I'm Outside the Autistic Asylum!
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The crazy stuff I can't post anyplace else
Introduction to Wonko the Sane and Outside the Asylum, which this blog is named after.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Great, another favorite sin to fight temptation against
As Mark Shea explains in Crisis Magazine- Consequentialism is the favorite sin of Americans. I must say, including myself- I'm willing to tolerate say, the minor evil of estate taxes, in order to provide every American a chance to own property at age 18 regardless of capability.
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8 comments:
"Consequentialism" is a word I haven't heard before. I guess it is the idea that the end justifies the means. My whole life hinges on this concept. I guess, along with sloth, it is one of my most persistent sins.
There are many sins that my 1970s CCD education utterly failed to mention were sins- including extra-marital sex.
I don't know how they missed that one. You shouldn't spend so much time and energy focussing on sin. There are better things to think about.
That's what they tried to get us to stop focusing on. For my generation of Catholics, sin was a dirty word, it was NEVER mentioned. Remember that video I posted? The nephew who was "graduating" and would never go to church again after confirmation? His Catholic education was like mine. Jesus is nice, you should be nice too. God loves you, rah rah rah.
Sin? Actually believing that things we can do are wrong? Oh, that's so dark ages.
But it isn't, is it? Sin exists. People do some pretty awful things under the guise of good intentions. Consequentialism is truly the order of the day, not just for the nice sexual libertine hippie folks, but ALSO for Nazis, profit seeking capitalists, and intellectual Popes who like red shoes.
We're all trying to do good, but sin does exist, and causes unintended consequences all the time.
There is definitely good and evil in regard to how our actions affect others but as far as "sin" in terms of a debt that builds up that can only be forgiven through the sacrifice of a half god half human and by confessing to a Catholic priest, I don't think so.
Wow! I knew previous generations had a bad view of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but wow.
The sin is forgiven before you even do it. The question is, whether or not you, and the other human beings that you hurt with your sin, can accept and act on that forgiveness.
Most priests will tell you about a minor miracle they receive when hearing confessions- blessed amnesia. They don't care about the sins you do, their job is only to tell you that you are forgiven and give you some idea (modern penance) how to do better next time.
My last penance, for the sin of gluttony, was to eat more veggies.
"The sin is forgiven before you even do it."
If you do wrong to someone, you need to make amends to that person and/or get their forgiveness. This whole idea of being forgiven before you do it is the kind of nonsense the pedophile priests rely on to get away with their discussing actions.
Only God knows the future- only God can forgive even the gravest of sins. But that is eternal forgiveness- the temporal forgiveness of our fellow human beings is also necessary.
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