OSaD, D79

I grew as a Catholic. Christians' relationship to sin is a difficult one. I see it in the displays of virtuosity that I see in so many of them. Public Christian figures pretend that they don't sin and love to dole out self-righteousness to the rest of us.

Both parishioners and the priest class are terrified of being labeled as sinners.

I think that fear of hell is part of the reason. But a closer form of hell is isolation. Christians, just like everybody else, dread loosing their community.

This is causing a neurosis that's affecting people's mental health in palpable ways. The person who shoot eight people in Atlanta on March 16 is an extreme example. The dogmas of the church are hurting Christians and our society.