by Sarah Grace Perkins
In seventh grade I had religion class almost everyday for the entire school year. Almost every class was taught by the seventh grade homeroom teacher with the dullest C.C.D. book available and the very rare opening of the Bible itself. When we did open the Bible it was for independently looking up an entire list of scripture we were given. To this day I can not remember a single verse of scripture I had to look up, and I remember needing to look up hundreds. Almost every class seemed to be like this, except for the class on Mondays.
On Mondays Father Steve one of the two resident priests at the parish would come in and teach us the rules, laws, and finer points of becoming a better Catholic.
One day he decided it was time for us to learn exactly what makes a sin a sin. There are in fact three parts or rather requirements for what makes a sin a sin but I can only clearly remember one of the requirements, without a shred of doubt.
Requirement #1 for what makes a true and honest to Him sin is that, “You must know or believe what you have done is seriously wrong”
Now I have to admit that at the time of this lesson I was very much an Atheist very unhappy with my current circumstances of being stuck in a place that practically forced me to believe values and a faith I did not believe. So I just shrugged off the day’s pearl of wisdom as I did every other day in religion class.
But today I struggle with accepting the first part of what makes a sin a sin because many Christians are even conflicted on what is a sin. Even overlooking what some would consider an easy thing to determine, what a certain act must contain to make it an actual sin.
The part I get tripped up on other than the fact that there are actual requirements for a sin to be so is the “know” part. Even trying to define the word know or knowledge is like defining “normal” or “intelligent”. No matter what Mr. Noah Webster and all those other dictionary people say, “know” or rather, “knowledge” has a different definition to everyone.
So let’s break down the “know” part as I see it, and even I don’t see it one way.
I could know something was wrong because I was told it, but that doesn’t always mean I believe it also, or even understand it. So does that mean if I was told something was wrong and I do it does that mean I have sinned. Or when it is said, “You must know or believe,” there is really more emphasis on the believe part. Meaning that when you fully believe something we truly know it is or isn’t wrong we can clearly not sin because we will not do those wrong things which we consider sins.
That’s just my thoughts. What do you think?
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