Collective Guilt for Individual Crimes

Should people be punished for crimes committed by relatives or neighbors? The very idea should be abhorrent to most, but there was a time when this standard was common. Unfortunately, this standard has also remained enshrined in many religions, allowing it to survive, even if tacitly, long past its expiration date.

In the April/May 2005 issue of Free Inquiry, Shadia B. Dury writes in her article “Why Biblical Religions are an Obstacle to Freedom”:

[One] reason that biblical religions are an obstacle to free societies is their attachment to the concept of collective guilt. The biblical God tends to punish the whole community for the sins of the few. In fact, the biblical God brags about his penchant for that kind of punishment: “...I the Lord they God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me...” (Exodus 20:5). Time and time again, the anger falls on the whole community for the transgressions of some....

If you believe that God will punish you collectively for the private vices of some of the members of the community — by using hurricanes, floods, famines, earthquakes, or terrorists — you will naturally take a lively interest in the private affairs of others. The notion of collective guilt promotes a meddlesome style of politics that is an obstacle to a free society. Freedom requires a private domain of conduct that is an concern to others — a domain that does not threaten the interests of others or their equal freedom.

It’s not common for people today to actively promote the idea of collective guilt — this helps show just how far we have come. At the same time, though, assumptions about the validity of collective guilty continue to animate the thinking of some religious leaders. It’s assumed by some conservative Christians, for example, that God has punished or will punish America collectively for allowing gay relationships and/or abortion to continue. It is believed that God will act to judge or punish the entire community because the vices of a few are tolerated.

It’s only natural that someone who sincerely believes such a thing will want to take action to end the tolerance of vice. They don’t want to see otherwise-innocent Americans punished for the sins of a few. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to occur to them that punishing otherwise-innocent people for the vices of a few is itself unjust. No deity which punishes in such a manner deserves to be called just or good — but rather than making this step forward in their theology, they continue on a regressive path and attempt to do God’s work themselves by punishing private vice.

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