Did you ever notice how religions are mainly concerned about sin? Of course, every religion has its own definition of sin. Actually, various sects within religions have their own definition of sin. It's really hard to know whether you're sinning or not.Just the other day, right after I shaved, someone said that God didn't want men to shave their beards; that shaving was a sin. Darn!
Then, that evening my wife and I went to a nightclub and someone told her God thought her skirt was too short. Jeez!
Right after that, as I was about to sip my martini, a Bible-toting fellow gently took my glass away and said, "That's a no-no! God doesn't like strong drink!" Yikes!
The following week, I neglected to go to Mass and the priest called and told me that God was gonna get me! Crap! I'm not even Catholic!
Sin is a problem!
But never fear. Over there in Rome in that Vatican place they can tell you what sin really is 'cause they are apostolically descended and have the keys to heaven from the Almight herself!
They change their minds sometimes, so that can be a problem. The Vatican people used to say God didn't want you eating meat on Friday, so everybody went out and caught fish. Then, not so long ago, they said meat was really OK. That made a bunch of people mad, 'cause they had always hated fish and they said they wished the priests would make up their minds!
For a long time the Vatican poohbahs let priests get married, but then decided that wasn't what God wanted after all, and said priests who got married did a bad thing. A few years ago, they had a thing called the Index which listed all the books it was a sin to read. Now, they say, heck, it's not really a sin, go ahead and read what you want.
So, one never knows.
You can be sure there are real sins out there, though. There are things like sloth, and lust, and gluttony and pride and greed. There are sins of commission, when you just go ahead and do something bad, and there are sins of ommission, when you forget you were supposed to do something good.
Being a good Catholic is hard work! Bush should be a Catholic. He does a lot of hard work.
Sorry, I got sorta off the topic there.
Let me tell you about Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti. He heads up the Apostolic Penitentiary, which sounds like he's the warden for a priestly jail, but that's not the case. The Apostolic Penitentiary is where they decide things like what's a sin, and tell you when your conscience should bother you, and offer absolution if your conscience didn't stop you from screwing up.
Girotti informed the world just the other day that the Vatican has spelled out some new sins for Catholics to worry about. (Actually, the Vatican thinks all Christians should worry about them, because, as I said, the Vatican is apostolic and all.)
One of these "new" sins has to do with "violations of the basic rights of human nature," via genetic manipulation. That probably has to do with stem cells and cloning. Girotti also referred to drugs that "weaken the mind and cloud intelligence." (Is Simply Sleep included in that category?)
The Vatican has trouble speaking in plain English (or plain Italian, or plain Latin) so you have to kinda guess what they mean, but there are also sins committed against the environment, and I think the growing gap between the rich and poor is a sin, but I don't think I'm involved in that one.
Girotti was asked about "scandal and sin within the church," which probably referred to the thousands of bad priests doing bad things to little boys and girls, and how those evils were covered up by bad bishopricks and other hierarchicals.
Abortion is still at the head of the list. Sorry about that. If you have one, I suppose you could seek out the Apostolic Penitentiary for absolution.
One final problem. The RC Church delineates between two kinds of sins: venial and mortal. Venial are the easy ones, more like mistakes, or ones that don't hurt other folks too much, except that abortion and murder can be considered venial. Hmm. Venial sins are easily forgiven. They are?
Mortal sins - they're biggies. I wonder if they would include child molesters? Anyway, mortal sins will send you to hell faster than Benedict can say "I'm the pope!" If you die before you have confessed a mortal sin to a priest and received absolution, you're a gonner!
I think I'll grow a beard, anyway.
2 comments:
Good article. Keep up the good writing.
On sin: from Basket of Puppies
God doesn’t care who you have sex with. Or what kind of food you eat. Or the clothes you wear. God doesn’t even care if we hurt one another. Sins reside without God. If we exist forever the memory of hurting other people will bare emotional scars throughout eternity. I already feel bad about some of the dumb crap I’ve done. Imagine feeling guilty for a hundred thousand years. Guilt is a heavy weight to carry through all eternity. I’d rather do the right thing.
The first five books of the Bible list a lot of sins, mostly in Leviticus. Many are no longer sins because the New Testament decided to ignore them even though they left them in their Bible. What happens to all the souls that sinned using the “old” sins? Does Satan release them, clean them up and give them some kind of restitution before sending them to Heaven?
Shouldn’t we get some advance warning when a former sin is to be declared a non sin? How do we know that today’s behavior will not be declared a sin later? Who should declare what is and isn’t a sin anyway. What if one is a lapsed Catholic or was never one in the first place? How does one handle the Old Testament’s version of sins anyway? Luckily, I do not read or understand Hebrew. Aramaic, Greek or Latin anyway, so perhaps ignorance is an excuse. English came much later and incorporated omissions, mistakes in translating and the many gospels that were left out for a variety of reasons.
The only known writing by God was the Ten Commandments Moses carried won from the mountain top. We do not know if there were others left because he could only carry two stone tablets. It is doubtful that he was as big and strong as Charlton Heston was and even he had trouble with the two he carried in the movie.
Sin is in the eyes of the beholders, assuming the sins are made public. There is Jewish Governor of New York that might not have read the New Testament, so he might not know he sinned, or cared. Will he be punished by God or other politicians that speak to God regularly? Watch the media to find out.
Bob Poris
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