Helping a non-Catholic violate moral norms his religion

[mo0004]

The Mormon Church teaches that it is morally wrong for any of its members to consume certain products, including caffeinated beverages such as coffee. They take this obligation very seriously. I believe that the justification is that stimulants are harmful to the body, calling “Thou Shalt Not Kill” into issue. The Catholic Church has no such prohibition as long as it is done in moderation. Two co-workers, a Catholic and a Mormon, are in the Catholic’s office working on a joint project. There is a coffee pot. At one point, the Mormon asks, “I’d like a cup of that coffee. But don’t tell anyone. I’m Mormon, and my Church doesn’t let us drink coffee.” The Catholic, who knows of this prohibition, hands the Mormon a cup and invites him to help himself, points out the cream and sugar, and agrees to tell no one. At the end of the meeting, the Catholic makes two separate trips to the sink to wash out each cup “so no one will suspect.” According to Catholic moral theology, is the Catholic now in a state of serious sin for helping the Mormon commit a sin against his Church? More generally, Is it a sin to assist a member of another Church to commit an act which is sinful to that person’s Church when the act is not considered sinful by the Catholic Church. (Obviously, if the Mormon wanted to become Catholic for the right reasons, the Mormon Church would consider that sinful, but we’ll exclude that - I’m referring to violations of the law and teachings of the other Church while still remaining a member.)

 

[LRThunder]

The Mormon Church teaches that it is morally wrong for any of its members to consume certain products, including caffeinated beverages such as coffee. They take this obligation very seriously. I believe that the justification is that stimulants are harmful to the body, calling “Thou Shalt Not Kill” into issue. The Catholic Church has no such prohibition as long as it is done in moderation. Two co-workers, a Catholic and a Mormon, are in the Catholic’s office working on a joint project. There is a coffee pot. At one point, the Mormon asks, “I’d like a cup of that coffee. But don’t tell anyone. I’m Mormon, and my Church doesn’t let us drink coffee.” The Catholic, who knows of this prohibition, hands the Mormon a cup and invites him to help himself, points out the cream and sugar, and agrees to tell no one. At the end of the meeting, the Catholic makes two separate trips to the sink to wash out each cup “so no one will suspect.” According to Catholic moral theology, is the Catholic now in a state of serious sin for helping the Mormon commit a sin against his Church? More generally, Is it a sin to assist a member of another Church to commit an act which is sinful to that person’s Church when the act is not considered sinful by the Catholic Church. (Obviously, if the Mormon wanted to become Catholic for the right reasons, the Mormon Church would consider that sinful, but we’ll exclude that - I’m referring to violations of the law and teachings of the other Church while still remaining a member.)

That is an interesting question. But would such a problem exist if the Church helps a Muslim convert to Christianity? After all, Muslims aren’t allowed to convert to Christianity as we saw with that Afghan convert a little while ago.

 

[puzzleannie]

I think the scenario makes a problem where non exists. All the Catholic has to do is say help yourself, if you’re really sure you should be drinking this. Then it is up to the Mormon what he decides to do. This has nothing whatever to do with helping someone convert.

 

[Greg27]

I think this might be similar to asking a Buddhist monk to kill an ant, fly, cockroach or mosquito that was bothering me. In Buddhism, killing any living creature is a grave sin, equivalent to a mortal sin in the CC.

In my view we should act in the best way as our own faith teaches us around others, but if we are around people of other faiths, we should learn their norms and respect them. If I was with a Buddhist monk for example, at a conference on meditation, I would refrain from killing any living thing, even a mosquito. Likewise around Muslims I would not drink alchohol or eat pork. It is charitable to show decency and respect.

 

[CCM08]

I was Mormon before becoming Orthodox, your presentation of the Words of Wisdom is in some ways accurate. It is a serious matter for Mormons carrying temple recommends as that would invalidate the recommend. However, Mormons also consider a violation of the WoW a sin against yourself as opposed to an offense against God. As the vast majority of Mormons, even practicing, do not have temple recommends WoW violations are really very minor matters. In fact if around Mormons you’d find there are relatively few that don’t do something that could be considered a WoW violation. In additon to that, the WoW doesn’t specifically mention caffine. Some Mormons consider caffine banned using the reasoning that the reason coffee and tea are banned is because of the caffine but there’s no empirical evidence to defend that position. As such many Mormons don’t view drinking caffinated beverages like Coke a WoW violation.
You have to understand there’s no such thing as dogma in Mormonism.

 

[johannahw]

Hmm. Dear Husband and I are just coming out of the mormon church. We’d been involved since January. He was baptized in March and I was not. The reason I was not baptized was because I struggled with some of their doctrines but besides that I couldn’t make the committment or covenants I was expected to make including the WOW. For example, each time I couldn’t “covenant” to give up smoking for good. I don’t know. A lot of what they teach confused me. They claim to be pro life but are okay with abortion if it is for the health of the mother, rape, and incest. This stance confuses me and I wonder how they can say they are prolife.
Johannah

 

[Chesapeake]

Even though Church X may say that jumping on the bed is a mortal sin, it doesn’t make it so…so why would it be immoral to help someone commit an action that wasn’t immoral in the first place?