Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Stone Mountain; Coleus
Where did this list originate?

The Bible.

Is it comprehensive?

Yes, according to the Catholic Church. I'm not aware of a diligent search of verses ever turning up other sins that "cry to heaven for vengence."

From the Diocese of LaCrosse website:

The Catholic tradition recognizes four sins that especially arouse God's justice, four sins "that cry to heaven for vengeance." The first sin is the murder of the innocent. After Cain murders Abel, the Lord addresses him saying, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth" (Gen, 4:10). The second is sodomy: "The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous" (Gen, 18:20). The third is oppression of the poor, as we see in the oppression of the Jewish people in Egypt: "Now after a long time the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaning, cried out because of their work, and their cry went up to God from their work" (Exod, 2:23). The fourth is the defrauding of the laborer his wages: "Behold the hire of the laborers, who have reaped down your fields, which by fraud has been kept back by you, cries; and their cry has entered the ears of the Lord of sabaoth" (Jam, 5:4).

Why do these four sins in particular "cry out to God"? These sins strike at the most basic commands of the moral law founded on our human nature. As a living thing, we act to perserve our own life. Hence, the murder of the innocent undermines the duty that we have to protect human life. Next, as animals, we are meant not only to preserve ourselves, but also to perpetuate the species. Hence, sodomy denies the fruitfulness of conjugal love and the intrinsic order of men to women. Finally, because of our rational nature, we are meant to live together in society. The bonds of society are the virtues of justice and mercy. Hence, defrauding the laborer of his wage goes against the virtue of justice, while oppressing the poor violates the works of mercy. All four sins implies a basic rejection of the moral law. ... our rejection of the most basic expression of the moral law invites chastisement in accord with divine justice.

"Vices against nature are also against God, as stated above (ad 1), and are so much more grievous than the depravity of sacrilege, as the order impressed on human nature is prior to and more firm than any subsequently established order." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Pt. II-II, Q. 154, Art. 12, Reply 2)

160 posted on 03/27/2003 12:01:19 PM PST by Hermann the Cherusker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 159 | View Replies ]


To: Hermann the Cherusker
Thanks,
It's funny how the word "sodomy" does not appear in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

http://www.carr.lib.md.us/~meripper/faith/teaching.htm
161 posted on 03/27/2003 5:50:15 PM PST by Coleus (RU-486 Kills Babies)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 160 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson