"Family Values": An Original Sin?

In The City of God Augustine states his belief that Eve was the only one deceived by the serpent's promise that partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would indeed make her like God. Adam's sin, however, was of a less credulous and more conscious kind.

"For not without the significance did the apostle [Paul] say, 'And Adam was not decieved, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression ;' but he speaks thus, because the woman accepted as true what the serpent told her, but the man could not bear to be severed from his only companion, even though this involved a partnership in sin. He was not on this account less culpable, but sinned with his eyes open."
City of God, xiv.11

According to Augustine the choice for Adam was a choice between two goods. More exactly, it was a choice between a good "thing" and true good. Eve or God. In Augustine's view, Eve tasted of the fruit in order that she would be like God. Adam, on the other hand, tasted of the fruit in order that he might be like Eve.

And therein lies the rub for the family values camp and all others who feel that things or people or whatever else can be good in and of themselves. The family is a great thing. But Jesus' message is promised to turn men against their fathers and women against their mothers (Matt 10:35). Sobering words.

On Augustine's view, it was the desire for intimacy which was Adam's undoing. His desire for community superseded all else. Adam was the first victim of peer pressure. I think this may have tremendous implications for our sexual ethics as well as the way we live our public and communal lives in general.

In Genesis, Adam and Eve do not feel ashamed of their nakedness until the fruit is devoured. Augustine thinks Adam's and Eve's shame at their nakedness was caused by a sudden loss of control over their members (xiv.24). What was once under our contol is now beyond their power. NON POSSE NON PECCARE. No power not to sin. The first sign of original sin.

Why only their sexual members and not more mundane things like arms, hands, fingers and toes (though toes can indeed be sexy)? Probably because it is with our sex organs that we find the greatest bodily intimacy with others. Adam and Eve lost control of their sex organs because they lost control of their selves. Their bodies were no longer their own. They now belonged to a fallen community.

What bothers me about Augustine is the fact that his theology fails to thoroughly shape his politics inside of his own fallen community. Certainly his thoughts on the fallenness of humanity did much (for better or worse) to inform his ideas about our sexuality. According to Augustine it is best to remain celebate in order to avoid being mired in the corruption of our fallen and lustful members. But he is unwilling to employ that same strict hermeneutic when addressing other areas of our social being.

In book nineteen of City he is willing to justify the use of (measured?) torture aimed at securing the state. Why? Is the desire to belong to an ordered state not very much like Adam's desire to remain in (a now sinful) union with Eve? Why is Augustine willing to suspend normal ethics for the preservation of a corrupted polis?

In conclusion, whether it be families, the security of the state or whatever else is perceived to be good, nothing should be "valued" in and of itself. Our desire to belong is a dangerous gift, and one which we must always temper with degree of circumspection. What good goes awry it can be terribly corrupting.