que pasa

The Vatican has put together a list of seven "social" sins as follows:
1. 'Bioethical' violations such as birth control
2. 'Morally dubious' experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty
(Original article here)

The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth.

In one of the early chapters of "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hussein (which is a pretty good book by the way), one of the characters' father tells his son, with regards to what he's learning in religious school,

'"No matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. Do you understand that?"

'"When you kill a man, you steal a life… You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob a children of his father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?"'

I can see the logic to that actually, and I think that perspective could be used to interpret the seven deadly sins. I don't quite feel that it is all encompassing though, but good enough for a general rule of thumb.

One thing I have realized is that my position on what constitutes sin is now grey. I can't see things in black and white anymore. As much as the church would like things to be clear, it's very hard to have such high moral standing when life in the commercial world has so many complications.

I've done my share of grey things so I do not have the right to judge. I hate calling sin "sin" because it makes me sound and feel "holier-than-thou" when I’m not. I suppose the solution would be to not participate in grey activities but I realize that in my line of work at where I am, it's impossible. So maybe, you say, I should get out of this job altogether. But that brings us full circle to why I'm here in the first place.

So I'm keeping my eyes focused on my exit, I must keep plugging at it.