The Church's focus on purity...sins that send many to hell?

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imnotsosure

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Ok so this is my first post here and I don’t want to be too long. I’m struggling though understanding something in Church teaching…its really frustrating me and its keeping me from growing spiritually.
Now I’ll start by saying i’m not trying to challenge the teaching of the Church or saying I disagree. I wholeheartedly assent to whatever the Church teaches.
So here is my confusion:
It seems as though the moral teachings of Catholicism are “unfairly balanced” (its the best way I could put it). Of course God is all just, but from my POV its very confusing.

It seems like on one side of the balance you have impurity. Here is the temptation of most throughout life and there is no room for lightness of matter. This is ex toto genero suo a mortal sin if your in the lust category. Whether its a teen who has to wait 15 years hoping to get married to avoid lust, a person dating trying to be modest yet not upset their girlfriend, or a married couple tempted with birth control its always a temptation. It seems like most people fall to these sins, and quite frequently.

On the other side, it seems like there are all other sins. Sins of unkindness, sins of speech (8th Commandment), Greed, neglect of the works of mercy…etc. Although these can be mortal sins, they are less likely to be. Some Catholic authors seem to see greed as nbd in terms of mortal sin unless its like oppressing a homeless guy. Or contemptuous speech isnt even in most Examination of Consciences. Or rash judgment is only grave under like 5 hard to meet conditions. Its like this side of the scale is hardly ever grave or what it takes to be grave is hard to actually commit by the average joe.

Yet, this seems like an inappropriate balance. For one, because of how much Christ seems to talk about side 2 and not side 1. Second, because of how the others are so directly related to charity. Third, because at the last judgment seen there is no mention of number 1 yet many Catholics say that side 1 is the cause of most damnation. Even when I hear explanations of sins against chastity being wrong …it seems like it comes down to an explanation that “impurity gets the passions going and then we can’t focus on God” Now this is true I know it, but this still seems like side 1 is a little overplayed. I don’t deny the sinfulness of any sexual sin. I can see how all those sins are at least venially sinful (not just cuz not all 3 conditions are met but because the matter itself isnt sufficiently grave). But my instinct would be that some sins would stop at venial sins under some circumstances.

Please if someone would help me with an explanation…that would be great!!

Final Note- I’m not trying to excuse sexual sins. I’m also not trying to say that they can’t often be mortal or that I want to invent my own religion. I want to understand why the Church teaches this way because I know the Church teaches the truth.
 
I would say that, a priori, it is because our current culture is awash in sexuality. As such, temptation is not only everywhere, submitting to it is seen as socially approved. Whereas, sins involving greed, gluttony, the tongue, etc, all have as much disapproval as approval going.

Because of the prevalence of sexual messages in the “Western” culture, the Church has had to try harder to fight it. IMNAAHO.

ICXC NIKA
 
You have a lot of questions and I won’t pretend to have all the answers. However, maybe what I say and what others say, when all added together will help you find the answers.

Our Lady of Fatima said, “More souls go to Hell for sins of the flesh than for any other reason”. That seems to be one strong reason for the Church to emphasize purity.

The Bible says “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God”. That doesn’t refer just to seeing God in the next life, but in this life as well. If we are pure of heart, we can see God’s will more clearly. There may be a shortage in this age of those who are
‘pure of heart’ which would account for many of the other sins that you mentioned…sins that come from not practicing what Jesus taught, "Love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself.

Wishing you peace and God’s blessing of wisdom.
 
Holy purity is a very important virtue, but it is not the greatest - charity (love) is.

I think purity is probably very important because without it, you cannot grow in charity. You cannot be a “loving” person if you see and use people as sexual objects to lust on. Further, an impure person perverts a unique and valuable expression of love, which is the marital act. It also abuses the well-spring of life. That twofold attack against marital love and life is probably what makes impurity very grave.

But perhaps the greatest danger of impurity is that it blocks our vision of God.
Blessed are the pure, for they shall see God.
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Without authentic respect for our neighbor, marital love, or life; without custody of the senses and its humble submission to God, it will be very difficult for a person to see And appreciate God and progress in the spiritual life. Indeed, it’s a very dangerous vice.
 
Maybe part of it has to do with the love of self that comes with sexual sins (whether alone or with others). Love of self can become a form of idolatry, which is against the first commandment.
 
First off, welcome to CAF! This site helped me tremendously in my late conversion to the faith and I hope it can help to strengthen you as well in your knowledge and love for the one true faith established by Jesus Christ! 🙂

The reason why the sexual sins are so severe is because of the gift that they abuse. Greed, while most certainly a sin (and can even be mortally so), is an abuse of God’s material termporal gifts to us (money, time, etc…). Our sexual sins, on the other hand, are an abuse of God’s greatest gifts to us which is our ability to participate in the creation of new eternal life. The power we are granted through our sexuality is absolutely incomprehensible… I mean, even the angels cannot create new life. For us to abuse such a tremendous power is so much worse then it is to abuse one of the lesser powers that God gives us such as time, food, small amounts of money, etc…

It’s like this: A father gives one of his teenagers a new bicycle and the other teenager the keys to a really fast sports car. The second teenager certainly has the greater gift and can accomplish a lot more with the sports car then the first teenager can with his bicycle. Now let’s say that instead of graciously recieving these gifts, both of these teenagers decide to abuse what they have been given. In the case of the first teenager, abusing his gift may result in a crashed bike, a scraped arm, etc… The second teenager, however, can endanger his own life, the life of his passengers as well as other people on the road. Clearly, while the second teenager has the greater gift, if that gift is abused, the consequences are vastly more severe.

With regards to Jesus preaching mostly on topics of greed, etc… we have to remember that the bible does not document the fullness of God’s word. There were plenty of things that Jesus said during His time on earth that is not contained in the gospel. This is why He appointed an infallible Church to complete His word. In other words, the teachings of the Catholic Church are the complete representation of Christ’s teachings and we can take great comfort in this fact.

Furthermore, it may have also been the case that the sexual sins simply weren’t as big of a problem back in the days of the gospel as they are today. What reason did Jesus have to preach on the evils of contraception and abortion if nobody who listened to Him used contraception or procured abortions? This is another reason why Christ has appointed a Church… so that His teachings can be applied to the context of modern times.

The reason why the sexual sins are so tough to conquer is because the devil knows that it is his best chance to get a soul into hell with today’s current culture and values. The good news is that the sexual sins are very much conquerable and we will be that much more holy when we succeed in overcoming them! 🙂

God bless!
 
Human beings, in general, have never been free of sin, and we will be tempted in different ways. For example, I find it easy to stay away from alcohol, others are addicted.

The last 40 years has seen a gradual, planned lowering of our sense of civility, modesty and respect for ourselves and others and the opposite sex. But small groups, just as dedicated to their cause as we are to our faith, want what they want and will do and say whatever they need to do to multiply our chances of falling into sin regarding purity.

The imbalance was not caused by the Church but by those who first greatly multiplied the ways we could sin and degrade ourselves.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, the worst you could do was Playboy and some other “girlie” magazines that were difficult to get. Yes, there was a little graphic stuff but there was strong, unified societal pressure to keep “that stuff” away from boys and men. And to look down at it as “dirty,” meaning your mind would be dirtied by viewing it, as well as your soul. Here’s a brief review:

In the 1950s and 1960s, family meant married for life, usually with kids, and you had aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. This was the very fabric of your life, and was meant to be passed on to each new generation as normative. The media reflected and respected this form of living. The local City Hall had a Nativity in front of it, and Christmas included a beautiful editorial in the newspaper about the birth of Christ. It was drilled into our teenage heads, no sexual intercourse while dating and have respect for your elders.

1960 The FDA approves the birth control pill.

1967 Since most people still lived on farms and in rural areas, it did not see widespread use until this time. Time magazine ran a cover story titled: “Contraception - Freedom from Fear.” Fear of what? Babies. Babies who we knew as “a bundle of joy” and a “gift from God.”

In 1968, Pope Paul VI, mindful of dissenters within and outside the Church who wanted the Church to loosen its restriction on artificial birth control, released Humanae Vitae, reaffirming constant Church teaching against it. The reaction caused an event unprecedented in the history of the Church:

“Within 24 hours, in an event unprecedented in the history of the Church, more than 200 dissenting theologians signed a full-page ad in The New York Times in protest. Not only did they declare their disagreement with encyclical’s teaching; they went one step further, far beyond their authority as theologians, and actually encouraged dissent among the lay faithful.” Source: regnum christi

Also, the Sex without love Revolution was in full swing. The message was simple: have sex with anybody at any time. I read: “Don’t trust anyone over 30!” So mom, dad, priests, nuns, were out, and Hippies, radicals and anarchists would poison the young by selling them marijuana, and Marxist underground newspapers and perverted comix filled with sexual imagery.

1969 Time to use deception and lies to sell the ultimate form of birth control - abortion.

catholicnewsagency.com/resources/abortion/articles-and-addresses/an-ex-abortionist-speaks/

1973 The US Supreme Court consigns millions to their deaths. It’s OK to kill your unborn child.

That was the turning point for me. I saw a few Catholic friends using marijuana. One guy told me he was living with his girlfriend. When I told him that was against Church teaching, he got angry at me. The bad examples moved into our neighborhoods and began to openly live their alternative sexual lifestyles.

Porn bookstores opened everywhere selling images of prostitutes engaging in graphic sex acts. You NEVER had that just a few years before, and they opened X-rated theaters, and strip clubs and topless bars.

My heart sank because their lawyers told us “religious nuts” that they had the FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO DEGRADE MEN AND WOMEN.

It was legal, so it was OK, right? Wrong. It was never OK. And men got addicted to porn as planned.

In the 1980s it got worse with No-Fault Divorce. For $75, if you had no kids, you were out. So much for the sanctity of marriage. And cable TV was starting and among our new choices? Porn.

1990s Into the abyss. The ACLU was removing religious monuments and paintings from public buildings while yelling UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!! Both the TV and movies were showing more and more fornication (usually implied) and partial or full nudity, and terrible immoral behavior.

By the 2000s, these small groups had reached their goal: the partial destruction of the family, the acceptance of artificial birth control under the completely irrational “You CAN"T CONTROL YOURSELVES!!!” So, the makers of ABC could make a lot of money selling their wares to a brainwashed public that was gradually taught that real love didn’t matter - only lots of orgasms.

So, on those rare occasions when I watch a little TV, I see a good looking woman with an average looking man talking about their sexual encounter from the night before. In one case, the man insists it was special. The woman calmly says, “It was just sex,” like using a toilet. So instead of real human love and respect, we have dogs in the alley sex as A-OK.

Throw in gay “marriage” and I think you get the idea. And by the way, sexual purity applies to straights and gays alike.

I think it’s reasonable for the Church to be just a tiny bit more concerned about the sexual activities/purity of people in general, and Catholics in particular.

Peace,
Ed
 
edwest2 said:
I think it’s reasonable for the Church to be just a tiny bit more concerned about the sexual activities/purity of people in general, and Catholics in particular.
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👍

Great post! It’s interesting to hear the play-by-play from somebody who’s actually lived through the entire sexual revolution.
 
When a society establishes new parameters for moral behavior that encourages death and destruction; the only thing that can happen is death and destruction. Our society looks at happiness as being self centered, lazy, irresponsible, and materialistic. Only our society does not call itself by these names, they call it personal rights, earned privilege, needs, and
acceptable behavior. When man takes more than he gives he eventually runs out of the giving and the taking becomes dominant. This taking process produces a flurry of negative behavior that has no positive solution to correct itself. The only way to correct itself is to STOP the taking.
But no one absorbed in this behavior wants it to stop because they THINK that this is true happiness and fulfillment. They wish to turn a blind eye to abortion, sexual abuse, drugs, alcohol, theft, and on and on. Why, because it takes effort and sacrifice and people cannot bear to turn away from their addictive selfish behavior. A life of giving and moderation is not understood. To know God and understand His teaching is so beautiful and soothing to ones
life that those that put forth an effort to follow His ways are truly remarkable. Life is short, be brave in your effort to be morally strong; when you fall (and you will) get up, brush off those sins and look to God for strength, He is there now and always will be with you. Don’t let sin win, destroy it with your strength and love of all that is good. God Bless
 
The imbalance was not caused by the Church but by those who first greatly multiplied the ways we could sin and degrade ourselves.
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This is pretty logical. The Church will necessaroly speak more loudly against a more widespread threat.

Also, the Church will speak more loudly if there are less people willing to condemn an evil act. For sure, other sins and human rights violations are present in the world and the Church still does speak against them. But notice that in the recent decades, the Church seems to devote more time against contraception, abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and other sexual sins. That’s because it appears that the secular world tends to accept them. Unlike murder, rape etc. These are grave evils, but the Church need not to speak loudly against these because countries in general already condemn them so there’s little point to dwell on them.
 
edwest2 said:
The imbalance was not caused by the Church but by those who first greatly multiplied the ways we could sin and degrade ourselves.
Click to expand...
This is pretty logical. The Church will necessaroly speak more loudly against a more widespread threat.

Also, the Church will speak more loudly if there are less people willing to condemn an evil act. For sure, other sins and human rights violations are present in the world and the Church still does speak against them. But notice that in the recent decades, the Church seems to devote more time against contraception, abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and other sexual sins. That’s because it appears that the secular world tends to accept them. Unlike murder, rape etc. These are grave evils, but the Church need not to speak loudly against these because countries in general already condemn them so there’s little point to dwell on them.
 
Sex is pretty basic to human nature, more basic than just about anything else, so it is proper and good to emphasize the proper use of that faculty.
 
MidnightSun12 said:
👍

Great post! It’s interesting to hear the play-by-play from somebody who’s actually lived through the entire sexual revolution.
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You’re welcome. Up until 1968, Catholics were more trusting of our neighbors and our government. I had a lot of great role models growing up. Kids were taught to say please and thank you, to call their elders Mister and Missus, and to help one another. When the Hippies first appeared in our neighborhoods, we welcomed the strangers with their long hair and peace symbols (either sewn onto their jackets or worn on a necklace). “Peace, man!”

Yeah, after the Vietnam War was over, they had nothing else to do but smoke dope and live with their ‘old ladies’ (slang for girlfriend). And they got angry. When dad called and said, “Son, if you love the girl, why don’t you get married? We raised you right so why are you living in sin?”

“Things are different now, dad. We’ve got freedom.” And what was the fruit of it? Living off welfare? Three kids by three different women? Or casual divorce.

ncregister.com/daily-news/the-sexual-revolutions-predictable-results

Peace,
Ed
 
The reasons given about the (what sometimes might seem like) “overemphasis” on purity - because sins against purity are so easy to be tempted toward, because they also can have such wide ranging consequences, and because they deal with the creation of a new soul - have been stated well by previous posters.

But don’t think that other sins have been downgraded as sins because they don’t always get talked about frequently. For instance, look at Bernie Madoff and his family - people who lie, cheat, and steal lose everything in the end. Think of someone you know who has been hurt by malicious gossip. Think how covetousness has driven an economy based on wants rather than needs to the point where people lose their jobs in one country, so that the goods they once manufactured are now made in deplorable conditions by underpaid workers in countries far away - and the profits are pocketed by the fatcats. I could go on and on . . . :rolleyes:

Anyway, the best thing in your situation that I’d recommend is, now that you’ve asked the question, and by the time this thread will have run its course you’ll have a few new insights, is just not to overfocus on the issue of whether it’s fair or unfair or what - just pray and ask God each day for the grace to meet that day’s challenges. :getholy:
 
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