Crimen et Heva - Christine Blasey Ford

Christine Blasey Ford and the Serpent

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

The current debacle over Brett Kavanaugh reminded me that the first sin committed in the Garden of Eden was perpetrated by the Serpent and it was the sin of slander. When I was a child, my father (a devout Pentecostal Christian) would always remind us four children that this was the most heinous crime of all. Let us look again at the beginning of that story in Genesis 3:1-5:

1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Note that the Serpent called God a liar. The Serpent slandered God. And my father hated that with an unbridled passion. Yes, my father was a hater. He hated slander because it always resulted in all the other downstream sins. We know this is true because of what succeeding verses 6 and 7 state:

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

Note again what Sacred Scripture states: The tree was good for food (the lust of the flesh), and it was a delight to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and that the tree could make one wise (the pride of life). This is exactly what 1st John 2:16 says:

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.

Slander inexorably and inevitably leads to all the other sins that exist. Indeed, slander murders by destroying one's good name and reputation. Furthermore, there is not one shred of evidence against Brett Kavanaugh today just as there wasn’t against Clarence Thomas more than two decades ago. But their good names and reputations are murdered! And this slander is the exact same kind of evil with which the Serpent beguiled Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Serpent tried to murder God, and that's what happened at Calvary when our slander murdered His only begotten Son.

This is an old, old story, and I sincerely wish today that my father were around to remind everyone of the heinous evil in which we are engaging. God is NOT a disinterested spectator in the affairs of men. He will respond in mercy for the innocent, and that will mean judgment for the guilty. So let us be careful when we ask for God’s mercy because we just may get it and it won’t be what we expect or anticipate, but it will be what we need.