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tion". We are miserly when it comes to sharing food with others that are poor in this country. And as our "faith-based" government cuts food stamps for the poor while giving tax breaks for the extremely wealthy, it is clear that this sin is another real problem for this government.
"Avarice (covetousness, greed) -- A desire to possess more than one has need or use for (or, according to Dante, "excessive love of money and power")."
Who can deny that greed runs roughshod over our country? So often we've been told that we live in the richest country in the world, yet too many people in our country have very little. Others seem to have more than enough but still have an overriding desire for more, more, more. Here it is clear that the morality of the Right is upside-down. Believing that wealth and power comes from God, they have lost sight of the fact that it is not wealth nor power that makes one whole with God, but how we care for the poor, the sick and those who have little.
"Sloth (also accidie, acedia) -- Laziness; idleness and wastefulness of time allotted. Laziness is condemned because:
Others have to work harder
It is disadvantageous for oneself, because useful work does not get done
It, like gluttony, is a sin of waste, for it wastes time, implicitly due to pride
An equilibrium: one does not produce much, but one does not need much either (in Dante's theology, sloth is the "failure to love God with all one's heart, all one's mind, and all one's soul" - specific examples including laziness, cowardice, lack of imagination, complacency, and irresponsibility)."
For people distracted by the media circus, understanding and acting on our roles as citizens is given short shrift. Who can deny that we no longer do the hard work of working with others in our communities to create a more humane and compassionate society? We are hardened against the trials of others. Yet, there is more than enough honorable work for all if we were to focus on what we could do to improve our society. One consequence would be that people tend to believe their work is worth the effort when they are involved in actions and activities that have real value (such as cleaning up our neighborhoods, teaching children the love of reading, participating in our own city governments).
"Wrath (anger, hate) -- Inappropriate (unrighteous) feelings of hatred, revenge or even denial, as well as punitive desires outside of justice (Dante's description was "love of justice perverted to revenge and spite")."
When our answer to challenges and attacks is anger and revenge, we diminish ourselves. The torture that has been done as part of Bush's war on terror is clearly an offshoot of too much anger and hatred. And now we see how our military and our country's reputation have both been damaged by the actions of our Government.
"Envy (jealousy) -- Resentment of others for their possessions (Dante: "Love of one's own good perverted to a desire to deprive other men of theirs")."
The politics of resentment is one of the nastier parts of our current political climate. How much of the anger directed toward Bush after Katrina by those from his base was based on the misdirected envy that the poor have gotten too much from our country? Indeed, today too much of the power of the right has gotten has been based on targeting the poor as the cause of their own problems.
"Pride (vanity) -- A desire to be important or attractive to others or excessive love of self (holding self out of proper position toward God or fellows; Dante's definition was "love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor"). In the Latin lists of the Seven Deadly Sins, pride is referred to as superbia. In Jacob Bidermann's mediaeval miracle play Cenodoxus - superbia is the deadliest of all the sins, and led directly to the damnation of the famed Doctor of Paris, Cenodoxus."
Here the early Christians judged pride as being the worst of the deadly sins. In this they agreed with the Greeks who believed that the gods would destroy those who put themselves up as gods. Indeed, the worst sin that Lucifer was guilty of was the sin of overweening pride. Pride of what we have accomplished can be tipped into blaming others for their failure to not do the same. Furthermore, being too full of ourselves, we cannot and do not listen to those who are affected by our edicts and actions. Those who reek of self-righteousness (it's my way or the highway) set themselves up for the sin of hubris. And it is the sin of pride that makes fundamentalist Christian Right preachers believe that God only speaks to them.
What does it mean to have moral values? It means understanding the frailties of our human nature and working hard to overcome the temptations that trap us into slighting our obligation to love our neighbors as ourselves. Today, the self-proclaimed owners of morality fail the test when it comes to practicing moral values.
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