According to Gregory Baum, social sin's committed out of collective blindness and
group egotism, neither of which are produced deliberately or freely. Baum refers
to social sin as residing in a group, a community, a people. In Sister Helen Prejean's
book, "Dead Man Walking", we witness many instances of social sin.
Our collective blindness towards the poor is illustrated when Sister Prejean moves to
St. Thomas to "stand on the side of the poor". Here we are privy to unjust systems which
create a fast track to prison or death row. The majority of people on the outside are not
even aware of the daily struggle to exist. The media barely notices when tragedy happens
here and they turn a blind eye when the police treat residents horribly. Sister Prejean
summed it up nicely in an interview: "You know there's poverty and racism, but to be
there, living amongst the people, seeing how the police treat them, that's a whole other
thing" (Commonweal Vol.127 Issue 17).
Dead Man Walking also enlightens us to society's social sin towards the death penalty.
Our society believes that by putting criminals to their deaths we are in fact saving
lives while at the same time satisfying our instincts for revenge and retribution. The death
penalty has become a simplistic solution to crime which is carried out like a secret ritual
in the middle of the night, far away from our cozy beds.
Sister Prejean finds examples of social sin in both of her role of nun/social worker
in St. Thomas and her role of spiritual advisor to death row inmates. In St. Thomas she
witnesses young mothers struggling to raise children, work full-time and not succumb to
welfare. The system is set up so that these women can't win, yet, if they go on welfare to
survive, people stereotype them as "lazy bums". Sister Prejean expresses
...