Whatever happened to sin? I heard a lot about it growing up — too much really — but the word has dropped out of our modern vocabulary.
When we were children, many of us got tired of hearing about our sinful nature and sinful actions. My first-grade teacher actually knew how to draw a soul on the chalkboard. It looked like the outline of a murder victim. She explained this was our soul when we were born. Then she started chalking in the outline, explaining that the chalk marks were sins. She ended up with a completely chalked-in soul — the product of our six-year lifetime of crime.
Just about any infraction was a sin, including not cleaning your plate at dinner. I grew up so guilt-stricken, I had the heavy conscience of an escaped convict. It was a shock for me to look back and realize, hey, I haven’t even been arrested.
Sin was especially emphasized during Lent. We had to attend daily church services, weekly confession and eat fish sticks on Fridays. Good Friday was the one day of the year we couldn’t play outside. No matter how sunny it was, we had to gather at my mother’s feet to listen as she read about Christ’s passion.
When I met my wife, I realized she had suffered a Good Friday experience every Sunday. Sundays meant going to church twice and refraining from anything resembling fun. Good Friday, though, was not a no-fun day for her. She went to ball games and played golf — I couldn’t believe it.
We’re supposed to give up something for Lent. For the fourth year in a row, I’m giving up going to work.
Sin may have been overemphasized in the past but the moral pendulum has swung completely the other way. Our society tossed sin out the window, along with guilt and self-responsibility. There are some who say our society would be better if we redeveloped our sense of sin.
Author Alan Ehrenhalt believes we lost some sense of community, when we lost our acknowledgement of sin. Avoiding sin meant living decently, resisting self-indulgence and having what was called “character.”
Nowadays, we believe something has to be illegal to be wrong and we have to get caught in the act and actually found guilty in court. An individual not admitting their sins is one problem but a larger problem is that government and big business have appropriated and co-opted sin.
For example, gambling was once seen as sinful. Small-time sinners would play the numbers racket or use a bookie to bet on a horse. Now our state government runs the lottery and has legalized other forms of gambling. If sin cannot be stopped, why not legalize it and take a cut.
Drug dealers are the pariahs of our society but what are the giant pharmaceutical firms if not drug pushers? Drugs that make us feel good can be purchased openly at pharmacies, enabling these companies to make fortunes.
How about loan-sharking or, in sinful terms, usury? That’s been taken over by credit card companies and payday loan shops. In the old days, if you took a high-interest loan from a questionable character, you knew it was wrong and you were in trouble. These days, you’re just another debt-ridden consumer.
As individuals deny sin (We don’t have gluttony anymore. It’s a health problem called obesity), our government and business leaders continue to turn once-forbidden pleasures into huge moneymakers.
I was reminded of the old-fashioned concept of sin watching the movie, To Kill a Mockingbird. It wasn’t against the law to shoot a songbird, or ignore the heroism of the reclusive Boo Radley. Not illegal, just sinful.
