Are we too lenient on sin in this day and age?

[friardchips]

Well there’s some truth to this I guess. But man if you’d come to me a year ago and started to tell me just what kind of guy I was I wouldn’t have stayed to hear you draw your next breath. The thing is it would all have been true. But putting it to me when I wasn’t ready is like giving a kid a push on a swing before they’ve got their hands in place. They just go flying away from you and don’t come back. What I’d have needed was someone to take me by the hand a bit and guide me home. I mean you don’t yell at a kid who’s lost. You don’t yell at him to go home. You take the time to care first. You hear him out first. Then you spend the effort to bring him back to his front door. Or something.

Peace.

-Trident

I think there is room for being frank but wisdom says how and when:

1 Cor. 10: 19-23 -

“So though I am not a slave of any man I have made myself the slave of everyone so as to win as many as I could. I have made myself a Jew to the Jews, to win the Jews; that is, I who am not a subject of the Law made myself a subject of the Law to those who are the subjects of the Law, to win those who are subject to the Law. To those who have no Law, I was free of the Law myself (though not free from God’s law being under the law of Christ) to win those who have no Law. For the weak I made myself weak. I made myself all things to all men in order to save some at any cost; and I still do this, for the sake of the gospel, to have a share in its blessings.”

 

[TheFraggle]

Well there’s some truth to this I guess. But man if you’d come to me a year ago and started to tell me just what kind of guy I was I wouldn’t have stayed to hear you draw your next breath. The thing is it would all have been true. But putting it to me when I wasn’t ready is like giving a kid a push on a swing before they’ve got their hands in place. They just go flying away from you and don’t come back. What I’d have needed was someone to take me by the hand a bit and guide me home. I mean you don’t yell at a kid who’s lost. You don’t yell at him to go home. You take the time to care first. You hear him out first. Then you spend the effort to bring him back to his front door. Or something.

Peace.

-Trident

Me as well. People need to be corrected in order to change, otherwise things stay the same. And I’m not saying you should yell at them. Speak firm, but with mercy.

God bless.

 

[Trident_H]

Me as well. People need to be corrected in order to change, otherwise things stay the same. And I’m not saying you should yell at them. Speak firm, but with mercy.

God bless.

Thanks man. And I mean thanks for wanting to help someone. Thanks for caring about that. And I agree with you about speaking firmly but with mercy. I think that’s the real ticket. Because all the talk in the world won’t help if it seems you don’t really mean it. And yet no tough talk will work without showing you care. So yeah. I think you’ve got the right blend. The right mix right there.

Peace Fraggle.

-Trident

 

[pnewton]

I would say this depends on what is meant by “lenient”, especially since sin is not a person and one cannot actually be lenient on sin. The Holy Father has declared a Jubilee of Mercy for the next year. The task of Jesus at the Final Judgment will be to punish sinners. The task of the Church is to bring the mercy of God to sinners. In this regard, we can never be too lenient, any more than God can have too much mercy.

Yet I think what is meant by “lenient” is really laxity toward sin. Here too, I have an absolute standard I use as a goal. We can never be too intolerant of sin (the act, not the person) that we ourselves commit. We must not be lenient with ourselves. With others, the more we know them personally, the more direct we can be, though often prudence would suggest tact. In no case do I see anything gained by being direct with other sinners, those not known to us personally. We can present Church teaching on sin, if we think prudent, but I have personally found this to be useless to anyone whom we do not know. It is better to present Jesus to those enslaved by sin. After all, salvation is kind of His thing.