In a recent cartoon, President Biden, patriotically dressed including an Uncle Sam top hat, is standing by a tree which has been chopped down. The tree is named “Afghanistan.” The ax that cut down the tree is wedged in the ground near the tree stump. President Biden exclaims, “Trump made me do it.”(The Week, April 21, 2023)
You may ponder the point the cartoonist is making, but that’s not my point. We don’t have to enter into debate about which President is responsible for the tragic follow-up to our withdrawal from Afghanistan. We do need to reflect on the nature of choice and responsibility. The cartoonist knows we would immediately think, “The devil made me do it.”
When I pondered the cartoon, I remembered a story I read about a man who was suing a hospital. A doctor had performed staple surgery on his stomach to help him lose weight. A couple of days after his operation, he raided the hospital refrigerator and stuffed himself with everything he could find. This tore open the staples and forced another surgery. He was suing the hospital for having a refrigerator near his room. He claimed the temptation was too great. Thus, his complications were not his own fault but the hospital’s fault!
If you know much of the Bible, both the cartoon and the story sound a bit like the story of Adam and Eve, our first parents in the Garden of Eden. They were forbidden to eat the fruit of a particular tree. Eve is tempted by the “serpent” and ate the “forbidden fruit; ” then Adam ate, and God comes and wants to know what’s going on. Adam responds by admitting that he ate the forbidden fruit, but then he blames Eve, “the woman you put here” (As though God is responsible). Then, if that is not enough, he blames Eve (“SHE gave me some fruit from the tree”). Eve won’t rest with that. She probably screamed it, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3). Does that not actually say it? The Devil made me do it.
Poor Adam- – he was only a victim; he could not be held responsible for eating the fruit. Neither could Eve . “The Devil made me do it!”
There is a sense in which Adam and Eve’s pattern continues in their descendants today. Too often we are unwilling to own that for which we are responsible. We sometimes take it further and adopt a victim stance. The only honest and redemptive response to whatever the forces be that play upon us, there is some point where we must stand up and say, ‘Here I am responsible.’ ”