Original Sin and Ancestral Sin

Orthodoxy is not soft on the Fall. Through Adam, death, corruption, and disordered desire entered the human condition, and every person personally sins within that wounded condition. The difference is that Adam's personal guilt is not assigned to each descendant as though each person committed Adam's act.

Baptism is still necessary and saving because it unites us to Christ, frees us from the dominion of death and sin, and makes us members of His Body. The Orthodox account is therefore tragic and sacramental without needing an inherited-guilt premise.