Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: pdj7631@rigel.tamu.edu (JONES, PAUL DAVID) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Gay Ordination in the Presbyterian Church Message-ID: Date: 22 Mar 91 03:47:20 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Academic Computing Services, Texas A&M University Lines: 41 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , jhpb@granjon.garage.att.com writes... > >Homosexual thoughts, words, or actions CANNOT be engaged in, if one >wishes to enter the kingdom of Heaven. They're sins of the grave kind, >like murder, large theft. I find it interesting that you see having "homosexual thoughts" as being on the same moral plane as murder. By your standards then, I'm as sinful (assuming the truth of this relative sin scale, bad to worse; I know the bit about "all are sinners", but that's not what I'm talking about) as, oh, Charles Manson. I think that this is simply silly. If you're going to assign variable values to sins, you might at least be remotely reasonable about it. ______ \ / Illithid (Paul D. Jones) Texas A&M, especially the Corps \ / PDJ7631@venus.tamu.edu of Cadets, stands staunchly behind \/ @rigel.tamu.edu each and every one of my opinions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Generally statements such as this are made in the context of the idea that even the most "minor" sin merits hell if not covered by Christ's death, and even the "worst" sin is wiped away by it. Thus in some sense they are all the same. The concern about distinguishing between sins is that it leads people to make excuses: "Oh, well, this isn't a really *serious* sin, not like that terrible thing that guy over there is doing." Of course from a practical point of view some sins have immediate consequences that are far worse than others. There seems to be a disagreement as to whether this fact is of any significance for Christianity. The Catholic tradition has tended to have well-developed systems for the nurture of souls. As part of this it has distinguished among sins, on the assumption that the amount of damage done to the person is different and different spiritual remedies are called for. Protestants have tended to eschew this sort of systematic discipline, and encourage everyone to throw themselves on the mercy of Christ, independent of what they have done. Under that approach, it's not clear what is accomplished by distinguishing among seriousness of sins. We are encouraged to realize that the careless word against our brother comes from the same corruption that under other circumstances could result in murder. Though certainly as a matter of "civil righteousness" we understand that the visible consequences of murder are more serious. --clh]