Forget the Fall, do something about the Fools.

An increasing proportion of Christians accept the ancient age of the Earth, and the implication that there was no historical fall from a perfect creation, initiated by the first human couple.

Others of us still take the Genesis stories, including “the Fall” literally. After all, if there was no first Adam, we might not need a second Adam, and the whole Christian story, at least as Paul tells it, falls apart.

Arguing about who is right about the Fall is a wonderful distraction from doing something about what the “second Adam” actually taught, and what he expected us to do about it.

Jesus doesn’t talk about coming to save us from the Fall.

He is preoccupied with saving us from the Fool.

That bloke who hoarded his wealth to keep himself safe and comfortable. The bloke whom most westerners would now rename the “rich sensible man.” Who amongst us doesn’t think superannuation is a good idea? What idiot would give their money away to others in the hope that when they in turn are in need, someone will help them?

Jesus seemed to think we would all be that stupid. That we would actually have faith in God’s provision to us through the wider community. That the Acts church was not a bunch of communist morons.

He’s kind of relentless about it. “No-one can be my disciple unless they forsake all their possessions.” There was that rich bloke being tormented in hades because he left poor Lazarus at his gate. The judgment of the nations, the sheep and goats. The eye of the needle (and no, that wasn’t just some quite skinny gate, it was a needle.) Remember how Zaccheaus the tax collector had salvation come to his house? And there’s all those , “Woe unto yous?”

Who wants to deal with that?

No wonder we argue so much about the Fall. And evolution. Women in leadership. Gay marriage. Trinity. Music…

Jesus didn’t care about the Fall!

He wants to save us from the Fool.

To save those who are one. To save those who aspire to become one. To save those who suffer and groan because the world has so many who have decided to be one.

Whether “The Fall” ever happened, these Fools are now leading us into the most rapid, and possibly most devastating, Fall the world has yet seen. A fall in biodiversity, a fall in equality amongst humanity, a fall in survivability for the current poor, and future generations.

So whatever we make of an historical “Genesis Fall,” we all find ourselves living right in the midst of a worse Fall for which many of us are irrefutably responsible.

Unlike poor Eve and Adam, though, it seems like the door to repentance is still open a crack. Our species has maybe a decade to embrace a sustained, global repentance which may yet keep us in the garden. Let us help the rich fools distribute their excesses so they can squeeze through that crack, before it shuts in all our faces for good.

Distribute and adapt as you like, with acknowledgment, and please tell me.