Solidarity
According to Webster, the definition of solidarity is “unity (as of a group or class) that produces, or is based on, community of interests, objectives, and standards.”
Lech Walesa famously led the first labor union “Solidarity” in a communist country in the 1980s.
In December 2015, Larycia Hawkins donned a hijab in “solidarity” with Muslim women.
While studying the different evangelical approaches to the doctrine of sin, the word solidarity leaped off the page at me in a paragraph describing one theory of how the sin of Adam & Eve could be associated with the entire human race. (Osborne, Romans, IVP NT Commentary Series, p. 138)
The name of the Polish labor union was appropriate because it represented a group of people with the shared interest of communist workers’ rights.
Dr. Hawkins’ use of the term was appropriate as the objective of an action taken to enter into the suffering of other Imago Dei who are being singled out for discrimination.
As an abstract conduit for the transmission of original sin to all of humanity, the concept of solidarity fits the meaning of Romans 5:12-…as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. Solidarity explains how the sin of Adam & Eve is present in all humanity: because the human race is a unity of Imago Dei, represented by Adam & Eve. And because…we all sin.
Photo credit: Linda McMahon. Used with permission. This cup/saucer/dessert plate have solidarity with each other. Even though they are separate pieces, with different form and function, the design, especially interesting in this example, creates cohesion. They are a unity, a “set.”