I'm feeling very serious today, so I had a serious reaction to something that caught my eye. The Vatican has recently released an edict or an update of some sort that named the "new sins" of the modern age. The list (which didn't actually appear in list form, which would have made it easier on all of us) includes pollution, drugs, economic disparity, and genetic manipulation.
Really? Has the world reached a point where the "old sins" aren't relevant anymore? Or are we so oblivious to the rampant sins of greed, pride, and lust that we need to come up with sins we can understand and relate to without searching our hearts? Does anyone care that it's a sin not to love God?
I'm no fan of pollution either, but all this does is make us able to point fingers at corporations and governments and accuse them. But sin doesn't exist for us to judge one another about it--it's to make us aware of our need for grace and salvation through Jesus Christ. Instead of telling the polluters and drug users of the world that they're sinners, the Vatican should telling you and me and every last one of us that we're sinners. And then they should tell us that the only way to be forgiven for your sins is to believe in Jesus Christ, who loves us despite all the crap we've done. (But maybe if they told people that they weren't all as great as they think they are and that they didn't need to be forgiven by the priest, they'd stop coming to mass.)
It just frustrates me that anyone would think that this "modern" world needs to identify "modern" sins. The real situation in this world is that the regular old sins have just gotten a lot more out of control. I wish people would stop being PC and appealing to liberal (or conservative) sentiment and get down to how it really is--we're in a desperate situation, and unless we figure this life out right, we're dead.
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2 comments:
serious question - does that mean that we're sinning because there is economic disparity between us and the rest of the world? Or only if we cause or contribute to such disparity? And if causing/contributing to economic disparity is the sin, then does that mean we should all quit our jobs, because by continuing to earn money, we are contributing to said disparity? Alright, it's a mostly serious question. It's maybe also partly because I'm pretty happy with any reason to leave my job and stay at home.
Word, Mrs. R. I'm always ready to leave my job too. But then we'd be on the other side of the economic disparity, which would also apparently be sinful.
Seriously, though, I think the point the Vatican was trying to make is that the majority of the wealth shouldn't be held by the minority of the people. That's the injustice, that people starve and die while others have way too much. And that's been a problem since forever, so I don't know why they're calling it new.
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