This just in...

Sin is bad for you. Really.

Some time ago I told the good people of St. Elias "Go ahead and sin, do whatever you want, and if you're actually alive in six months you'll be very miserable." I didn't want them, or me, to actually put that into practice, of course, but I wanted to make a point. The stuff the Tradition of our Faith calls "sin" can really wipe you out, physicially, spiritually, emotionally, financially, your choice.

Don't believe me? Underlying this whole financial mess we're in right now is not the market but sin. People got greedy. People wanted what their neighbors had. People ignored the rules because they wanted theirs. Look where it got us. Things like what we're experiencing now are the blowback of moral failure, yours, mine, and ours. Nobody wants to talk about that dimension, of course, because ideas like "sin" are considered medieval and primitive but in all the debates about stimulus packages and economic changes morality is the elephant in the kitchen. None of it will matter if people don't relearn a simple principle, "Thou shalt not steal."

The great irony of our time may be that the recovery of our economy, our culture, our health, and our general welfare may depend not on some new technological acheivement and certainly not by the fiat of this government or that but by the recovery of the conciousness of sin, in ourselves, our culture, and the world. If we can recover that, and it normally takes a tremendous amount of pain to get the average person (myself included) to face this, then we're on the road to health. If not, then all, for now, may be lost.