Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: bob@morningstar.com (Bob Sutterfield) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Sexual sin Message-ID: Date: 8 Jul 90 04:28:31 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Morning Star Technologies Lines: 23 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article zds-ux!bjstaff@uunet.uu.net writes: Is [X] any less sinful than [Y]? Is [Z] any less sinful than [Y]? I understand that at one time each of these activities was considered evidence of a spiritual problem. We all have a spiritual problem: sin. Lots of activities, like being born a human being, are evidence. One activity is only more sinful than another if we let it keep us further away from a relationship with God. To say that my sin is any less a spiritual problem than yours sounds like the Pharisee with the trumpets in the temple: "Lord, I thank you that I am not like one of these!" Sexual sin, murder, greed, materialism, racist hatred... Sin is sin, and we all stand in desperate need of God's free (and freeing) grace. Are things really any different today? No, just that people think they are all the more clever at rationalizing away their need for forgiveness. A popular defense tactic is to compare my own sins with another person's. Have you ever noticed how the comparison usually works out the comfortable way - so that his sins are "worse" than mine? Or at least so that he's being more hypocritical than I?