Negligence and sin

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jimmy

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Is it a sin if something bad happens through your negligence by a failure to think something through completely, or to do something that is not wrong, but it turns out to be bad because of your laziness, or being too quick to act?
 
I’m not sure but part of the Confiteor asks for forgiveness for what you have done and what you have failed to do. I think that not thinking can be a sin, yes, and probably is the cause of much unhappiness in the world.
 
The sin is the sin of omission. Failing to do what is right and just. I believe the Cardinal archbishop of LA commits this sin by refusing to cooperate fully with the legal authorities by turning over documents relating to pedophile priest. The protection of church money or criminal is not sufficient to justify the omission.
 
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kencando:
The sin is the sin of omission. Failing to do what is right and just. I believe the Cardinal archbishop of LA commits this sin by refusing to cooperate fully with the legal authorities by turning over documents relating to pedophile priest. The protection of church money or criminal is not sufficient to justify the omission.
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I agree, that would be a sin, but that is not what I mean. I mean a situation where your intentions are completely good and you are not hiding anything, but by not thinking through the situation completely you looked over something which causes it to be bad.

I would say that the bishop did something bad with full knowledge of what he was doing.
 
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jimmy:
I agree, that would be a sin, but that is not what I mean. I mean a situation where your intentions are completely good and you are not hiding anything, but by not thinking through the situation completely you looked over something which causes it to be bad.

I would say that the bishop did something bad with full knowledge of what he was doing.
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Hindsight is always 20/20. Looking back over a situation, we can see that we possibly could have anticipated a certian outcome. We can’t dwell on that, though we can learn from it. In the future, you’ll be more aware of those circumstances. We’re all human, and can, and will, make mistakes. We have the ability to learn from our mistakes, though, and not let them happen again. If you continually overlook the same potential outcome, it’s moved from a mistake into a sinful habit.

If you want to give us an example (not your particular situation, but a similiar situation), we can give you a bit more guidance.
 
Sin cannot be by accident. Unlike running a red light, even if you didn’t want to, sin has to have consent. If you find out about something later that you could have done but acted on the best information available a sin was not committed. One should learn however that there is nothing that one does that doesn’t affect others no matter how secret one thinks it is. Our lives are molded by each action or inaction we take.
 
I don’t think you guys are getting my whole point.

Here is an example. I will take an example from the past. A while ago I was trying to defend a doctrine of the faith on this site. I was looking for a specific quote, so I typed part of it into google along with the name of the person who said it. I clicked search and selected the first link in cache so that I could locate the quote easily. I found a quote by the guy and it appeared to be the same quote because there was a bunch of highlighting in the quote, so I just assumed it was the quote I was looking for and I copied and posted it to the debate. The quote turned out to be saying the opposite of what I was trying to say and was from a non-Catholic website. Now, say someone who was weak in there faith stumbled due to my weakness and laziness to read the quote all the way through before posting. Would it be a sin on my part because of my lazyness in this matter?
 
If a man gets drunk and then gets in his car and kills some children in the cross walk, is it sin? The man did not intentionally desire to run over the children. The man did not consent to killing the children. The man simply neglected his responsibility as a driver.

Say the man, who killed the children while driving drunk, asks the priest in the confessional, “Did I sin? Do I need forgiveness and repentance?” Should the priest say, “Well you did not consent to killing the children. You did not intentionally desire to kill the children. You did not think this one through so there is no sin committed. There is no need for absolution. Go be happy.”

I think, to be on the safe side, the priest should ask the man to repent of this as sin through neglect, ask God for forgiveness and absolution, and drive drunk no more.

Peace in Christ,
Steven Merten
www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com
 
Steven Merten:
If a man gets drunk and then gets in his car and kills some children in the cross walk, is it sin? The man did not intentionally desire to run over the children. The man did not consent to killing the children. The man simply neglected his responsibility as a driver.

Say the man, who killed the children while driving drunk, asks the priest in the confessional, “Did I sin? Do I need forgiveness and repentance?” Should the priest say, “Well you did not consent to killing the children. You did not intentionally desire to kill the children. You did not think this one through so there is no sin committed. There is no need for absolution. Go be happy.”

I think, to be on the safe side, the priest should ask the man to repent of this as sin through neglect, ask God for forgiveness and absolution, and drive drunk no more.

Peace in Christ,
Steven Merten
www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com
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Thankyou, that is the exact type of situation I mean.
 
Now, say someone who was weak in there faith stumbled due to my weakness and laziness to read the quote all the way through before posting.
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Just curious …… Did you follow up on this and correct the post or amend your position? Would it have helped if you advised of the error in a subsequent post?

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PeterC:
Just curious …… Did you follow up on this and correct the post or amend your position? Would it have helped if you advised of the error in a subsequent post?

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I did follow up on it and I apologized for it and tried to offer the correct view.
 
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