Addictions vs. Near Occasions of Sin

[mm3861]

The whole concept of “addiction” seems to get a tremendous amount of attention in Catholic circles these days. In today’s “me first” pleasure driven society controlled by the secular media is it any wonder there are so many gambling, food, alcohol, and especially sexual addictions?

Older Catechisms seem to really hammer home the importance of avoiding “near occasions of sin”. In today’s context that could mean staying out of bars or casinos, getting new friends, bypassing the candy aisle, recording decent shows then fast forwarding the sexually saturated commercials, and resolving to stay *completely off *the computer when nobody is home. (you guys know what I’m talking about)

It’s my feeling that a tremendous amount pain of guilt because of these sins can be eliminated from the life of good catholics if this teaching was given more attention at home and during the homily at Mass.

 

[fbl9]

hi mm3861 you make some very good points…in my case in regards to making new friends,i would be very much alone if i stayed away from all the people who could be occasions to sin…as for the tv one might as well unplug it,there are very few if any shows that can not be occasions to sin,as for the computer it doesn’t matter if any one is home or not for some losers like me…i made the resolution just go to CAF then offline after logging out,that way i can’t be as easily tempted when just looking around…

 

[Timothysis]

In today’s “me first” pleasure driven society controlled by the secular media is it any wonder there are so many gambling, food, alcohol, and especially sexual addictions?

Yes, we know that in years past there was never any gambling, food, alcohol, and especially sexual addictions before the advent of television and computers…

 

[CassiusLonginus]

Yes, we know that in years past there was never any gambling, food, alcohol, and especially sexual addictions before the advent of television and computers…

What a silly reply. The point is that these things are so widespread now, due to a watering down of taking personal responsibility in society in general, and lax Catholic teaching in particular. People used to avoid sin, today they make excuses for why they sin. Its as simple (and sad) as that. What’s your excuse? Oh, that’s right, we already know what it is…“Yes, we know that in years past there was never any gambling, food, alcohol, and especially sexual addictions before the advent of television and computers…”

 

[NeedImprovement]

The computer and television can be very powerful tools of temptation…for sure. Even if one were blessed enough to get by using them without succumbing to temptation, their distractionary value is unrivaled in terms of keeping us from prayer.

I wonder how the children and adolescent Catholics are going to fare through all of this.

 

[mm3861]

The computer and television can be very powerful tools of temptation…for sure. Even if one were blessed enough to get by using them without succumbing to temptation, their distractionary value is unrivaled in terms of keeping us from prayer.

I wonder how the children and adolescent Catholics are going to fare through all of this.

Women who read this post will probably not be able to relate to this… But even doing something as innocent as turning on the TELEVISION NEWS (from the national networks anyway) one is faced with women who are very attractive… having just spend 4hours being made up by professional cosmotologists & hairstylists… background colors…& camera angles come into play. Often these women are shot at a distance from the frontless desk. One radio commentator who is often critical of the media calls these women “leg crossers” because of this dirty trick by the media. The typical male viewer doesn’t even realize that he is being sexually manipulated all for the sake of ratings.

Even a few seconds of exposure to this is without a doubt for most men a “near occasion of sin”. Once this image hits the brain, it’s like falling off a cliff… with the hard cold reality if sin awaiting at the bottom. Again, women cannot even begin to comprehend what this does to us. Don’t even get me started on the quality of the television commercials aired during family hour. The televison is best left turned off.

 

[EasterJoy]

IMHO, the great evil of our time is how ubiquitous are the methods by which the Evil One uses greed to pursue us, and the lengths to which those ensnared by greed are willing to go to appease their desires. “Ratings”, in the end, is another word for greed. “Materialism” and “consumerism” are faces of greed. Of all the capital sins on the loose, the one whose roots spread the farthest, the one which does the most to encourage all the others, is greed.

The other current big tool of evil, I think, is the power of popularity and celebrity. Get someone famous to embrace an evil, and their career is not over. No…their example is carte blanche. The evil has become good, because the Famous (and therefore, the Good) do it and are still happy and glamorous and enviable. All the Evil One needs to do is to successfully tempt the famous–the ones most flattered by all, and therefore the most liable to tempation of every sort–and the job is done thousands of times over. How efficient this is! It is as if we are in the “Industrial Age” of sin!

Let us remember, though, that there was a time when racial, religious, and other injustices forms of discrimation were widely tolerated. A black family could not buy whatever house they had the means to buy. A Catholic or a Jew could not apply equally for a job. The children of men who abandoned their family were punished for their fathers’ sins. Children were even punished because they were “illegitimate”. And so on. So the Evil One changes tactics, depending on the age.

Remember, too, that “modern society” also gave us Alcoholics Anonymous, at which an alcoholic admits he or she is powerless over alcohol, turns his or her life over to their “Higher Power”, does a moral inventory, attempts to make amends where doing so won’t cause further harm, stays away from people and places that present those near occasions of sin, and so on…

This is a big improvement over just wallowing in guilt and shame over having no willpower. So not everything has gotten worse with regards to “near occasions of sin.” For those who have hit rock bottom and are ready to admit it, the way out of the hole and up to the joyful life God made us for, to a life perhaps unknown to their entire families in the past, is less slippery.

 

[Timothysis]

What a silly reply.

How intellectual of you.

 

[Simon_X]

Women who read this post will probably not be able to relate to this… But even doing something as innocent as turning on the TELEVISION NEWS (from the national networks anyway) one is faced with women who are very attractive… having just spend 4hours being made up by professional cosmotologists & hairstylists… background colors…& camera angles come into play. Often these women are shot at a distance from the frontless desk. One radio commentator who is often critical of the media calls these women “leg crossers” because of this dirty trick by the media. The typical male viewer doesn’t even realize that he is being sexually manipulated all for the sake of ratings.

Even a few seconds of exposure to this is without a doubt for most men a “near occasion of sin”. Once this image hits the brain, it’s like falling off a cliff… with the hard cold reality if sin awaiting at the bottom. Again, women cannot even begin to comprehend what this does to us. Don’t even get me started on the quality of the television commercials aired during family hour. The televison is best left turned off.

Stop watching Fox News! kidding.

Very good points, we are definitely living in an age where we are hammered from every direction to fall into the occasion of sin. Almost impossible sometimes to not bump into it somewhere…

 

[EasterJoy]

Women who read this post will probably not be able to relate to this… But even doing something as innocent as turning on the TELEVISION NEWS (from the national networks anyway) one is faced with women who are very attractive… having just spend 4hours being made up by professional cosmotologists & hairstylists… background colors…& camera angles come into play. Often these women are shot at a distance from the frontless desk. One radio commentator who is often critical of the media calls these women “leg crossers” because of this dirty trick by the media. The typical male viewer doesn’t even realize that he is being sexually manipulated all for the sake of ratings.

Even a few seconds of exposure to this is without a doubt for most men a “near occasion of sin”. Once this image hits the brain, it’s like falling off a cliff… with the hard cold reality if sin awaiting at the bottom. Again, women cannot even begin to comprehend what this does to us. Don’t even get me started on the quality of the television commercials aired during family hour. The televison is best left turned off.

For women, the manipulation is more that if they buy enough stuff, they can (and should!) look like that, and should do so more or less indefinitely. Ladies! You don’t look good enough, your house doesn’t look good enough, and the stuff you cook is boring.

I call the “Home and Garden” channel the “Your House Isn’t Good Enough Channel.” On public television, they used to have a show called “This Old House”. Some bright-eyed couple would invariable plunge into an ambitious restoration of a vintage home, and, in my experience, just as invariably find that they could do about half what they planned in twice the allotted time, or longer, and it would still cost about half again more than they had planned.

Not so on HGTV…it is so obviously geared toward encouraging “home improvement”, it isn’t even funny. It is not to say one can’t learn anything, but on the whole, it seems like a combination of get-rich real estate seminar and a Lowe’s commercial. There is very little “let the buyer/improver beware” information. That is noticeably glossed over. Instead, there are repeated implications that re-doing your kitchen or bathroom is going to make you happy.