Sticks and Stones

The Seven Deadly Sins is a 5 part series by Leo Davidson in which he analyses the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins, adding his blasphemous and probably heretical commentary along the way.

4. Acedia. Another of my favourite virtues, “Sloth” : I hope you’ll forgive me if I wax Marxist on this one. Clearly a device to control the masses by keeping them busy so that they don’t organise or, what’s worse, educate themselves, the Church attaches a punishment of eternal damnation to the concept of rest. While it is the Marxist vision to be emancipated from toil, so that man can cease to be alienated from his humanity, this doctrine has the obvious intent of keeping the worker at the level of chattel. That is, however, only one interpretation. To go back to Aquinas, Acedia can be defined as “uneasiness of the mind”, which sounds rather Orwellian to me, as does Dante’s interpretation as “failure to love God with all one’s heart, all one’s mind and all one’s soul”. One final alternative is that it refers to the failure to fulfill one’s potential through laziness, although if that is the case then all are guilty of it, and either way it certainly isn’t deserving of eternal damnation. I would argue that whichever one of these you subscribe to, this “sin” is inexcusable.

5. Ira. Wrath. What exactly is wrong with being angry? This is another result of another ridiculous Christian tenet: that of “resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39), and the even more immoral “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (ibid. 5:44). This is unmitigated nonsense, undermines all sense of morality and justice and again makes a mortal sin out of the natural instinct of a creature supposedly created in the image of God. Persecution and oppression should be met with not just anger, but with outrage and preventative action.

Click here for the whole series.