Quotes

Brian Warner once said: Initially I was drawn into the darker side of life. But it's really just human nature. I started to learn that everything that's considered a sin is what makes you a human being. All the seven deadly sins are man's true nature—to be greedy, to be hateful, to have lust. Of course you have to control them; but if you're made to feel guilty for being human, then you're going to be trapped in a never-ending sin-and-repent cycle that you can't escape from, and you're going to be miserable. Ultimately you'll be living in your own hell. So there's no need to worry about going to hell, because hell will be on earth. Now, I don't agree with everything Brian Warner says—you might know him as Marilyn Manson—but he says a couple of interesting things. He says there's a certain naturalness to sin. He says feeling guilty for being human can lead to misery. He talks about a cycle of sin and shame many of us know something about. He's right when he says you have to learn to control sin even though it feels so natural. I think he's wrong in what he says about having hell on earth, because there are a lot of ways to experience a hell on earth. One is to be plagued by guilt and shame for sin, to live in what he called a never-ending cycle of sin and shame, but the other is to fail to control sin, to let sin take over your life or take over our culture and our world.


source: Brian McLaren, "Sin 101: Why Sin Matters," Preaching Today #243 tags: Sin, Temptation

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