Even very young children can readily point out the "good guy" and "bad guy" in a story. The villain is booed, the good guy is cheered on to victory. Somehow in maturation natural good sense is swapped for contrived worldly wisdom--a wisdom that explains away evil and makes it desirable, even something to take pride in. Exactly how and why this devolution occurs is largely unknown and continues to be a challenge for the progress of civilizations. Please review the bullet list below. If you do not "get it" that these present a major threat to personal and societal health, then there is little chance that you will "get it" regarding the tenacity of Christianity to persist over the centuries as a source of strength and comfort for those seeking to live holy lives--lives, if you will, that refract a childhood enthusiasm for the good. A synopsis of holy living is contained in the fruit of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
In a bullet list the seven deadly sins are (expansions from Wikipedia):
- Wrath (anger)
- Greed (inordinately high desire for and pursuit of wealth, status, and power)
- Sloth (spiritual or emotional apathy, carelessness in obligations; a wasting)
- Pride (negative meaning--an inflated sense of one's personal status or accomplishments, hubris)
- Lust (an emotion or feeling of intense desire in the body--such as the lust for knowledge, the lust for sex or the lust for power)
- Envy (an emotion which occurs when a person lacks another's superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it)
- Gluttony (over-indulging especially when that deprives the needy)
Print Page
