Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: mead!mead!nxh@cis.ohio-state.edu (Nobuya Higashiyama) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Let's end the silliness of "relative" sinfulness, shall we? Message-ID: Date: 16 Jul 90 06:55:11 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH Lines: 39 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article timh@ide.com (Tim Hoogasian) writes: >>Is ongoing, heterosexual, premarital sex (fornication) any less sinful than >>ongoing, homosexual sex? Is ongoing, heterosexual, extramarital sex (adultery) >>any less sinful than ongoing, homosexual sex? I understand that at one time >>each of these activities was considered evidence of a spiritual problem. Are >>things really any different today? > > In other words: There *is* no sin that is any more or less > "bad" than any other (with the notable exception of the sin > of blasphemy). As Paul reminds us, ALL have sinned and fallen > short of the glory of God. (And let's not forget that this > man, whom we consider a saint, boldly claimed he was the chief > of sinners!) There is no "degree" of "sinfulness" in sin. Sin > is just that: Sin - our rebellion against God. No more, no less. While I agree with your sentiments, I think we may need to proceed with caution here. Indeed, all sin (fornication, murder, gossip, etc.) are same in that they are all transgressions of God's standards (and as you stated, any one of them is enough to send us off to eternal punishment). However, we need to keep in mind that *consequences* of these sins vary greatly. I think this is illustrated in the Old Testament (Leviticus in particular), where various punishments are prescribed for different sins. If I understand correctly that OT laws are reflections of God's holy nature, then the fact that there is much variance in punishments seem to indicate that not all sins are same, even in God's eyes. Back to the original posting, OT punishment for most sexual sins is death by stoning. This includes fornication, adultery, homosexuality and bestiality. The fact that the punishments were so severe (according to today's standards) seems indicative of the fact that human sexuality is a very important part of one's life, and God has tremendous desire that we keep ourselves sexually pure. Higgy -- Nobuya "Higgy" Higashiyama | ____/| Data Integrity Systems | \ o.O| Vote for Bill in '92! Mead Data Central, Dayton, OH | =(_)= mead!nxh@uccba.uc.edu (or) ...!uccba!mead!nxh | U ACK! THPHTH!