Evangelical children are taught that all sins are the same. Sin is transgression of the law of God. 1 John 3:4 says:
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Little children are told that disobeying their parents is a sin. Don’t clean your room? Sin! Don’t do your chores? Sin! Don’t eat your dinner? Sin! The commands of parents are given the force of God’s law. Disobeying your parents is the equivalent of disobeying God. This kind of thinking leads to fear and a warped view of human behavior.
Imagine learning as an Evangelical teenager that all sins are the same in God’s eyes; and that the consequences might differ, but God considers ALL sins as an affront to his holy name. Thus, from God’s perspective, there’s no difference between telling a white lie and rape.
Of course, in real life, most Evangelicals categorize sins, giving more weight to some misdeeds than others. Gay sex is considered a bigger sin than two unmarried teen heterosexuals having a roll in the hay. Countless Evangelical preachers commit adultery — a sin that God says keeps people out of the Kingdom of God — and months or a few years later return to ministry as if nothing happened. Hypocrisy abounds. We need to look no further than Evangelical support for Donald Trump to see how “sin” is overlooked or ignored when expedient.
I reject the concept of sin. It is a human religious construct used to provoke guilt and fear in the lives of believers. Christianity created the problem (sin) and provided the solution (salvation). As I mentioned above, Evangelical children are conditioned and indoctrinated to think that all sins are the same; that not taking out the trash is an affront to God. That’s why you see many Evangelical churches major on the minors. Trivial human behaviors are made bigger than life. Thus, normative behavior is turned into sins against a thrice holy God.
Were you taught that all sins are the same? Please share your experiences in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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This post stirred up a school memory. I was in grade 9 or 10. One morning a fellow student made a comment about sin being equal. One teacher overheared and vehemently disagreed asking from where the student got this idea. He explained that he had a previous discussion with another teacher about James 2:10, which essentially states that breaking one part of the law breaks all of the law. This ended up causing quite a conflict between faculty.
If all sins are the same, then gluttony is equal to killing my fellow man. Surely my fellow man would disagree. It’s just another of the many features of Christianity too preposterous for skeptics to wrap their heads around.
Yes, I used to think about this question. My pastor hubby had a wonderful Church Secretary who 24/7-ed for jesus but we never saw her husband. When I did eventually meet him, he said he would never darken the doors of any church again. He’d been in membership of a church that refused communion to a newcomer, cos they were divorced. But, he said, prominently on the Deacons’ pew every Sunday, was a local employer, known to be the meanest and harshest in town. But unlike the divorced guy, he gave a lot of money to the church, so his ‘sins’ could presumably be overlooked.
It also troubled me that though I tried to confess my sins every evening and ask for forgiveness, there was that verse, ‘Cleanse thou me from hidden faults.’ So there was always more….and more…..sins that were making my jesus cry…..and I couldn’t see any way out of this…..it would go on till the day I died and met him face to face and he could confirm what a worthless worm I’d been!
“There’s always more” really resonates. Aspiring to become a better person is like the carrot on a stick dangling in front of you. It’s a dead end. You’ll never quite get there. There is always better, and then better, and it’s never enough.
I was raised Roman Catholic. Therefore, no, I was not taught that all sins are the same. There are mortal sins & venial sins. Mortal sins are grave offenses that sever our friendship with God and, consequently, cause a loss of sanctifying grace. Anyone dying in a state of mortal sin would suffer eternal separation from God in Hell. Venial sins are lesser offenses that injure but do not destroy one’s relationship with God. However, you would spend time in Purgatory. If you are acquainted with the TV show “The Sopranos”, Paulie “Walnuts” Gaultieri has a funny exchange as to how your sentence in Purgatory is meted out; I never laughed so hard.
However, in the Catholic Church, there is the sacrament of reconciliation, which most Catholics call “going to confession”, in which you tell your transgressions to the priest & he gives you absolution & usually a bunch of prayers to say; sometimes other things to do, such as making amends, if these transgressions included hurting another person.
There is also the sacrament of Extreme Unction, “Last Rites”, when you are dying, when again, you confess you sins & you are absolved of them before death.
I always said, if you’re going to be Christian, Roman Catholic is the way to go, because of how sins are wiped cleaned from your soul (& other reasons). However, I’m like you ~ I don’t believe in sins or a celestial toting up of our acts here in Earth.
The escalating levels of sin may seem more reasonable than all sin being equal but it’s designed to lock in the need to seek absolution. in case you didn’t commit any big sins since your last confession, you will almost certainly commit some lesser transgressions to confess. Absolution is the carrot dangled in front of you. You must keep striving to reach it. If absolution were final, we wouldn’t come back for more and the church would go out of business. Had I known decades ago I was making my last confession, I might have asked the Padre to sign off on my permanent absolution because I wouldn’t be back.
SAQ, I too, was raised Roman Catholic and was taught exactly what you describe. Sometimes I think the priests must have rolled their eyes upon hearing some of the “sins” we, as kids, confessed.
Later, when I became an Evangelical, it took me time to grasp the notion that having a drink or smoking a joint was as grave a sin as killing your family.
Now, as an atheist, I still believe in sin, in a way. Now I would define it as disrespect of the humanity of another person or group of people, or wanton destruction of nature. As an example, when I saw the Nevada Test Site, I thought, “This is the definition of sin.”
Sin is an offense against a deity. I haven’t seen reliable evidence that any deity exists.
I, too, was raised Catholic, by a conservative Catholic mother and an uninterested-in-religion Lutheran father. Dad served at an Evac hospital in the Philippines during WWII, and gave a lot of his mess meals to starving children. I think that ultimately cured him of any belief in a gracious deity.
However, I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, Catholic elementary and high schools, and had the privilege of being taught by nuns who were on a sustained high from the liberations that came from Vatican II. These women were determined to teach their charges to follow Jesus’ instructions for how to treat other people. I attended an all-girls high school where the nuns were determined to raise us to be the next generation of civil rights attorneys, judges, nonprofit managers, etc. I’ve internalized an inclination to be the person Jesus said to be, even as I’ve lost all belief in the supernatural.
These days, my beloved nuns (undoubtedly all passed away) would be excoriated by the church for focusing on such liberal ideals…although the current pope might be sympathetic. It’s a long way to the top in Catholic hierarchy, though.