Sin Makes You Stupid…and Violent

Last updated on: March 1, 2016 at 8:58 am by Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Sin Makes You Stupid…and Violent 2016-03-01T08:58:01-05:00 Fr. Dwight Longenecker

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

bald angry guy One of Mark Shea’s memorable (if not eloquent) quotes is “Sin Makes You Stupid.”

It’s another way of echoing St Paul’s wisdom in the first chapter of his epistle to the Romans

1 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Notice in this passage that, because of sin “their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Later he says, “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie” and “God gave them over to a depraved mind.”

Why are Americans tumbling headlong into the worship of a lying, lecherous, crooked Tiberius on the one hand and a scheming, ambitious, corrupt and lying Livia on the other?

Because sin has made us stupid. Sin blinds us. Why? Because first we start lying to ourselves. We justify our sins. We say they don’t matter. We say they aren’t really sins. When we lie to ourselves we believe our own lies and then we will very easily believe the lies of others. Donald Trump and the Clintons have been caught out in lie after lie, but we don’t mind because we lie all the time. We have chosen what we want to believe according to what is comfortable and not according to what is true. Therefore when someone comes along and tells us a lie that makes us comfortable for a moment, or makes us feel strong or makes us feel superior we swallow it hook, line and sinker.

For fifty years Americans have indulged in sexual immorality, abortion, war, murder, graft, corruption, abuse of the poor, sodomy, child abuse, alcoholism, drug addiction….and the list could go on. For the most part we’ve turned a blind eye. We’ve excused ourselves and excused others in the name of a weak kind of tolerance. Consequently, as a nation we are blind and stupid because sin makes you stupid.

Here is where it gets really scary. Stupid we can deal with. Stupid is just stupid and stupid seems harmless, but stupid doesn’t stay just stupid for long. Sin Stupid soon become violent. It’s there in the passage from Romans, “They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.”

Sin makes you first stupid and then violent because the sinfully stupid, deep down, feel guilty. They are unhappy. They are miserable, and because they are miserable and because they are stupid and because they are sinful they would never think to blame themselves for their own unhappiness. Instead they must blame others, and this is where it gets ugly.

When they blame others for their problems they must eventually do something about it. They must get rid of the problem to be happy, and if the problem is another person or another group of people or another nation, then they must first exclude, then isolate and then exterminate the problem, and thus the violence.

“It’s the white man’s fault. Kill the whites. It’s the black man’s fault. Kill the blacks. Its the homosexuals. Its women. Its men. Its Mexicans. Its Muslims. Its Jews. Its Catholics. Its Mormons.”

You name it. It almost doesn’t matter. The stupidly sinful will always, in the end, turn violent.

That’s why when Trump says “Take the guy out! I wanna punch him in the face!”

America cheers.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 28, 2016

Pippin and Providence

Next Post

March 1, 2016 Homily Podcast - The Joy of Being Wrong

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anglican Matters Apologetics Architecture Blobble Study Book Reviews Brideshead Caitlin O'Rourke Catholic Art Catholic Culture Church Politics Chust for Nice Contemporary Culture Duane Mandible Ed Blanch Film Reviews Fr Harvey Nicolaitan Frank Viola Mantilla the Hon More Christianity Mrs Brady Catholic Old Lady Mystery of the Magi Norman Anderson Queen Hillary Saints and Supernatural Spirituality The Inklings The Vicar Theology Todd Unctuous Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz