If you have at times thoughts of prejudism based on someone because of skin color, race, religion, etc and you catch yourself and it is only a temporary thought, is this a mortal sin?
Sometimes these thoughts just come into my mind. I don’t know if that is normal.
@Prodigal1984
Yes! It IS normal, even when these thoughts are the exact opposite of what we believe. We’re not held accountable for a stray thought that comes, unbidden, into our minds. It’s what occurs after we become aware of that thought, and the way we direct our thinking, that could place us in a state of sin. If we willingly dwell on that thought, in the sense that we put ourselves into a scenario in our mind’s eye, as though we’re watching a movie, and we’re relishing the wrong ideas that come, and maybe imagining inappropriate dialogue and actions—now that we’re dwelling on that unbidden thought—and then that night we do an examination of conscience and KNOW, in our heart of hearts, that we should not have been so inventive in that little “movie in our mind,” then, yes, we’d better mention that to Father in Confession.
But numerous—maybe hundreds—of ideas that astonish us can flit briefly into our minds in a day’s time, and we banish them almost as instantly as they arrive; those thoughts are not sinful. Nor are the thoughts that we briefly think about and then reject them because we suspect, or even know, that continuing that line of thought is objectionable.
Our goal is to avoid falling out of grace, but we’re not much good to God as an example for others to emulate if we’re tied in knots by scrupulosity, either. “All things in moderation!” is a great daily motto. We best serve God by striving for moderation in the many aspects of our lives, so that we can serve Him unswervingly with a happiness that radiates to others. We can’t do that if we’re overcome by scrupulosity, worrying about unbidden thoughts.
