Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore and US President Donald Trump sound alike when they try to deny allegations of sexually abusing women. They chide the media, point to partisan politics and vilify the women themselves, in effect, calling them liars. In short, neither man has taken responsibility for his actions. And in that regard, neither did the world’s first man – Adam.

Original Sin, part II

There’s a rarely talked-about second “sin” in Genesis adjoining the one about eating from the Forbidden Tree – Adam’s failure to own up to his wrongdoing and accepting responsibility for it.

As the Old Testament recounts the scene, God asks, “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Adam replies, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” See? He not only blames Eve, but also his Creator. The Blame Game played by Roy and Donald began with Adam.

Owning up to wrongdoing

In contrast to the denials of Moore and Trump, NBC reported on Nov. 17 that when a complaint of unwanted kissing and fondling was laid at the door of Sen. Al Frank, D-Minn, he came clean and apologized, adding that he will comply with an ethics hearing on the violation. Clearly horrified by the memory of his accuser - California radio news anchor, Leeann Tweeden – he sounded a kind of rallying cry to his fellow harassers, like this: “Over the last few months, all of us – including and especially men who respect women – have been forced to take a good, hard look at our own actions and think (perhaps, shamefully, for the first time) about how those actions have affected women.”

Resorting to name-calling

The time frame in Franken’s statement suggests that he was conjuring up the assorted allegations of Trump’s abuses toward women.

The president’s reaction to the senator’s shout-out to abusers was in character when challenged: he stooped to name-calling, referring to Franken as “Al Frankenstien.” Trump missed the lesson learned by the senator and the call “to think (perhaps, shamefully, for the first time) about how those actions have affected women.”

Lesson for the ages

Can it be that it’s taken this long for men to see the light because so little is ever said about Adam ducking culpability for eating the forbidden fruit?

More often than not, Eve gets the blame. You can see that in the consistent ways that artists throughout art history have pictured the Biblical tale. You get the story that the world knows best: Eve gave Adam the apple. It’s a fool’s errand trying to find a painting that describes the world’s first man playing the blame game - an evasion that goes on to this day (Moore and Trump, please copy).
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