It begins at Creation

One of the best things I have read in a long time:

... Perhaps the most common imbalance in American evangelicalism is to overemphasize the Fall. Consider the typical evangelistic message: "You're a sinner; you need to be saved." What could be wrong with that? Of course, it's true that we are sinners, but notice that the message starts with the Fall instead of Creation. By beginning with the theme of sin, it implies that our essential identity consists in being guilty sinners, deserving of divine punishment. Some Christian literature goes so far as to say we are nothing, completely worthless, before a holy God.
This excessively negative view is not biblical, however, and it lays Christianity open to the charge that it has a low view of human dignity. The Bible does not begin with the Fall but with Creation: Our value and dignity are rooted in the fact that we are created in the image of God, with the high calling of being His representatives on earth. In fact, it is only because humans have such high value that sin is so tragic. If we were worthless to begin with, then the Fall would be a trivial event. When a cheap trinket is broken, we toss it aside with a shrug. But when a priceless masterpiece is defaced, we are horrified. It is because humans are the masterpiece of God's creation that the destructiveness of sin produces such horror and sorrow. Far from expressing a low view of human nature, the Bible actually gives a far higher view than the dominant secular view today, which regards humans as simply complex computers made of meat-products of blind, naturalistic forces, without transcendent purpose or meaning.
If we start with the message of sin, without giving the context of Creation, then we will come across to nonbelievers as merely negative and judgmental. After and extended trip through Africa (described in Dark Star Safari), the writer Paul Theroux said one of the saddest moments in his journey was "hearing a young woman [missionary] tell me that she was heading for Mozambique and adding, 'They're all sinners, you know.'" Theroux concluded that missionaries only make people "despise themselves."* We need to begin our message where the Bible begins-with the dignity and high calling of all human beings because they are created in the image of God.

Nancy Pearcey Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity. pg. 87-88.

*Paul Theroux, interview by Susan Olasky, "Agents of Virtue," World, March 15, 2003.

For some reason, I have lately taken an interest in the study of worldviews and how they develop, particularly the North American Christian worldview. I think it is because I have become to realize how out of whack mine is. Or maybe it is because I think most other Christian's worldview is out of whack and I am resisting becoming one of them. Either way, I know I am going to be challenged and stretch. I think it is up to me how far I'll allow myself to go and that scares me because even though I like the idea of changing, I don't know how far I will allow myself to go.

Anyhow, this quote is one example how Christians have wrongly have viewed humanity and sin through a distorted lens.