Smoking

[MikeRPh]

Why hasn’t the Catholic Church stated that smoking is sinful?

It seems that the evidence of the harmful effects exists and would justify this stand?

 

[Bonnie]

Most likely because it isn’t sinful for everyone. I was a 2 pack a day smoker with kids. When my habit meant cutting back on groceries, I quit smoking. It would have been a sin to continue. But I know a woman who smokes only 2 cigarets a day. I don’t think it’s a sin for her. Weird, maybe!

 

[Dr.Colossus]

The Church has stated that deliberately harming your own body is sinful because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit. She doesn’t specifically define how or what constitutes harming your body, but expects the faithful to use common sense. Is smoking one cigarette harmful to the body? Perhaps not, but I’d say it definitely enters the realms of “proximate occasion of sin” because of the potential for addiction.

I should also add that when addictive substances or actions are concerned, the Church is more cautious about defining things as sinful ipso facto. Habit, psychological influences, and immaturity can all lessen or remove culpability.

 

[Veronica_Anne]

Bonnie:

Most likely because it isn’t sinful for everyone. I was a 2 pack a day smoker with kids. When my habit meant cutting back on groceries, I quit smoking. It would have been a sin to continue. But I know a woman who smokes only 2 cigarets a day. I don’t think it’s a sin for her. Weird, maybe!

Good for you for quitting! I used to smoke a lot! It wasn’t the expense or the rising social dismissal of people who smoked… or even folks I know pleading for me to quit. Yet, when I was finally ready… I gave in and gave it up to God, telling Him in abject humility and frustration that I wasn’t able to quit all by myself so He’d have to do it FOR me and I’ll go along. Turns out that it was a LOT less difficult for me to quit than it had always been before when I tried quitting.

God is good! ALL the time!

Hmmm… now for the “because it isn’t sinful for everyone.” My friend, gotta tell ya that this relativity of sinfulness depending on WHO you are is not Catholic doctrine.

I agree with everything that Dr. Colossus said in his post.

For someone to have committed a sin (any sin), three things have to happen.

1. You’re tempted.
2. You know it’s wrong (against God’s will).
3. You willingly do it.

Nowhere in there is there a clause about WHO you are for whether it’s a sin.

And, my friend, I don’t think that it’s ever God’s preferred will that I ever smoked once I woke up to the fact that smoke doesn’t have any nutritional value and can be addictive.

Now… CHOCOLATE on the other hand…

Lemme get back to ya on that!

 

[MikeRPh]

You know it’s wrong (against God’s will).

This is were I would like the Church to guide our consciences. It would be a help to know that this behavior is intrinsically immoral, or… misses the mark, or… is sinful.

 

[Dr.Colossus]

This is were I would like the Church to guide our consciences. It would be a help to know that this behavior is intrinsically immoral, or… misses the mark, or… is sinful.

The Church says that anything that does unnecessary damage to the body (as opposed to damage, say, through life-saving surgery) is against God’s will. Regular smoking does damage to the body. Therefore, logically, the Church says that regular smoking is against God’s will. However, this has to be a deliberate act in order to be sinful. If a person starts smoking without knowing or understanding this, it is not sinful. The same goes for a person who has already been addicted. Falling to that addiction is not necessarily sinful (though not automatically ok, either).

 

[Bonnie]

When I first became a Catholic, I would say - mostly joking - that I converted because the Catholic Church was the only one that didn’t call smoking a sin! Having grown up Baptist, I did have to get over my feeling that drinking alcohol was a sin.

 

[Mummybee]

Funny, but I can remember as a kid seeing priests smoke!!! Anyone know any clergy or religious who smoke?

 

[dcs]

MikeRPh:

Why hasn’t the Catholic Church stated that smoking is sinful?

Because it’s not.

It seems that the evidence of the harmful effects exists and would justify this stand?

The same could be said of alcohol.

 

[DaveBj]

Mummybee:

Funny, but I can remember as a kid seeing priests smoke!!! Anyone know any clergy or religious who smoke?

It used to be down here an Alabama-land that you could go to a Baptist service and read the brand of cigarettes in the preacher’s shirt-pocket. Thankfully, you don’t see that any more. However, I have been in the main attraction at a “singin’” where church members and the pastor would go outside during the service to light up :bigyikes:

DaveBj

 

[system]

Hang on, now…

I think the Church is supremely wise not to declare it a sin to smoke. Inadvisable, bad for your health, yes, but a sin?

I agree with the person who said that smoking becomes a sin if it somehow stops you from feeding your kids or something.

I know a guy who ate junk food - a LOT - constantly, and had a heart attack at age 38. Seven-way bypass he had, at age 38! And his Dad had had the same thing only 7 years earlier. His doctors warned him and everything. Was eating junk food, for him, a sin?

Yeah, probably: in his case, to the degree he did it, it was definitely an abuse of his body.

But should the Church then declare that ‘eating junk food is a sin’? No. Because it’s like drinking wine - it’s not ‘health food,’ but in moderation, it is one of life’s pleasures and does not count as an abuse of one’s body or health.

The Church is wise to teach that we must treat our bodies as temples. That means moderation, prudence, wise choices for our particular station in life, etc. I’m single. I tithe 10%. I have no debt. If I smoke two cigarettes a day - is that a sin, just because it could cause me health problems? I don’t think so.

I’m married. I’m in debt. I don’t share any of my worldly goods with anyone, and my kids go without decent food or clothes because I buy lottery tickets, subscribe to fifteen magazines, and buy useless junk at garage sales. Well, then, buying lottery tickets, subscribing to those magazines, and buying that junk is sinful, because I’m abusing my wealth and not meeting my family obligations. But it wouldn’t make any sense for the Church to declare that buying lottery tickets, subscribing to magazines and impulse shopping at garage sales are sins.

Our station in life has a lot to do with whether something is an abuse of our gifts. And the condition or make-up of our bodies has a lot to do with whether this food or that drink, etc. is an abuse of our bodies. An alcoholic who can’t take one drink without going on a binge and driving drunk had better not take that drink. It would be a sin for him to deliberately take that first drink. A person with emphysema had better not smoke that cigarette. But not everyone is harmed by a drink or a cigarette. Not every pack-a-day smoker gets cancer (my aunt showed no ill affects from smoking for over 50 years! Died in her bed of natural causes unrelated to smoking).

What next? Sinful cholesterol and virtuous cholesterol?

Our bodies are temples - not idols. We leave them behind. They all die of something. Let’s not get carried away with scrupulosity here.

 

[Smoke_Boy]

The church has never said smoking is a sin. However, great spiritual directors of the church have warned against an obsession with our health.

My dad died of a heart attack. He was a heavy smoker for many years. Many people in his life pressured him to stop smoking. He finally did one day and not long after he died. I think the pressure and stress of trying to quit and the constant harrassing from friends and family were worse for him than smoking. I would rather he continued to smoke and had that little pleasure and less stress and anxiety in his life. I reget that his last days were lived like that.

 

[mich7891]

Dr. Colossus:

Habit, psychological influences, and immaturity can all lessen or remove culpability.

How can you say that habit, psychological influences, and immaturity can all lessen or remove culpability? The Bible, God’s holy Word, says “All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Are you going to disagree with God? The next verse says, “They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus.” Habit, psychological influences, and immaturity cannot “save” a person, as you seem to think. Only God can through His Son’s blood. There is no way around it.

 

[carol_marie]

dcs:

The same could be said of alcohol.

True… and the same could be said [it’s possibly harmful to our bodies] of eating fatty red meat, consuming too many preservatives in our foods, driving too fast, talking on the cell phone while driving, sky diving, climbing Mt. Everest, being a type-A person who is stressed out all the time… etc. etc. etc. Should the Catholic Church come down on all of those things as sinful?

CM (a non-smoker but a consumer of greasy hamburgers )

 

[mich7891]

Do we do our bodies any good by smoking? Are we praising God with our minds, our souls, our bodies, when we smoke and know that 99.5% of lung cancer victims are smokers? Medical and scientific research in the past 25 years has found some startling information.

Like, there are 1000% more deaths from lung cancer among smokers than non-smokers.

The death rate from heart disease is 200% higher among smokers.

Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are 500% more prevalent in smokers.

I got this info from a biology school book. If we think, “Oh, it won’t happen to me”, we are ignoring facts provided by the most knowledgable minds on this planet concerning health.

 

[mastda]

mich7891:

Do we do our bodies any good by smoking? Are we praising God with our minds, our souls, our bodies, when we smoke and know that 99.5% of lung cancer victims are smokers? Medical and scientific research in the past 25 years has found some startling information.

Like, there are 1,000% more deaths from lung cancer among smokers than non-smokers.

The death rate from heart disease is 200% higher among smokers.

Emphysema and chronic cronchitis are 500% more prevalent in smokers.

I got this info from a biology school book. If we think, “Oh, it won’t happen to me”, we are ignoring facts provided by the most knowledgable minds on this planet concerning health.

Do we do our bodies any good by eating at all you can eat buffet restaurants? Are we praising God with our minds, our souls, our bodies, when we overeat at fast food establisments knowing that obesity will be the number 1 killer of people in the next few years.

Let’s not be hypocrites and put down people who smoke as we pull up to the drive through at McDonalds and order a Big Mac. Overeating, fast food and smoking are equally horrible.

 

[mich7891]

Do you feel you are prepared for Heaven? If Jesus came tonight and took all the believers home, would you be ready to meet Him with wide open arms? We don’t know how long we might have to live. So we must live each day as if it were the last. I need to get to bed, as it is very late where I am. Just know this: I am praying for each and everyone of you. If you know Christ as your Savior and feel you are prepared for Heaven today, may God bless you and continue showing you His truth. If you don’t think God has any part in our lives, I will pray that He shows you one way or another the truth. Goodnight, fellow seekers.

 

[Myangel]

This is one question I never got a straight answer from, so I quit smoking because I felt it was right, plus I wanted to detach myself from sin (whether it was mortal or venial). I was a very heavy smoker, 1 1/2 half packs a day (packs of 25). I am pretty sure God would not have been too pleased with me smoking that much, but thats my personal opinion, its been 2 1/2 weeks, slipped up on Saturday night but jumped back on the band wagon Sunday! Wish me luck, I still have the strong urge alot of the time!

 

[Tonks40]

I’m a smoker, and personally, I feel I committed a sin when I started up smoking over 10 years ago. I knew it would do damage to my body, I knew that it was wrong (both a societal and moral sense), but I CHOSE to do it anyways.

Now, I am addicted to the nicotine. I want to quit so bad, for my health, my clothes, my atmosphere, my children and my husband. Because I regret my decision to start up smoking, I feel that I can continue on my journey to possible redemption, especially if (and when) I quit.

God knows we are all sinners - some may realize it sooner than others. I hope I am one who has, and plan to try and do something about it…I’ll know it when the Holy Spirit tells me…

 

[Homebrew_roots]

Mummybee:

Funny, but I can remember as a kid seeing priests smoke!!! Anyone know any clergy or religious who smoke?

Wow, yes there are a lot of them. Most that do just keep it secret . But yeah, a lot of priests smoke. Just last month i had a meeting with a priest with me smoking a cigarette and him havin a chaw of chewing tobacco. It was nice. Im going to seminary (hopefully, its not a done deal yet, the application takes a while) this fall and i know that quite a few guys there smoke too. It happens to be an extremely orthodox catholic seminary too in case any of you were wondering about the quality of it. Every priest i know is aware that i smoke and none have EVER told me to quit through implication or just saying it. Truth is: we as Catholics have bigger things to worry about.

And i completely agree with the posts about other things most people do that harm the body. If the church should declare smoking sinful, should they also declare eating bacon sinful?