The "ick" factor. . .

The sins that trouble us in others are usually those that trouble us in ourselves.  It is almost a relief to know that others wrestle with them and that we are not unusual in that regard.  It is a comfort that is false for instead of glorying in the forgiveness that cleanses us from all our sin, we glory in the fact that we are "normal" sinners.   How odd that is!

The sins we talk about most are the ones that have some level of the "ick" factor.  We talk about the things that we could never imagine ourselves doing.  These are the worst sins in our minds.  So if we find homosexuality repulsive, we will talk about homosexuality as if it were the worst because we could never imagine ourselves doing it.  Pedophiles, trans, bestiality, and a host of other behaviors and desires are singled out for the greatest condemnation because of that "ick" factor.  Who would do that?  Not anyone in their right mind, for sure.

Somehow this has translated into a hierarchy of sins judged not according to Biblical standards or even by those affected by these sins but rather a judgment of the "ick" factor.  These sins are the worst because I cannot understand why anyone would do them and neither could I ever imagine doing them myself.  We read Scripture into this judgment and so God becomes, in our minds, a willing accomplice to and a supported of our shock at these distasteful desires and acts.  Sin becomes like foods we would never try.  We would never eat them so they must be bad, terrible tasting, and sickening.  I know about this aspect since I grew up on a farm eating parts of the critters that were never put into styrofoam meat trams and sold in supermarkets.  Ick, indeed.

That is not really how sin operates.  God has not found something bad because He finds them "icky" but judges all sins as evil.  Sure, He notes the consequences of some sins are decidedly personal and do not affect others while other sins always do.  The sin is a sin is a sin -- from the ones which are our personal favorites and we could see everyone doing to the ones we have trouble imagining anyone doing.  We do not need to be saved from the awful and inconceivable sins that we could never imagine ourselves doing but we surely need to be saved from the sins which have become friends and even part of our family because they are so familiar to us.  Disgusting sins are not our biggest problems but the sins that come too easy to us are.

I find that my sins are a problem even more because I do not really consider them to be so bad while the sins of others are not a problem for me because I could never see myself getting caught up in them.  So I spend too much time trying to sort out the "icky" ones from the reasonable if wrong ones.  That is an even worse problem.  God does not ask us how bad our sins are because He find some more distasteful than others but calls out from us the secret and familiar sins we are not sure are so bad and are surely not bad enough that we would ever have to give them up cold turkey.

Having spend much of my life hearing confessions and making my own confession to a father confessor, I know how easy it is to get caught up in the pursuit of this triviality and how hard it is to lament within me the sins that have become my go to behaviors in stress, anger, or leisure times.  To say you are a sinner is to admit the easy sins which you struggle to see as wrong and to strive to give them up.  I wish I knew this sooner.  Think of all the time I could have saved trying to make sure I would not commit the sins I knew I probably would never do and think of all the time I could have spent working on the sins which have become my buddy along the way.