New Sins

I don't have much in common with traditional religion, and Catholicism and I are even less likely to reach an understanding anytime soon. However, I like to give credit where it is due, and there are aspects of Catholicism that I've come to respect over the years.

I appreciated Pope John Paul II's acknowledgment that modern evolutionary theory was well supported by evidence. I've also respected the Vatican's stand against torture, war, and the death penalty.

This last weekend, Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, who is apparently the Vatican's number two (reminding me of the question, "Who does Number Two work for?") told the faithful that they should be aware of NEW sins!

The one that impressed me was the sin of committing an "ecological" offense, such as pollution. This comes as a relief to me as it seems that many conservative Christian denominations view God's statement that man has "dominion" over the Earth as a pass to do with it as we wish, consequence be damned.

It's a nice contrast to Ann Coulter's quote:

"The ethic of conservation is the explicit abnegation of man's dominion over the Earth. The lower species are here for our use. God said so: Go forth, be fruitful, multiply, and rape the planet — it's yours. That's our job: drilling, mining and stripping. Sweaters are the anti-Biblical view. Big gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars — that's the Biblical view."

She's fun.