As the cover of Dr. Karl Menninger’s book Whatever Became of Sin? says: “The word ‘sin’ has almost disappeared from our vocabulary, but the sense of guilt remains in our hearts and minds.”

It is said that misery loves company. Guilt is even more delighted with company—the more the merrier! Dr. Menninger wrote:

“If a group of people can be made to share the responsibility for what would be a sin if an individual did it, the load of guilt rapidly lifts from the shoulders of all concerned. Others may accuse, but the guilt shared by the many evaporates for the individual.”—Whatever Became of Sin?, p. 95.

To what can this eventually lead? On “the sin of war,” he says: “All behaviors ordinarily regarded as criminal and/or sinful are suddenly sanctioned—murder, mayhem, arson, robbery, deceit, trespassing, sabotage, vandalism, and cruelty.”—P. 101.

Menninger proceeds to paint the sin more vividly and asks questions, saying:

“The picture of one screaming, burning child or of one half-dismembered or disemboweled woman shocks and revolts us, although we are spared the sound of the screams and groans. We are not witnesses to the brokenhearted mother’s sorrow. We know nothing of the despair, the hopelessness, the loss of everything. We don’t go with them into the hospitals and observe the hideous wounds, the agonizing burns, the shattered limbs. And all this is only one tiny dot on a great map of millions. It cannot be described. It cannot be grasped. It cannot be imagined.

“But who is responsible for this evil? Surely it is sinful, but whose sin is it? No one wants the attribution of responsibility for this. Someone told someone to tell someone to tell someone to do so and so. Somebody did decide to launch it and somebody has agreed to pay for it. But who? And how did I vote? . . . Sometimes I think the only completely consistently moral people are those who refuse to participate.”—Pp. 102, 103.