What do Methodists think about generational curses or generational sins? How should this affect (or not) relationships with my family, in particular my older relatives?
Joey says
Dear velzpau,
I do not presume to speak for all Methodists, but I believe that there are generational patterns of sin, which have to be understood in the context of original sin. Since the Fall in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve, and every generation after them, including your ancestors and you, have been caught in a web of sin. One of the ways that sin is “passed on” through the generations is through nurture. God has designed families such that parents function as models for their children. Hence, a child who grew up with parents who had dysfunctional relationships learns to relate to others in dysfunctional ways. Parents are the primary nurturers of their children’s faith. There’s an important principle at work here: we can’t give what we don’t have, and we can’t lead people where we haven’t gone. What this means is that parents who turn away from God in particular areas of their lives tend to nurture children who turn away from God in these same areas. The underlying reasons for these parents turning away from God (e.g. insecurity) tends to get passed on to their children as well. And when the children turn away from God, they suffer the effects of turning away from God. To use Jesus’ analogy in John 15, the person who turns away from God is like the branch that is cut off from the vine.
All this to say it is not a curse the way we think of curses in Southeast Asia: a spell associated with persons or items that harms a specific person and/or his lineage. Instead, it is a sinister force that has been at work since the Garden of Eden in all of humanity, to kill, steal and destroy, and bring oppression into the lives of God’s beloved creatures. This happens through natural means: evil that arises in one’s heart hurts the other, and the evil in the other’s heart reacts to the one. Therefore our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against evil spiritual beings. The good news is that “Christ [has] redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13a). Through Christ the curse can be broken. If we repent of our sins—including the ones we learnt from our parents (which they learnt from their parents before them)—turn towards God and are serious about cooperating with the Holy Spirit to live a new life in Christ, we can be set free from the effects of this universal curse.
What all these mean is that your relatives are not the source of the evil behind the generational patterns of sin. Therefore, the solution is not found in changing your relationship with them. Instead, what will help with the generational patterns of sin affecting your life are inner healing and counselling. These will help you to heal from past hurts and trauma and manage any ongoing hurts so that you can remove blockages in your relationship with God, restore your sense of personhood to God’s good design, and strengthen you to have healthier relationships with others. God’s desire is to bring redemption not just into our lives, but also into the lives of others through our redeemed lives. As God brings healing and freedom into your life through inner healing and counselling, it will transform your family.
