Is my non Catholic friend in sin?

[shondrea]

I’m confused here. My best friend is bnorn and raised non-denom Christian, and does her best to live up to the morals she was raised with. However, there are soe things she was raised to believe are ok that Catholic teaching says are sins. For example, she was taught that reading or viewing pornography is not a sin. I know that she sometimes likes to read sexually explicit romance novels. She knows that I as a Catholic don’t read such things because I believe pornography is a sin, so she never pushes it on me, but she doesn’t share my beliefe. So…does that still mean she’s in sin? Also, I know that one can sin by allowing something to happen. She knows my views, but I don’t feel like I can or should control what she reads. Need to berate her many tiomes about this, or was my one time rant enough?

 

[Big_Dummy]

There are no protestant churches that teach it is not a sin to read porn and I think your friend would know that. Jesus plainly says, if one looks on another person with lust in their heart it is sin. No church has ever went against that teaching. Not even the most liberal ones.

 

[shondrea]

Most of her religious knowledge was family taught, if that explains anything. I’ve heard many of her views that she was taught I find odd, but she stand staunchly by her opinion that they wouldn’t lead her astray. I dunno, I’m just going by what she and her family have told me.

I could broaden this question I suppose to, say, birth control. She plans to use it when she gets married because her religion doesn’t have a problem with it. If she honestly believes it’s not a sin, not being Catholic, how culpable is she for her choice?

Also, please never assume that someone “would know this”. I was twenty before I ever heard that masturbation is a sin. You’d have thought I’d “know this”, wouldn’t you?

 

[puzzleannie]

I’m confused here. My best friend is bnorn and raised non-denom Christian, and does her best to live up to the morals she was raised with. However, there are soe things she was raised to believe are ok that Catholic teaching says are sins. For example, she was taught that reading or viewing pornography is not a sin. I know that she sometimes likes to read sexually explicit romance novels. She knows that I as a Catholic don’t read such things because I believe pornography is a sin, so she never pushes it on me, but she doesn’t share my beliefe. So…does that still mean she’s in sin? Also, I know that one can sin by allowing something to happen. She knows my views, but I don’t feel like I can or should control what she reads. Need to berate her many tiomes about this, or was my one time rant enough?

None of us has knowledge of souls so none of us can state with certainty that any person is subjectively guilty of a specific sin or is separated from the sanctifying grace of Christ. We can judge their actions and state objectively that the action is sinful, and we can, in charity, inform them of that fact in a way that does not condemn the individual person or cast us in the role of judge, but we lead better by example.

We do know that these actions are always objectively sinful, bearing in mind that not every steamy romance novel is inherently sinful for all persons. So yes she still commits a sin if she does a sinful act. However her subjective culpability and guilt for that sin may be mitigated by lack of knowledge, or full free will intent to act.

 

[shondrea]

Thank you Annie. You always have such a siple way of putting things.