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FullCircle -> RE: Men and woman "sin" in different ways.. a survey by a Jesuit Priest (2/22/2009 12:31:12 PM)
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ORIGINAL: UPSG
I never stated nor implied one had to be a theologian or "expert in theology to get into heaven." I maintained the quality of that journalistic piece was piss poor and catering to the love of intrigue many Western people have - as it relates to Catholicism in this matter.
The report reports a survey conducted, it doesn't really offer an opinion on it or sanctify it's accuracy. The quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church is to give some context not to make judgements about people following it.
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One would have to ask why the editors of BBC find it more news worthy to inform the public about cult customs of confession in Catholicism more than Pope John Paul II's influence on Tony Blair in pushing for debt relief of poor African nations, or strained Vatican-U.S. relations over the use of landmines, or Vatican global diplomatic effort to curtail a British-U.S. led invasion of Iraq?
Catholicism isn't really the mainstream religion in the UK, BBC runs stories to give greater awareness of things people are curious about. The negative spin is entirely your judgement, to me it seems to be a story about how people's relationship to their faith is changing in the modern world. Now you come to mention it though what caught my eye was the revision of the sins to incorporate DNA manipulation, taking and selling of drugs, causing poverty. I'm kind of wondering when they spoke to god about these things and how they come to their conclusions as to god's opinion, I've not seen a second coming of late, did I miss the telephone conference?
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But then we must take it at face value when the media reports President Obama as "Black" or maps ensure us that the United States in fact sits atop of Latin America and not below it. But then I digress from the specific issue. Of course considering that U.S. military leaders say that 21st century warfare will move to outerspace and through marked increase in asyemtrical warfare through disinformation through all various forms of media, critical thinking and active reading is not needed for a democracy to surive [sarcasim]. I mean something like over 20% of the adult population in Milwaukee are functionally illiterate (meaning they can read but not well enough to comprehened newspapers without trouble or to function in a professional environment).
Everyone puts spin on things even the catholic church, especially the catholic church, they even have their own news publication. You speak of the information war so stop a moment and ask yourself who has asked god about the new DNA sin and how that is being bodged into the faith as if it was always a part of it? This religion was envisaged before such things were possible but that doesn't stop their commentary on such things, and it isn't god speaking, it's a few earth bound people huddled in a room afraid of change or becoming irrelevant.
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But hey! the BBC reports about "mortal sin" and why would a reader need any more knowledge base on what a mortal sin is understood to be, than a reader reading, "A black guy walked into a store and argued with the manager on duty," to determined if the guy in question was Nigerian, Ethiopian, African-American or even "Mulatto"? The again the Russians refer to Turks and Mongolians as "Blacks."
Nota Bene:
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1854
Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The distinction between mortal and venial sin, already evident in Scripture, became part of the tradition of the Church. It is corroborated by human experience.
1855
Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by prefering an inferior good to him.
Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.
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1857
For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent."
The highlight in blue my emphasis. Now, in Catholicism a sin is understood to be a lesser good. Sex is good but not everything sexual is regarded as coequal in goodness - rape for instance would be regarded as dilenation downward in goodness and regarded as grave or mortal sin. Blasphemy, adultry, murder, kidnapping and holding a child for ransom would be regarded as mortal sins and mortal sins consequently endanger one's life to eternal damnation
So what is your problem with the report, that it used the term mortal sin? Maybe if I were wiser I would understand your annoyance but to me the report does not seem to need to distinguish between your two varieties of sin. This is a report about a survey conducted and various quotes from religious figures saying people are losing the notion of sin. If people want more information they can find it, perhaps people will read this report and think to themselves 'interesting I agree with the philosophy, I'll find out more' rather than 'crazy catholic church at it again'. The BBC does not seem to be turning the debate one way or another in my mind.
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there are many variables to sin and life so it becomes difficult to say in blunt statements that every single person that does A through B is guilty of mortal sin and will spend eternity in a punishing state of hell. A soldier lossing his state of mind in war may not be the same thing as a malicious serial killer.
If it weren't for the 'ignorance is no excuse law' I could argue as I previously did that you are better placed to follow the rules if you know them, the rules though seem to change every so often according to pressure e.g. I'm so glad all those unborn babies are no longer floating about in limbo, all the pope had to do was open his mouth and he freed them all from that pointlessness, who said he can't perform miracles? I bet he could prevent the spread of HIV too if only he legitimised condoms.
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Now, there are some Protestants that claim all sin is coequal, that their is no difference from stealing a box of crackers when hungry than from torturing and murdering a four year old for a snuff film. Catholicism would disagree.
I find that hard to believe but I'm not expert, maybe it's just the case that Protestants don't try to define every combination of possible sin but leave the interpretation up to individual conscience.
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On the other end there are those that argue all and everything is subjective but ironically push for homosexual marriage but wish to legislatively deny Muslims and Mormons the right to multiple spouses. Some how, the Christian moral of monogamy they adopt as a halmark of civility (in which they assume is not subjective but objective). Few women would seem to suggest the dishonesty inherent - at least often - in adultry of "cheating" (for those that date) is goofy little thing Catholics came up with to wave their finger at.
Public pressure causes change, religion is supposed to be set in stone no? I mean we are all supposed to know where we stand with it but the problem is pressure or scientific advancement causes it to change. I could half respect a religion that never changed but not one that bowed to public pressure, that isn't word of god that is word of popularity. Therein lies the problem; people want to be part of something that rejects them so they interpret texts in a new way to accommodate change. What I say to them is “why do you want to fit into a society that originally viewed you as immoral?” I say “be secular and let people be what they like (within reason) without judging them, at all ever.” I can only judge another human being by the standards I set myself based on my morality. The only difference with religion is people try to define common morality to the most pedantic level.
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