Confused: Is referring to someone as an Idiot usually a mortal Sin? Confused by Bible Commentaries

[Jaypeeto4]

Hi all.

Last night (and I have bought these products many times from many places and never been put through such a ridiculous ordeal), I went to buy some particiular products (what they are is irrelevant). Instead of doing what all places do, and I do mean ALL other stores (including THIS one until last night) , and just pulling down 25 of them and handing them to me, typing in the number and charging me the total,
the cashier held me (and my kind ride-giver) up for nearly 15 minutes, one by one scanning the items in, one at a time ((their cashiering system has not changed, just to be extra clear about this)). I was getting more and more frustrated, as she KEPT miscounting
and re-scanning the items.

She gave me 24. 2 piles of 10, plus a pile of 4. 24. I counted them three times.
She insisted on $25 for them. She then said “she would count them for me.”
She proceeded to count them WRONG and insisted on $25.
I counted them again. There were two EVEN stacks of 10 plus one stack of 4, that’s 24.
She wouldn’t back down. Angry and frustrated, I gave her $25 against my own wishes and left with 24 of them. She was a real slow poke, did what was NOT necessary, AND miscounted AND held us up for nearly 15 minutes for what should have taken a minute and a half TOPS. AND overcharged me. I left fuming, thinking I hope she gives MY extra dollar to the St .VIncent De Paul Society tomorrow instead of pocketing it.

Any way, my friend asked me what took so long, and I told him,
that IDIOT in their put me through the mill, counting and recounting and miscounting
and then the Idiot overchargeed me to boot.
I was really ticked off. Now. I was angry, but I didn’t have the kind of anger that would hit or kill her. Tell her off maybe, but not do anything violent.

Later, I felt guilty because of Jesus saying not to call your brother RACA.
I said, I think I sinned by referring to that woman as an Idiot. She probably just didn’t have a clue what she was doing and might have been new.
So I wondered if it was venial or mortal. Idiot is not a nice word. RACA means fool,
though much more than “fool” as we normally think of that word, but much worse.
Still. I wondered.
So I GOOGLED Is Calling Someone an Idiot a Mortal Sin?
Up came a bunch of links. I went to several of them, many of which were multi-source Bible commentaries. Some links said YES, it is. Others seemed to imply that you had to say the word with a really kind of hate in your heart that would lead you to commit murder and stuff like that (I was just really p.o.'ed, I didn’t want to hurt her or kill her for petes sake). But Jesus did say that calling someone RACA would make you subject to hell of fire.
So, I got no clear answer.

Are there any on here well-versed in moral theology, and any priests, who could tell me
if my referring to the cashier as an idiot was a mortal sin?? (( By the way, I did not slam her with that label to her face. I was frustrated, but I think that that would have been way too nasty. She just irritated the living daylights out of me, holding us up like that needlessly then overcharging me and wouldn’t back down )).

Thanks for any answers, and God love all of you.

 

[Truthseeker8]

I think ‘Raca’ means ‘fool’ rather than idiot. To call someone a ‘fool’ in the context of what Jesus was referring to was to say that the person did not know God or any of His laws. That was tantamount to saying the person was damned. This was a very serious thing to say. However, in the context in which you were using the word ‘idiot’, you meant that the person was obstreperous and contemptible. I think you committed a venial by not showing love for neighbour even in such irritating circumstances, but you did better than I would have done by paying for something that you did not get.

God bless

 

[Cryptic1]

In any given situation, it’s always good to look back and see what went down so you can walk away a victor the next time.

In this case, it wasn’t calling that person an idiot that was your undoing, it was getting angry over an incident like this. Jesus himself exhibited righteous anger, but the anger you experienced resulted more from the frustration of dealing with a poorly trained clerk.

Perhaps you could have called for a manager for assistance, especially at the point where the cashier had to repeat the transaction several times over. Also, sometimes shifting your thought perceptions (realizing that this clerk was paid minimum wage and inadequately trained) might have evoked feelings of compassion instead of anger.

I don’t think you need to be too scrupulous over the incident, but I’ve found what really helps is forgiving that person or anyone else for that matter for any perceived injustices. Jesus repeatedly preached the gospel of forgiveness and I believe it was more for our benefit than for the other party involved. Forgiveness frees us from the bondage of sin and anger and allows us to truly follow in His path

Jesus Rocks

 

[George_Stegmeir]

Hi all.

Last night (and I have bought these products many times from many places and never been put through such a ridiculous ordeal), I went to buy some particiular products (what they are is irrelevant). Instead of doing what all places do, and I do mean ALL other stores (including THIS one until last night) , and just pulling down 25 of them and handing them to me, typing in the number and charging me the total,
the cashier held me (and my kind ride-giver) up for nearly 15 minutes, one by one scanning the items in, one at a time ((their cashiering system has not changed, just to be extra clear about this)). I was getting more and more frustrated, as she KEPT miscounting
and re-scanning the items.

She gave me 24. 2 piles of 10, plus a pile of 4. 24. I counted them three times.
She insisted on $25 for them. She then said “she would count them for me.”
She proceeded to count them WRONG and insisted on $25.
I counted them again. There were two EVEN stacks of 10 plus one stack of 4, that’s 24.
She wouldn’t back down. Angry and frustrated, I gave her $25 against my own wishes and left with 24 of them. She was a real slow poke, did what was NOT necessary, AND miscounted AND held us up for nearly 15 minutes for what should have taken a minute and a half TOPS. AND overcharged me. I left fuming, thinking I hope she gives MY extra dollar to the St .VIncent De Paul Society tomorrow instead of pocketing it.

Any way, my friend asked me what took so long, and I told him,
that IDIOT in their put me through the mill, counting and recounting and miscounting
and then the Idiot overchargeed me to boot.
I was really ticked off. Now. I was angry, but I didn’t have the kind of anger that would hit or kill her. Tell her off maybe, but not do anything violent.

Later, I felt guilty because of Jesus saying not to call your brother RACA.
I said, I think I sinned by referring to that woman as an Idiot. She probably just didn’t have a clue what she was doing and might have been new.
So I wondered if it was venial or mortal. Idiot is not a nice word. RACA means fool,
though much more than “fool” as we normally think of that word, but much worse.
Still. I wondered.
So I GOOGLED Is Calling Someone an Idiot a Mortal Sin?
Up came a bunch of links. I went to several of them, many of which were multi-source Bible commentaries. Some links said YES, it is. Others seemed to imply that you had to say the word with a really kind of hate in your heart that would lead you to commit murder and stuff like that (I was just really p.o.'ed, I didn’t want to hurt her or kill her for petes sake). But Jesus did say that calling someone RACA would make you subject to hell of fire.
So, I got no clear answer.

Are there any on here well-versed in moral theology, and any priests, who could tell me
if my referring to the cashier as an idiot was a mortal sin?? (( By the way, I did not slam her with that label to her face. I was frustrated, but I think that that would have been way too nasty. She just irritated the living daylights out of me, holding us up like that needlessly then overcharging me and wouldn’t back down )).

Thanks for any answers, and God love all of you.

Why did you even bother with her after the first time? You should have asked to see the Manager of the store. That would have ended the whole fiasco.
You forgot a very basic fact about people: You can’t fix stupidity.

 

[sedonaman]

…
Is Calling Someone an Idiot a Mortal Sin?
…

I don’t know, but you got a glimpse of eternity:

Contemplating Eternity – by Emo Philips

Ever contemplate the concept of eternity? What is eternity? Since everything on this earth had a beginning and will eventually come to an end, something going on forever and ever and ever is a little hard for us to grasp. Here is a mental experiment to help:
Imagine it is 5:30 pm on a Friday afternoon and you just got paid. On your way home from work, you decide to stop off at the grocery store and do your weekly shopping. As you enter the store, you find out that the whole world just got paid and had the same idea – the store is packed with shoppers, each with at least two carts full of groceries; the checkout lines are many and all snake from the back of the store. You get in a line and notice that they all converge on one checkout clerk; it is her first day on the job; none of the items are price-marked; everyone is old, has a coupon for every item, and needs to pay with a personal check; none of them have ID … and the clerk doesn’t any speak English.
Take away fifteen minutes from that, and you begin to get an idea of what eternity is.

 

[AdamP88]

This is not a sin. It seems to me to be over scrupulous to be examining the issue like this.

If the same thing had happened to me - I probably would have called the person an idiot to her face. It’s not a sin to become irritated for a legitimate reason…

 

[fred_conty]

I would agree that it is not wrong to become irritated because we are human.
But it is wrong to be unkind, which I did not find this situation to be since nothing was said unkind to the clerk.

As far as saying something outside the hearing of the clerk, that is just letting go of some built up frustration that didn’t harm the clerk. And your friend was charitable in their understanding. I personally think you did fine.

Only one thing left is the residue of animosity. Offering up your inconvenience for that clerk would be loving your “enemies” which is the opposite to animosity.

A better way would have been to thank Jesus for the inconvience and tell him you love him.
That is a bitter pill to swallow, and not everyone can swallow it.
That is something not everyone understands, accepts, and some think it is wrong.

But when it is done, you know it is right.

Just a thought.

 

[Katholish]

It is a sin to let your anger get the better of you like that, but it is certainly not mortal.

On a side note, calling someone an idiot could in theory be mortal if it did grave damage. For instance, if you are on national television and you call someone an idiot in that context, it gravely damages their reputation and could possibly be considered mortal in that context. But even then, your culpability might be reduced significantly if there was no forethought and it happened in the heat of the moment.

 

[aragonjohn1]

well if you are calling them that in the origanal term of that word meaning someone who doeas not own a business or in a jocular manner than im sure it is not a sin. but, if used to slander or deride someone thn im pretty sure it is.

Shalom
God Bless

 

[thistle]

Hi all.

Last night (and I have bought these products many times from many places and never been put through such a ridiculous ordeal), I went to buy some particiular products (what they are is irrelevant). Instead of doing what all places do, and I do mean ALL other stores (including THIS one until last night) , and just pulling down 25 of them and handing them to me, typing in the number and charging me the total,
the cashier held me (and my kind ride-giver) up for nearly 15 minutes, one by one scanning the items in, one at a time ((their cashiering system has not changed, just to be extra clear about this)). I was getting more and more frustrated, as she KEPT miscounting
and re-scanning the items.

She gave me 24. 2 piles of 10, plus a pile of 4. 24. I counted them three times.
She insisted on $25 for them. She then said “she would count them for me.”
She proceeded to count them WRONG and insisted on $25.
I counted them again. There were two EVEN stacks of 10 plus one stack of 4, that’s 24.
She wouldn’t back down. Angry and frustrated, I gave her $25 against my own wishes and left with 24 of them. She was a real slow poke, did what was NOT necessary, AND miscounted AND held us up for nearly 15 minutes for what should have taken a minute and a half TOPS. AND overcharged me. I left fuming, thinking I hope she gives MY extra dollar to the St .VIncent De Paul Society tomorrow instead of pocketing it.

Any way, my friend asked me what took so long, and I told him,
that IDIOT in their put me through the mill, counting and recounting and miscounting
and then the Idiot overchargeed me to boot.
I was really ticked off. Now. I was angry, but I didn’t have the kind of anger that would hit or kill her. Tell her off maybe, but not do anything violent.

Later, I felt guilty because of Jesus saying not to call your brother RACA.
I said, I think I sinned by referring to that woman as an Idiot. She probably just didn’t have a clue what she was doing and might have been new.
So I wondered if it was venial or mortal. Idiot is not a nice word. RACA means fool,
though much more than “fool” as we normally think of that word, but much worse.
Still. I wondered.
So I GOOGLED Is Calling Someone an Idiot a Mortal Sin?
Up came a bunch of links. I went to several of them, many of which were multi-source Bible commentaries. Some links said YES, it is. Others seemed to imply that you had to say the word with a really kind of hate in your heart that would lead you to commit murder and stuff like that (I was just really p.o.'ed, I didn’t want to hurt her or kill her for petes sake). But Jesus did say that calling someone RACA would make you subject to hell of fire.
So, I got no clear answer.

Are there any on here well-versed in moral theology, and any priests, who could tell me
if my referring to the cashier as an idiot was a mortal sin?? (( By the way, I did not slam her with that label to her face. I was frustrated, but I think that that would have been way too nasty. She just irritated the living daylights out of me, holding us up like that needlessly then overcharging me and wouldn’t back down )).

Thanks for any answers, and God love all of you.

Forgive me for saying this but you seem to get very angry very easily. In your other threads you are very angry with someone at work, and now you are very angry with someone at a supermarket. You are raging at both.
What is going on?

 

[HelenRose]

Yes it is a sin. To call someone an idiot is an attempt to destroy their dignity as a child of God. It may be all right to say, "You are acting like an idiot. There you are dealing with behavior not the dignity of the person.

Whenever you get into a situation where someone IS acting like an idiot follow this rule.

Never, ever argue with a fool. Bystanders can’t tell the difference.