Q.
Are some sins worse or better than others?
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Gary Peluso-Verdend
Who is...
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Gary Peluso-Verdend
I once won a jellybean-in-a-jar counting contest.A.
Yes, but fi rst let’s defi ne sin. In the United States, we tend to think
of “sin” and “sex” together. That pairing is most unfortunate, for
both a healthy understanding of sex as well as a healthy under-
standing of sin. This limitation of “sin” to “sex” and, secondarily, to some
vices (e.g., gambling, drinking, or smoking) leads us Christians to overattend
to sexual sin and underattend to other areas of sin. For example, in a recent
national election, most Americans polled did not understand war as a moral
issue.
Sin is a condition of broken relationship, the act of breaking a relation-
ship, living in broken relationships, and acting in ways that would perpetuate
a broken relationship. By this defi nition, murder is sin, insulting a colleague is
sin, and passing laws that perpetuate injustice is sin. I’ve heard some inter-
preters quote Paul to the effect that, since “all have sinned and fallen short of
the glory of God,” all sin is equal. Paul’s statement might be correctly used
to argue that all human beings are sinners, but not that all sins are equally
weighty. Catholic moral theology has long argued that some sins were more
(mortal) or less (venial) severe.
Certainly, murder is a worse sin than stealing a piece of candy. Abusing a
child is a worse sin than fl ipping off the driver who cut you off in traffi c.
Consider this principle: The more people are affected, the more perma-
nent are the negative consequences, the deeper and broader and more irrepa-
rable the broken relationships, the worse the sin.Joshua Einsohn
A.
Well, some sins are a lot more fun than others! (Rim shot, please!)
I’m not really one to worry about the afterlife. If there is one,
I think everyone pretty much has it wrong. A favorable judgment
isn’t going to come from specifi cally taking, say, Jesus into your heart. Taking
love into your heart, sure. But all the exclusionary rules that fall under the
category of “sin” are far too inconsistent to be what actually happens.
I have to believe that the sin of stealing your stapler from work isn’t
going to compete with the sin of hypocrisy. I have to believe that the people
who claim to do God’s work by making miserable the lives of those who are