“Sin is its own punishment and righteousness its own reward.”
American Priest Matthew Fox came to believe that religion teaches fear: “A devastating psychological corollary of the fall/redemption tradition is that religion with original sin as its starting point, and religion built exclusively around sin and redemption, does not teach trust. Such religion does not teach trust of existence or of body or of society or of creativity or of the cosmos. It teaches both consciously and unconsciously, verbally and non-verbally, fear.”[i]
Religions tell us we must believe in “sin.” But the moment we choose to believe in the specter of sin we begin to look for the sinners which creates an abundance of fear and mistrust within our communities. Paranoia and fear often reach a fever pitch in religious organizations, such as The Family Research Council. It “is getting away with violating the civil rights of many Americans that it seeks to segregate, vilify and label the other. The beliefs and values of this organization, that it says represents Judeo-Christian values, in fact, do not. This organization, this cancer, which seeks to sow discord and disorder within the American community, is a terrorist organization that should face the surgical procedures of the American legal system. The sooner the better.”[ii]
“The dictionary defines a sinner as one who has ‘transgressed a religious or moral law, especially when deliberate.’ Deliberate sinning would have to imply that the sinner was conscious of what he/she was doing. … Those who live in the present moment [P-A] know that so-called sin is only an unconscious reaction to a stimulus involving craving and/or aversion. Or to express it another way, we are seeking security, sensation and power in P-B and behaving more like mesmerized rats in a maze rather than self-aware human beings.”[iii]
“We can choose behavior that produces an undesirable effect in our lives, thus creating hardship or suffering. In other words, we are punished by our sins, not for them.”[iv] (Emphasis added)
Insight # 36 comes to us from Ernest Holmes (1887-1960) an American author, teacher and leader. He was the founder of the spiritual movement known as Religious Science, part of the greater New Thought movement whose spiritual philosophy is known as “The Science of Mind.”
“We wish to make it clear that there is no sin but a mistake, and no punishment but an inevitable consequence. Sin is its own punishment and righteousness its own reward.”[v]
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Additional Reading:
- Sin, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
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[i] Fox, Matthew. Original Blessings. Santa Fe: Bear and Company, 1983, p. 82.
[ii] Rutten, Tim. “Under a cloak of religion.” The Denver Post. December 5, 2010.
[iii] Henry, Roy Charles. “Saints and Sinners.” The ABC’s Of Simple Reality, Vol 2. May 2018, p. 187.
[iv] https://www.agapespiritualcenter.com/ufaqs/does-the-science-of-mind-believe-in-sin/
[v] Holmes, Ernest. The Science of Mind. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1938, p. 110.
