The prophet Ezekiel accurately describes God’s justice: “the life of the father is like the life of the son, both are mine; only the one who sins shall die.” Everyone faces judgement on the basis of their behaviors and actions, not those of the family. This is not to say, however, that we are not impacted by things in our past. Actions have consequences. Think, for example of the “original sin” in the United States of slavery. That history has infected us all with the sin with racism. While we won’t be held accountable for slavery, we will be held accountable if we do not do all that we can to eliminate from our minds and hearts the racism endemic in American culture.
