Across the Generations

“The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.“ William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

This phrase, ‘sins of the fathers’, comes originally from references primarily in Exodus, Deuteronomy and Numbers and relates to generational sins passing from one generation to the next. Despite what the church said, I must say it always seemed to be unfair to me that the children would suffer because of the father’s sins.

Recently however I heard a new term (for me at least), transgenerational. While this talks about passing from generation to another, it isn’t about about the children inheriting the sins of the fathers but rather about the children inheriting the emotional scars of their parents. And now I wonder if that is perhaps what is being alluded to in the Old Testament, that it was not the sins of the fathers but rather the scars those sins left behind.

It certainly sheds a whole new light on the problems that beset various facets of our society: problems with addiction to alcohol and drugs, mental health, lack of ambition, as well,as trust issues. If you had been traumatized by being in a residential school for example, the rest of your life would be spent trying to live with the emotional pain that you were left with. Your family and their families through the generations would all have inherited that pain as well. Think of that small Muslim boy who was the only survivors of a drive by shooting while he and his family were out for a walk. The emotional pain of that will be with him for the rest of his life, and his children’s and grandchildren’s as well.

Unfortunately this society is always looking for the ‘quick fix’ and there isn’t one to be found in this case. What this does tell us though is that for healing to occur it will not be immediate but rather will be over time, over a number of generations. Perhaps our goal should be not so much to completely cure the problem today as it is to make sure that the experiences of each generation are better that the experiences of the one going before.

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NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

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