Stacked Sin
Those of us who grew up ‘churched' knew that sin was ranked. It wasn’t taught that way in Sunday school, you just knew from the way it was preached about and what you observed. There were some sins that were worse, darker than others. You’ve heard of the 'white lie’—not so bad, or the 'hot sins’—those being the sexual ones, the really bad ones. With all the ‘larger’ congregants and materialists around, you knew that gluttony, envy and covetousness weren’t all that bad. You learned the hierarchy early on and the listing was then buried deep within. But long before our upbringing—centuries ago the monks and others set out to list the evils of sin resulting in what were call the seven deadly sins...and one rose to the top. We protestants could just blame all this on the Catholics (kidding).
"It is not difficult to see how pride leads to the other sins. The arrogant person who thinks so highly of himself believes himself entitled to what his heart desires, whether in the social or in the material sphere. Since he expects deference he is easily angered when he doesn't receive it. Assuming himself superior to others, he is especially prone to envy, which is a response to threats to one's self-esteem. Being self-satisfied, the proud person doesn't feel compelled to activate himself in the pursuit of spiritual goals, and so commits the sin of sloth. Believing his "eminence" to be an entitlement, he will easily trample over the rights of others, as is so frequently done by the greedy, the gluttonous, and the lustful. It is not that pride inevitably leads to these vices, or that all manifestations of these vices are effects of pride. However, since these are frequently the case, Pope Gregory accords pride a separate status, designating it the mother and Queen of all vices."
from The Seven Deadly Sins, Solomon Schimmel, 1992, pgs 33-34.
The phrase used frequently (obviously never by me, just ‘them’) is 'that isn't fair!' which therein is an implied entitlement. Often times 'not fair' comes in the form of blaming someone or something else—my parents, God, the government (the blue, the red, the reddish blue or the blueish red), my spouse, my friends—projecting onto others. As I read Schimmel's statement I realized what is sorely lacking is any sense of humility. In my experience, the outstanding quality of the most Godly people I've ever known is humility. Deeming myself deserving above all others, declaring my right to whatever is not the way of the saint. Healthy self-esteem or sainthood is not self-centeredness. In fact, the healthy person has spent a good amount of time taking inventory. They know themselves reasonably well. The 12-Step 'fearless moral inventory' is one example. I frequently counsel others to inventory the 'committee in their heads'. I first used that tool after spending a week at ONSITE in Dickson, Tennessee. We've all got ‘a committee’—just put a microphone on the table up there inside your own head and listen to your self-talk—then identify who says what. It gets pretty crowded up there. It’s basically doing your own ‘group work’. It was months after first beginning to identify my own committee that the 'hot head' showed up one morning while I was trying to merge onto the interstate. I didn't want to admit to him—that part of me—so it took me awhile to get honest with myself.
Greed, gluttony and lust....morph into materialism, over-eating and all sort of sexual thoughts and actions...but at the core is pride. Those Catholics were right.
Gee...we're really not all that different from those monks back in the fourth century.
Drat.