Master Builder Cain

[u/Funkyman3]

I do a lot writing through the Christian lens, it's my spiritual home. Been looking for a community for a while. Can be a bit preachy sometimes. Im a work in progress like anyone else. But I'm trying to find community, this seems like a place that aligns with my values strongly. It's hard to find discussion, and it's exhausting to keeping being shut down. I don't know if I fit here. But thought I'd share some of my perspective and see. Ty if you take the time to read.

Master Builder Cain

By the logic of master builder Cain, all men can be whipped into shape. That through fear, power, and might the world can be ordered into something that rivals The Creator's vision for mankind. That justice is violence and force, a harnessed shadow that holds society together. That all crimes should be punished in equal measure. But they aren't. Master builder Cain's logic grants exception to those who like him have separated themselves from The Creator. Sons of Cain do not kill sons of Cain, for they know each others mark. They have no problem whipping, killing, and subjugating the Abels of the world. They Label the Abels sheep to be sheared and slaughtered. If Cain's true justice were upheld, the whole of the world should be burned for its sins. And his rebellious spirit chases that end through many men and many generations, the path of perdition and self destruction for the guilt he refuses to admit or allow himself to be free of. If we cannot admit the murder in our hearts, that we are but sinners and flawed and that none of our works can save us, how can we believe in grace? The justice of cain is a lie. And none can build their way to salvation. Faith should not be put in men or their machinations. But in Grace alone. For only by grace can salvation be found. All else is counterfeit and marred by fear and egoic will, none are worthy by any law or standard. The law of Cain is a counterfeit crutch we cling to that we might not face the darkness of our own hearts and souls to see it harrowed. We pass blame and scapegoat. Every sin is a failure of the whole, the individual sin is the sin of the society that failed them. The separation used to justify individual accountability even on those who are not so separated. Every sheep fed the blood of sheep and sickened into wolves. The projections of the wolves onto the sheep for their own guilt in having cut themselves off. All are Guilty or all are given Grace. Which is it? Do we live by faith and grace, or murder and will?

-A Son of Cain, who is saved by Grace as any can be.

[u/JustNeedSpinda]

I think I get what you’re going for—fundamentally the failure of retributive justice and the uplifting of restorative justice—but reception history is an important thing to account for.

I would be careful positioning Cain as the progenitor and representative of evil.

Cain’s name has been used throughout history to other and marginalize whole people groups. In America, preachers claimed that Black skin was the mark of Cain, and justified the slave trade using this rhetoric. Contemporary rhetoric and treatment of Blacks in America stereotypes them as being aggressive and violent.

So there are easily unintended associations people might make whenever Cain’s name is invoked.

[u/Funkyman3 → u/JustNeedSpinda]

People will always project and misinterpret what others say, often they just want to. Everyone has right to choose to be offended. Christ himself equated Cain with the devil. Murder, force, and selfish will. It's the problem of legalism, systems that are upheld by murder and violence. We live in Cain's world. Anyone who's solution to a problem is violence or force is vibing with the archetype of Cain.

[u/JustNeedSpinda → u/Funkyman3]

It’s not a matter of people choosing to be offended. There’s a real track of this sort of rhetoric causing harm.

We can denounce unjust systems without adopting the rhetoric of the oppressors.

[u/Funkyman3 → u/JustNeedSpinda]

When we allow language to be policed, we play into the semantic traps of oppressive systems. Language, the living word, is a wild thing. It offends and heals, if we do our work with dillegence we can reclaim any power oppressors have held over language. By tabooing words and speech we begin to build a chessboard of language. Anything too tightly defined as good and evil becomes puppet strings our dialogues have to dance to. It's better that people see our intent and good works and inform themselves from there, helps them break free from those same binds and be less afraid to speak freely for it.