Is it a sin?

I have asked this question on a couple of Facebook groups but admin don’t seem to approve, so I hope it’s ok to ask here. I am not looking to offend anyone.
I am writing a character who is a religious fanatic (think Carrie White’s mother) and I need a few ideas as to what things this person might consider to be sinful. I already know the ‘big’ ones; sex outside of marriage/worshipping different gods etc (for the record, I see nothing wrong with either of these) but I need more. For example, might wearing revealing clothing or flaunting your wealth be considered a sin by someone with such extreme views?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Everything is a sin.

Talking back? A sin.
Crying? A sin.
Vanity? À sin
Eating too much? Gluttony, which is a sin.


My grandmother said i had the devil in me because i was argumentative and not very docile like a girl "should" be.

You've got the field wide open with this one....

 

Like JT said, when you have someone with extreme views like that, anything is fair game for being sinful.

The more ridiculous the sin sounds, the more fanatical the person doing the judging. You could browse the Old Testament for some doozies (one I think is wearing different fabrics at the same time? I dunno, it's been a while), and that one always made me scratch my head. Of course, those sins are written in the context of the time in which they appear, so applying them to modern times is where it gets even more interesting for those who live and die by the Bible in the most destructive of ways.

There are some decent people who live and die by the Bible, so I'm not out to bash anyone's beliefs. The ones who take it to the extreme and make it fit their own doctrine are the ones I stay away from.

 

Agreed with the above. Given the character, it's not about whether it's an actual ratified sin or not. It's about how the character creates and follows a thread of ideation to its ultimate (for the character) conclusion of sin. This character will have turned petitio principii into an artform.

 

.......

 

Check out the ten commandments and then think of how your character would apply those to life inside your story. But right there is the foundation, and you could generate quite the list of sins based off of those.

 

Modesty and a rejection of earthly wealth are both emphasized in the Bible--the latter very heavily in the Gospels and Pauline Epistles--so you'll find many normal believers who consider "revealing" clothing or excessive wealth to be sinful. But they and extremists will differ on what constitutes "revealing/immodest" clothing or "flaunting" wealth.

For example, a friend of mine was forbidden from wearing shorts by his mother and stepfather, both members of a church which had splintered off of the more moderate Southern Baptist Convention. Boys always had to wear pants, and girls always had to wear ankle-length skirts. Anything less was sinful. Meanwhile, his Southern Baptist grandparents had no problem with shorts or *GASP* girls and women wearing pants.

 

Primitive Baptist Church? I knew quite a few of these folk when I worked in Marietta, GA.

 

Anyone can use anything to justify their actions/hatred, a person doesn't need religion for that. Although many do hide behind it.

Whatever is perceived to take away power/authority from the character in question can be seen as a sin in such a mind deluded as theirs.

 

In practice, the religious have difficulty justifying specific actions as sinful. Some Bible references can be made for some but when the issue of overlooking similar rules is raised, the religious are short on answers. Generally, fundamentalist Christians have a perception of a perfect life which they aspire to (the higher standards of God) although they struggle to define this. Anything which they think falls short of that perfection is perceived as sinful. This includes pretty much anything they wouldn't be comfortable doing in the church.

 

In my grandmothers small rural southern town.... It was sinful to even KNOW about birth.

My mom told me she visited relatives, and one woman was pregnant. So my mom says to her cousin "your moms going to have a baby!" And her cousin looks at her horrified and says "how do you know?" .... My mom was 10 and dumbfounded. The other women at church scolded my grandmother saying it was unholy of her to teach my mom this and that girls shouldnt know about where babies came from.
My grandma argued that how was my mom supposed to know? Its not immaculate conception.
The ladies werent happy and didn't want their daughters around my mom.
...hence why i had the "birds and the bees" talk WELL before Sex Education in school...

 

#Catholics

(ETA- i grew up catholic. Grew up with the knowledge stereotype that Catholics don't believe in birth control)

 

Maybe. I don't think I ever caught the name of their denomination or the specific church they went to, but the views seem to line up.

 

Thank you, these are really helpful. What a long list, and so contradictory. Enjoy hell, looks like I’ll see you there.

 

My mother-in-law truly believed it was a sin to have a good time. By 'have a good time,' she meant enjoying herself. She did penance every time we went out for a nice meal, etc. She did enjoy herself, but felt she shouldn't have done. She turned this on herself and not on others, which made her fine to live with—in fact she had a great sense of humour, and we had a lot of laughs—but imagine not being able to go out to a relative's home for a nice cooked meal without feeling you have to come home and literally do penance for it! (She was Catholic, although this is a very Calvinistic attitude, in my opinion. I was raised in the frequent company of very devoutly Catholic relatives of my own, and they certainly didn't subscribe to this kind of thing. I don't know where she got this notion, to be honest.)

 

You could also look (treading a fine line, I have no antisemitic intent here) at some of the religious laws that the ultraorthodox Jews follow. I know that not working on the Sabbath, even to light a light, is a big thing. There's also a rule about not going outside on the Sabbath that is skirted by means of a length of fishing line. Again, their faith, their rules, but they do have quite a few more rules than I grew up with in a church that looked and acted suspiciously like the one in The Simpsons.

 

How one-dimensional or complex do you want this character? Do you want there to be any reason/logic behind this character's thinking, or you're just looking for extremes?

Best way to determine whether something is a sin is attach a moral value to it.

Wearing revealing clothes is a sin - why? Because it tempts other people to lust after you. Lust is sin, and tempting someone else to sin is a sin in itself.
Swearing is a sin - why? Because it is unrighteous anger.
Talking back at your parents is a sin - why? Because it is not honouring your mother and father.

Or if you look at the Bible, there's plenty such cases even in the Gospels. The Pharisees were furious with Jesus for healing people on the Sabbath. A sin is usually an action that breaks a rule deemed to be holy. The Lord commanded no work is to be done during the Sabbath and people should rest. So healing is work, hence a sin on the Sabbath. But God's Laws were meant to show us the way and be liberating - the whole point is it should have freed people so they can now do good. Instead, the Pharisees used the Law to shackle the Jews.

Aaaanyway, you don't have to look far for inspiration. Have a gander at purity culture - hugging the opposite sex could potentially be a sin. Kissing before marriage could be a sin. All these things were regarded as "tempting the other and yourself into sin", hence considered a sin in and of itself.

It's late, but I'm a Christian - my mum likes to joke I've been going to church since before I was born because she was going to church already when she was pregnant with me lol. Mum's a pastor, sister's a priest, and I'm literally the only one in the immediate family (my own husband and my sister's husband included) who has not preached in church. My dad's preached many times. My brother-in-law a few times. Even my own husband's preached at an informal service once lol. I was part of a hugely evangelical Baptist church that did street evangelism, was friends with a street evangelist to the Jews, and have been to a few more charismatic branches of church. Currently we're part of an international church.

My word, those who don't know me must think I'm a complete fanatic Anyway I know the logic behind this stuff quite well. But to be honest, anything could be turned into a sin if you want to twist things. The question is really more what you wanna do with the character.

 

What acts specifically are considered to be sins isn't really at the heart of the issue, it's the legalistic attitude. There's a lack of grace and compassion in a lot of fundamentalist denominations (by which I mean those that only read the King Jimmy because it's what Paul used, etc.) that is unbiblical, a lack of focus on the grace and compassion of God, and an immoderate emphasis on works. They perhaps don't recognize the fact that sin is not so much the breaking of arbitrary rules as it is an attitude of the heart. So if you want to nail the character, focus on the Pharisaical legalism.

 

Well, as a Catholic person myself (though I'm not at all fundamentalist), the biggest thing that seems to sum up a ton of the sins is perceived idolatry. If the character finds themselves wanting to travel, seeing nice places has become an idol in their life, and they need to turn to God instead. That's just an example, though - this can apply to pretty much anything that's not absolutely necessary to survive. The character wants to read books? Idol! The character wants to have a living space bigger than a studio apartment? Idol! The character wants to have nice clothes and look nice? Beauty is an idol in their lives, and they need to pray and do penance! You get the idea.

 

THIS! i took an "interpreting the bible" class in college. Grandma was not impressed. She says "why do you need to take that class? All you need to do is pray and the Lord will give you all the answers you need"

I said i wanted to read and learn a bit more and she says "your only teacher is God. You dont need no one else telling you what the Lord says"

.....it took all my strength not to say "then why do you go to church just to sit there and listen to someone else tell you what the Lord says?"

But yes, i agree with the idols part!

 

I had a roommate in college whose family was from a very conservative church, so here are a few that I remember:

1. Everyone else who is not a member of their church(and there are a grand total of 3) are pagans and going to hell.
2. No gold jewelry as wearing it is flaunting wealth(but they would allow wearing platinum which is more expensive then gold, so very word of the law vs spirit).
3. Men and woman do not mingle (so him and his girlfriend were not allowed to drive home from college together even though lived in same town, they had to find other people to go with)(of course they were nt allowed to be dating either but they ignored that).
4. The point of dating is to decide on marriage(but only should date for 3 months before getting married).
5. Birth control is a big no-no.
6. Drinking/smoking were frowned on.