Men and women sin in different ways

BBC:

A Catholic survey found that the most common sin for women was pride, while for men, the urge for food was only surpassed by the urge for sex.

The report was based on a study of confessions carried out by Fr Roberto Busa, a 95-year-old Jesuit scholar. The Pope's personal theologian backed up the report in the Vatican newspaper.

Msgr Giertych said the most difficult sin for men to face was lust, followed by gluttony, sloth, anger, pride, envy and greed. For women, the most dangerous sins were pride, envy, anger, lust, and sloth, he added.

The survey on a self-reported sins so there may be a bias in the results.

The Scotsman's Fiona MacGregor talked with four men about the report.

See also Slate's look at indulgences.

Posted by John B. Chilton on February 18, 2009 6:43 PM | |
Comments (3)

I find this report the typical result of RC emphasis on sin for women who assert themselves. Keep them down by telling them they have no self worth and identifying it as a sin if they feel worthy.

Posted by ann [TypeKey Profile Page] | February 18, 2009 8:11 PM

From Elspeth Liberty
A 95 year old Jesuit huh? Still we have the 7 deadly sins?

To quote from an essay I wrote a couple of years ago:

It was the groundbreaking work of Saivings and Plaskow which started the conversation about sin from a feminist viewpoint. These women realized that sin as presented by Niebuhr, Nygren and Tillich was different to women’s experience of sin. Sin was defined as pride and will-to-power; as man trying to overcome fear for survival and its attendant anxieties with “power, righteousness, or knowledge”. For men, they stated, sin’s ultimate focus is individual power and status and the dehumanization and objectification of others. (Christ and Plaskow, 1979:25)

Saivings tells of how, as her theological studies progressed, she became less convinced that theologians used the term “man” in a generic sense. She came to see theology was invariably done from a male perspective that claimed universal truth. (Christ and Plaskow, 1979:25) However, this was not the reality for many women; powerlessness, submission, self humiliation and subordination were their lived experience. (McDougall, 2004:215-216)

They (women’s sin) are better suggested by such items as triviality, distractibility, and diffuseness, lack of an organizing centre of focus, dependence on others for one’s own self-definition; tolerance at the expense of standards of excellence; inability to respect the boundaries of privacy; sentimentality; gossipy sociability, and mistrust of reason – in short, underdevelopment or negation of the self. (Christ and Plaskow, 1979:37)

As is often the case there is another side to this. All of these qualities can have wonderful benefits in child raising, nurturing friendships and dealing with the never ending minutiae of homemaking and childrearing. (Christ and Plaskow, 1979:37)

Posted by ann [TypeKey Profile Page] | February 19, 2009 12:05 AM

Thomas Hilton in his Ladder of Perfection identified pride as the first sin, from which all the others are generated. So, lust ("I have a right to that person"), gluttony ("I have a right to that commodity"), anger and envy ("I have a right to that property, that characteristic, and consequently you don't") are all simply expressions of pride.

I'm not a woman, and can't speak to that experience; but as a man I'd put pride up front for us.

Marshall Scott

Posted by mscottsail [TypeKey Profile Page] | February 19, 2009 10:29 AM

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