Saints and Sinners: Revamping Seven Deadly Sins
Do we need a new set of commandments? Certainly we are not doing very well with the 10 we have. And it won’t help to bronze and display them in front of the Court House or City Hall where everybody can see them.
Of course we are not even sure it is constitutional to display the Ten Commandments on public property. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on that next year.
The early church drew up a list of Seven Deadly Sins. They included pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony and sloth. Of these, only covetousness and envy (which are virtually synonymous) are covered by the Ten Commandments. Adultery, which is mentioned by the Decalogue, is of course a form of lust but it is only one form. The Ten Commandments say nothing about sex outside of marriage unless it involves somebody else’s spouse (the definition of adultery).
Because “moral issues” were said to have been uppermost in the minds of voters in the presidential election, maybe it would be a good exercise for us to draw up our own list of Seven Deadly Sins to go with the Ten Commandments.
Here is my list:
1. Violence and cruelty.
Television certainly has to take much of the blame for this. Playwright Arthur Miller once said, “There is violence because we have daily honored violence. Any half-educated man in a good suit can make his fortune by concocting a TV show whose brutality is photographed in sufficiently monstrous detail.”
2. Profanity and vulgarity.
We take God’s name in vain all through the day every day, often without thinking. We say “Oh God;” “My God;” “Good God.” If somebody were to call this to our attention, we would reply, “Oh, but I mean nothing by it.” Cardinal Newman said, “Nothing is worse than to say ‘God’ and to mean nothing by it.” Save the word “God” for the “great occasions,” Newman counseled. But we bandy it about in frivolous ways. We invoke God’s name even when somebody sneezes. Sneezing is not a great occasion.
3. Moral indifference.
We could do something about sins No. 1 and No. 2. But we don’t. We could do something about preserving the countryside and keeping our cities and towns in a fit state to be enjoyed. But we don’t.
We could do something about gun control, pornography and obscenity. We could do something about all those things. But we don’t. Despite our concern for “moral values” (in others!) we remain morally indifferent.
4. Gluttony.
We eat and drink too much — with dire consequences for ourselves and for society.
Instead of eating to live, we live to eat — and we eat too expensively, too much, too eagerly and with too much of a fuss while much of the world goes hungry.
5. Lying.
Some lies are so common they deceive almost nobody. The most familiar may be:
“The check is in the mail.”
“I’ve got to hang up now. I’ve got another call waiting.”
Something which may be just as bad as lying is telling unpleasant truths about others. Gossip often takes the form of gratuitous truth-telling. While what we say may be true, it often serves the purpose of undermining Party X — the person being talked about who isn’t there.
6. Bigotry.
This may be the hardest of all sins to conquer. You can decide not to tell lies or decide to quit drinking. But how can you decide not to be prejudiced?
7. Sex.
Theologian Frederick Buechner is right: “Contrary to the priggish Mrs. Grundy, sex is not sin. Contrary to Hugh Hefner, it is not salvation either.”
The sin in sex is that we have publicized it, profaned it, vulgarized it. We have glamorized sex with the bedroom door open.
George Plagenz is a syndicated columnist.