4 ms·

I think you are conflating succumbing to a vice (eg porn) and orienting your life around an identity (eg poly)

CobrastanJorji 3y ago
Interestingly, Catholicism sees the former (doing the bad thing but agreeing that it is bad and that you should stop) as pretty normal, but the latter (deciding the thing is okay) as heresy, the sort of thing that could get you the bell, book, and candle.
- paulddraper 3y ago
  Yes. This is the Christian concept of faith and grace. "For by grace you have been saved through faith." Because of Christ's grace, your belief is sufficient even if your acts are not.
  - tasuki 3y ago
    I don't understand what you're saying. Don't you find it weird that doing the bad thing but agreeing that it is bad is... okay, while deciding the thing is okay is... heresy?
    - true_religion 3y ago
      I don’t find it weird. If we acknowledge that people are imperfect, then everyone should understand they will fall short of their own moral standards.
    - xyzelement 3y ago
      It seems logical. Analogy: I want to be healthy but I am imperfect so I will end up over eating or skipping my workout. Versus: I embrace being unhealthy and fat as part of my identity. In one, you try to be better but aren't always successful. In the other, you've embraced the bad.
  - barrysteve 3y ago
    beliefs control acts. otherwise you're <insert name of belief>, in name only. mercy and justice are apprioriate outcomes for breaking the rules, not just 'yolo whatever i believe so everything is permitted'.
    - paulddraper 3y ago
      That's also true. There what someone believes, and what someone says they believe. People are (ought to be) in state of continual improvement.
      - selfhoster11 3y ago
        To complicate things, there's then "being a hypocrite as a preliminary stage of changing oneself". If I know a behaviour is condemned by my principles/faith and yet I still do it, then so long I am working towards change, I'm still resisting that thing, it's... well, not all good, for sure, but it's something. And you can work with that.

Interestingly, Catholicism sees the former (doing the bad thing but agreeing that it is bad and that you should stop) as pretty normal, but the latter (deciding the thing is okay) as heresy, the sort of thing that could get you the bell, book, and candle.

paulddraper 3y ago
Yes. This is the Christian concept of faith and grace. "For by grace you have been saved through faith." Because of Christ's grace, your belief is sufficient even if your acts are not.
- tasuki 3y ago
  I don't understand what you're saying. Don't you find it weird that doing the bad thing but agreeing that it is bad is... okay, while deciding the thing is okay is... heresy?
  - true_religion 3y ago
    I don’t find it weird. If we acknowledge that people are imperfect, then everyone should understand they will fall short of their own moral standards.
  - xyzelement 3y ago
    It seems logical. Analogy: I want to be healthy but I am imperfect so I will end up over eating or skipping my workout. Versus: I embrace being unhealthy and fat as part of my identity. In one, you try to be better but aren't always successful. In the other, you've embraced the bad.
- barrysteve 3y ago
  beliefs control acts. otherwise you're <insert name of belief>, in name only. mercy and justice are apprioriate outcomes for breaking the rules, not just 'yolo whatever i believe so everything is permitted'.
  - paulddraper 3y ago
    That's also true. There what someone believes, and what someone says they believe. People are (ought to be) in state of continual improvement.
    - selfhoster11 3y ago
      To complicate things, there's then "being a hypocrite as a preliminary stage of changing oneself". If I know a behaviour is condemned by my principles/faith and yet I still do it, then so long I am working towards change, I'm still resisting that thing, it's... well, not all good, for sure, but it's something. And you can work with that.