Tuesday, March 11, 2008
It's a Sin!
Yesterday, the Vatican released it's revised list of sins. Apparently, this is something they do regularly.
Last year's updates included things like road rage, alcohol abuse and, if you can believe it, rudeness. (This from a religion whose main guy was always going on wine runs for his buddies and who seemed to be constantly snarking off at his mom and almost anyone else in authority.)
This year's list includes genetic engineering, pollution and drug abuse. OK, I get why they need an update to capture those first two, but I'm surprised they are so late to the party with that last one. Does this mean that drug abuse was not previously a sin? Or was it always a sin but only recognized as such now? If the latter, does that mean that punishment for the sin will be meted out retroactively?
That's a thorny question. Not the drug abuse part, which I of course agree with completely. For the record, Buddha was all over this 2,500 years ago with clear instructions against abuse of not only alcohol but intoxicants and "poisons" of all sorts.
No, the troubling part is the prospect that the Vatican can just make up new sins and then enforce them retroactively. If they can do that, then Christians can never be on solid ground with anything they do. Next year, they could declare chocolate a sin and then old aach-eee-double hockey sticks would get a giant population boom.
Doesn't seem quite fair. It would never hold up in a secular court. Is there an appeal process? Who picks these sins? Was there a public consultation process? Was there an impact study done?
What I'm most curious about is whether there's any process to petition for new sins. I've got a whole list of people I'd be happy to send to hell, as soon as "crowding my frickin' parking spot", "scheduling meetings too early in the morning" or "failing to invite me to your big fancy Christmas party for the third goddamn year in a row" get recognized as official sins.
Even if there isn't a petition process, I think the Vatican is missing out on a huge opportunity for public engagement. They should take a cue from Hollywood and do some build up to the Sin List, like the Academy does with the Oscars: "Work-place back-stabbing is favoured to top the Sin List this year, after it got the nod as a sin from the Islamic Council and several Protestant denominations, but watch out for dark horse 'publishing underwear ads', considered the favourite among the more conservative Italian priests."
What do you think? Are there any as-yet unrecognized sins you'd like to see added?
Labels: "You cannot petition the Lord with prayer"
posted by Mentok @ 10:20 a.m.,
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