thread: 2005-08-05 : Going Home
On 2005-08-09, Ninja Monkey J wrote:
[... The blog went down while I was writing this continuation, so it doesn't address what V just said.]
T., in my Book, the point of Akedat Yitzchak is that Abraham can't handle the responsibility and does what God says while neglecting his ethics. It may not have been the will of God to sacrifice Yitzchak, but it was sure Avraham's. So you'd think if he's passed the test, he wouldn't return home to find his wife dead.
Vincent, which are you saying is the sin: the things Mormonism stands against, or its relationship to you? Are you saying you've given up sin, or that Mormonism's rejections of sinful activities makes it unable to be redeemed?
I'm sorry if there's something I'm missing about this; I need some interreligious translation of "sin". For me, I think "sin" means something else, and I'm not sure what it is. If it means not following any of the 613 commandments, no one's doing that, because so many require the existence of the Temple; we've learned to get along without it, and without them, so the remaining ones are both more interesting and more flexible, I think. When it comes down to "I am Lord, your God, have no other gods before me" and the other nine, I'm OK with that. They're rules setting down the fundamentals of the religious philosophy and how to build a society: don't worship things, don't kill each other, don't lie and steal, don't let possessions get in the middle of your relationships." I'm cool not sinning with those. Then there are other things like "Don't cheat your workers. Don't make promises you can't keep." Those are pretty awesome, too.
Then, sometimes, it says things like "Stone homosexuals to death." Now, irrespective of whether or not that was ever actually done, there's a lot of debate and weirdness about that kind of thing. I mean, the other ones above are rules of conduct where relationships, from personal to business, are at stake. Men having sex with men doesn't get in the way of that. I think it has more to do with "Don't become part of the people around you." Hence, "Don't eat pigs, wear jewelry, or trim your beards like the Sumerians," than actual sexual practices. If that's the case, then dressing in jeans, shaving at all, and wearing baseball caps should be out.
But I don't think that's what you're talking about. Fill me in here, man.
This makes MB go "Sin..."
A bunch of years back,Vincent and I hashed out what a working definition of 'sin' might be. We came up with 2 that I remember: wasting meat without cooking and eating any of it, and bad sex (forced in any way or just stupid lame sex). Vincent, do you remember any others?
