Should I Feel Guilty for the Unjust Actions of My Ancestors or Country?

Should I feel guilty for the unjust actions of my ancestors or my country even if the actions happened before I was born?

Indigenous peoples were violently subjugated, their land occupied, and their people confined to reservations. Africans were shipped across the ocean and forced to labor under arduous conditions, facing brutal consequences if they resisted. People of color were excluded from neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and even churches, suffering discrimination at every turn.

True, this is by no means the whole story of North America’s complex past. But it is an undeniable part of it (as I show in my new book, The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America’s First People). Whether we want to face it or not, the legacy of injustice continues to profoundly affect our communities today.

Sometimes these stories are told in such a way as to suggest that to be white is by definition to be racist. White people ought to feel guilty, it is suggested, because only guilt will drive them to do something about it. This provokes an inevitable reaction. History is downplayed or ignored because it is uncomfortable. People reject the notion that they should feel guilty for injustices committed before they were even born.

How should we as Christians feel about all of this? On one hand, the Bible clearly teaches a covenantal understanding of moral responsibility. All of Israel suffered when Achan stole some of the plunder from Jericho that had been devoted to God (Josh. 6-7). On the other hand, the prophet Ezekiel clearly declares that children are not guilty for the sins of their parents. “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezek. 18:20).

The key is to distinguish between guilt and responsibility. We should not feel guilty for someone else’s sin, but even if we were, Christ’s death on the cross is more than sufficient to atone for all the sin that has been committed in the world. Yet it is precisely our freedom from guilt that impels us, in the love of Christ, to bear the burdens of those who suffer. There is no indication that the good Samaritan felt guilty for what happened to the man robbed and beaten on the road to Jericho, but he did take responsibility for him. And Jesus uses this as his example of what it means to be a neighbor to those around us. “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).