Because they need guns to fight the bad guys? You can make up a story in either direction."

Undeterred, Gellene writes, "The study is the latest to challenge the long-standing dogma that upbringing and environmental factors determine political attitudes."

Most every "malady" is ascribed to DNA, which has the effect of turning every "malady" into "that's just the way I am, so I'm okay and you must be okay, too." (Remember Thomas Harris' practical guide to transactional analysis in 1969?). Criminals, sexual perversions and promiscuous men have all but been given a pass based on the DNA argument.

An OT prophet, without benefit of "scientific studies" had the revelatory insight we need: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" (Isa 5:20).

The Bible gives us a better explanation; one from which slaves to their DNA can become free: sin. Our behaviors mirror our hearts and our hearts are steeped in rebellion against God and uncleanness of all sorts. The bent of our hearts is always to oppose God's moral laws and vast goodness. The power of sin is strong and stronger in its deceptions. As John Owen warns, "be killing sin or it will be killing you." Self-help is as powerless as a flea in the face of the prowling lion of sin.

There is only one Power effective enough to kill sin before it kills you: the Holy Spirit who leads us into the fight.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Romans 8: 9-14).

If you find yourself focused on the "sins out there," pause and reflect on the "sins in here." Ask the Spirit of Christ who dwells in you to "search...and know my heart, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps 139:23-24). If it's in our DNA, Christ is our Savior from even our DNA to cleanse and to give victory over sin!

Be of good cheer in the fight for holiness!
Bob