Battling Sin, Living in Hope

"Original sin" means different things, depending on who you listen to. I'm a Catholic, so my take on it isn't what quite a few Americans believe. I'll get back to ideas like 'God doesn't make junk' after plugging another person's blog.

I ran into this today:

"Is Christianity an Oppressive Imposition of Rules?"
John Janaro, Never Give Up (July 23, 2012)

" Too many people (even Catholics) think that the essence of Christianity consists in a series of moral demands, most of which are impossible to keep, and which therefore result in making us feel guilty and making our lives gloomy. People even tend to think of doctrine not so much as the expression of God's revelation as the 'stuff that we are required to believe even though it doesn't make any sense.'

"An external, oppressive imposition of rules. No wonder so many people abandon Christianity.

"But this is not the Gospel...."

I recommend reading the rest of that post. Mr. Janaro 'gets it.' Christianity - Catholicism, anyway - is about hope. Also faith and charity.

'Oh Woe, All Ye Faithful?'

I've explained why I became a Catholic. When I got around to studying what the Church actually said, not the stuff I read in magazines, I discovered an outfit with a faith that makes sense. I had been taking a hard look at major religions, including Christianity, because much of what I'd been hearing was silly: at best.

The "Christianity" I heard on the radio was often a weird mixture of numerology, fortune-telling, and Bible trivia: mixed with hatred of commies, rock music, and anything learned since about 1800. Those folks seemed dedicated to "...making us feel guilty and making our lives gloomy...."

'Happy Time Gospel:' Not a New Notion

At another end of the emotional spectrum from those grim disciples of malignant virtue, there's the lot I'll call the 'happy time gospel glee club.' The 'prosperity gospel' is one iteration of this approach to faith: and a mistake. (January 27, 2009)

In a way, I sympathize with folks who want to believe that:

• Nobody goes to Hell
• Everybody has a future of eternal groovyness
• God
  • Doles out happiness
  • Is a sort of benevolent and senile grandfather

That's not the way things are, but it feels a lot better than the 'you're damned if you disagree with me' theology I've heard elsewhere. I've written about Hell and hope before:

• "Marolwe's Faustus: Waffling His Way to Hell"
  (January 9, 2012)
• "An Eternal Life I can Live With"
  (August 27, 2011)
• "Hell, Heaven, Character, and Culture"
  (June 23, 2011)
• "Oh, Hell: You Mean That Place Really Exists?"
  (November 20, 2010)

'Do-It-Yourself Virtue:' An Old Idea

The idea that people don't need the grace of God, that we can be 'really good people' and get into Heaven on our own, isn't new:

"Pelagianism:
"the theological doctrine put forward by Pelagius which denied original sin and affirmed the ability of humans to be righteous; condemned as heresy by the Council of Ephesus in 431"
(Princeton's WordNet)

The Church said Pleagius was wrong. But the Church didn't say that God had made a race of utterly vile creatures, either. 'God doesn't make junk,' and I've been over that before.

'God is Unnecessary;' 'Virtue is Impossible;' and Getting a Grip

If you think the following outline doesn't entirely capture the nuances of Pelagianism and the 'doom disciples:' I agree entirely. All I'm trying to do is sketch out the general outline of these beliefs:

• Pelagius
  • People can lead a morally good life
    • By using our free will
    • Without God's help
  • Adam's sin was a 'bad example'
    • Nothing more
• Early Protestant reformers
  • Said the sin inherited by each of us
    • Is the tendency to evil
      • (Concupiscentia)
    • Insurmountable
  (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 406)

Born With a Wounded Nature; Battling Sin: And Hope

What the Catholic Church teaches is 'none of the above.' (Catechism, 386-412) This outline doesn't capture every detail, either:

Each one of us:

• Has a wounded nature
  (Catechism, 407)
• Experiences the consequences of sin
  (Catechism, 408)
• Battles evil
  (Catechism, 409)
• Has not been abandoned by God
  (Catechism, 410)

About two thousand years back, Jesus won the war against sin. (Catechism, 411)

So, why didn't God override Adam's free will, or wave a magic wand and make everything better after that serpent incident? That's another topic, for another time.

Related posts:

• "Original Sin and the Unfairness of Gravity"
  (July 11, 2012)
  Particularly
  • Sin, God, and a "Distorted Image"
• "Original Sin, Consequences, and Bootstraps"
  (June 13, 2012)
  Particularly
  • My Way, or God's Way
• "Catholics aren't Calvinists"
  (May 7, 2012)
  Particularly
  • Too 'Sensible' to Believe in God
  • Be Like Me, or Be Damned?
  • What Everybody Knows, That Just Ain't So
• "Purgatory: It Ain't No Caribbean Cruise"
  (November 2, 2011)
• "Demonic Deception? Or What You Get When We Play God?"
  (May 5, 2010)