Smoking

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Corpus_Cristi

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I was raised Pentecostal, and in this Pentecostal church, like most Pentecostal/Evangelical/Fundamentalist churches, they taught that smoking was a sin. Now that I’m Catholic, I know that it isn’t, and I believe that it isn’t. It’s a dirty habit. My question is why such a dirty and unhealthy habit, not only for the smoker, but those around the smoker, isn’t a sin.
 
Percisely because it is a habit and hence does not meet the criteria for a sin. Now starting smoking does violate the commandments (it is sinning against the command not to kill, as smoking is harmful to your health which is an implicit attack on your own life) but if one already smokes, then the physialogical and psychalogical need override reason. The smoker, in lighting up a cigarette is not thinking about anything other than releiving the suffering caused by physical and mental dependence. It is not a reasoned action. Think of it like asking a heavy coffee drinker to give up their Java, or heaven forbid, asking us to give up our forums :eek:
 
But for Grace:
Percisely because it is a habit and hence does not meet the criteria for a sin. Now starting smoking does violate the commandments (it is sinning against the command not to kill, as smoking is harmful to your health which is an implicit attack on your own life) but if one already smokes, then the physialogical and psychalogical need override reason. The smoker, in lighting up a cigarette is not thinking about anything other than releiving the suffering caused by physical and mental dependence. It is not a reasoned action. Think of it like asking a heavy coffee drinker to give up their Java, or heaven forbid, asking us to give up our forums :eek:
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Just curious, do you feel the same way about sexual addiction or alcoholism or any other addiction? Seems you give smoking kind of a free pass. The sexual addict or any other addict is, I suppose, not thinking about anything other than releiving the suffering caused by not having it also. As you probably know, there is nothing worse than an ex-smoker, of which I am one. Sorry, but I loathe RJ Reynolds, and Phillip Morris. They are laughing all the way to the bank, while people are dying.
 
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snoopy:
Just curious, do you feel the same way about sexual addiction or alcoholism or any other addiction? Seems you give smoking kind of a free pass. The sexual addict or any other addict is, I suppose, not thinking about anything other than releiving the suffering caused by not having it also. As you probably know, there is nothing worse than an ex-smoker, of which I am one. Sorry, but I loathe RJ Reynolds, and Phillip Morris. They are laughing all the way to the bank, while people are dying.
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snoopy - no I do not give smokers a free pass, nor do I wish for anyone to think that I am trying to minimize the effects of smoking, however, like the OP stated it is a habit. Like any other habit one is more responsible for the first time (and any times when consicious choice enters) then they are for any time that they are acting out of pure habit. This is true for smokers as it is for those addicted to mastrubation, as it is to the crack fiend. Also note that the OP asked about the sinful nature of the habitual act itself which is what I responded to, not as to the moral responsibility that we bear for these actions. I still see us morally responsibile for what happens because of our habits, but that habit itself ceases to be a sin because we are no longer conscious that it is sinful.
 
I thought it is a sin. You are destroying the Temple of God, and it is just like taking anything that harms you. I also herd some great priest say it is a sin, Father Corapi, and I wouldn’t argue with him, but you can.
 
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alterserver_07:
I thought it is a sin. You are destroying the Temple of God, and it is just like taking anything that harms you. I also herd some great priest say it is a sin, Father Corapi, and I wouldn’t argue with him, but you can.
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It isn’t that it isn’t a sin. It is. It’s just that it involves “mitigated culpability,” as it is an addiction over which people struggle.
 
I am not sure what the Church’s teaching is on this but I would say it would be the same as any other harmful things. Alcohol is as deadly if not moreso than smoking, but drinking alcohol in moderation isn’t a sin. Even Jesus drank wine! But if you drink a case of beer every night then you have a problem. The same thing with smoking. If you have a cigar to celebrate someone’s engagement or baby or whatever it’s not bad, but if you smoke a pack a day then it’s bad.

Of course, as the other person stated, once it becomes an addiction then you lose free will so it wouldn’t be a mortal sin.
 
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Petertherock:
I am not sure what the Church’s teaching is on this but I would say it would be the same as any other harmful things. Alcohol is as deadly if not moreso than smoking, but drinking alcohol in moderation isn’t a sin. Even Jesus drank wine! But if you drink a case of beer every night then you have a problem. The same thing with smoking. If you have a cigar to celebrate someone’s engagement or baby or whatever it’s not bad, but if you smoke a pack a day then it’s bad.

Of course, as the other person stated, once it becomes an addiction then you lose free will so it wouldn’t be a mortal sin.
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Are you saying that habitual masturbation or sexual addiction is a loss of free will, so that wouldn’t be a mortal sin either? Just asking.
 
I’m not a smoker, but I have my share of other bad habits. Smoking does not impair the senses in the same way that alchohol or drugs does.

It is a health hazard and we hope folks can stop before it gives them health problems, but it is not like being stoned out of your mind and make you an huge threat to others. (secondary smoke is a hazard but far less so that a drunk driver or a addict on heroin or PCP)

In the extreme it may be sinful but not so sinful as so many other cardinal sins.

Personally I hate cigarette smoke, I can not stand to breathe in any of it. BUT I would be far more concerned if I were confronted by a drunk or drug addict, or by a thief or murderer, and probably even more threatened by a radical evangelical.

wc
 
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snoopy:
Are you saying that habitual masturbation or sexual addiction is a loss of free will, so that wouldn’t be a mortal sin either? Just asking.
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I think what he’s saying is that force of habit or addiction can lessen culpability even to the point of “reducing” an act with serious matter to a venial sin.
 
I think smoking is unequivocably wrong *because *it leads to addiction and self destruction, as in all other addictions and bad habits. I ought to know, I quit 7 years ago, but not before it took its’ irreversible toll on my lungs. To this day I wheeze all the time, and know that this is directly linked to my smoking. Many of the “cool” people who smoked in the movies, etc, and those adults I knew who smoked, who I wanted to emulate when I was growing up, died of smoking related cancers and emphysema. It took years for me to see it for what it is: an evil vice with no redeeming quality, and after I quit, which was surprisingly simple, I couldn’t believe what kind of a hold I let it have on me. When there’s nothing right about something, I believe that the only thing possible to call it is *wrong. *I thank God every day for helping me to free myself from this self destructive habit.
 
I am not going to address the smoking-as-sin issue, but I will say that people who smoke close to me are tempting me to sin. They are making me want to beat the stew out of them 😛

DaveBj (Ex-smoker since 1973)
 
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snoopy:
Are you saying that habitual masturbation or sexual addiction is a loss of free will, so that wouldn’t be a mortal sin either? Just asking.
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Yes, once you lose free will it is not a mortal sin.
 
I smoked for right at 40 years and enjoyed every cigarette I ever smoked. I quit last January because the state raised the taxes on tobacco and I didn’t want to give any more tax money to the state.

I never thought about smoking being any more a sin than playing cards or dancing–in other words not a sin at all. If it was a sin, then there were a bunch of priests sinning in the 50s and 60s. I would classify smoking as a vice, but not a sinful vice.
 
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Petertherock:
Yes, once you lose free will it is not a mortal sin.
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We are not talking about a loss of free will. You made reference to masturbation as an addiction, but I am fairly sure that very few people are forced to masturbate. The same goes with smoking and the issue of free will, most people do not have someone take out a cigarrette, light it, and force someone to smoke it. In both of those cases, people are acting on their own accord and are culpable for their actions and do not lose their free will.
 
PJM- Yes, I agree. After quitting, I realized how stupid I was. I also think that my smoking caused two of my children to begin, and I am totally ashamed of this. I smoked around them even when they were babies. I truly believe it is wrong, and wish I had not brought a young person to do what I was doing, as the society I grew up in did to me, as well. Looking back, most of those whom I admired died of lung cancer.
 
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alterserver_07:
I thought it is a sin. You are destroying the Temple of God, and it is just like taking anything that harms you. I also herd some great priest say it is a sin, Father Corapi, and I wouldn’t argue with him, but you can.
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I am not sure the pope would argue with Father Corapi.
~ Kathy ~
 
Moderation, moderation, moderation.

Smoking is not intrinsically evil, but whe you do it so much that you destroy your body, it is a sin.

If you have, say, a cigar on a special occasion, that is not a sin.

If you smoke 20 packs a day, that would probably be sinful.
 
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