Sin has both a personal and a social dimension; and the two are interrelated. One of the tasks of Latin American liberation theology is the analysis of the structures of marginalization that inflict misery and hopelessness on the people of that continent.
Social structures are not conscious agents and so they cannot sin in any literal sense. But since they have causal effect through the choices made by persons within them, they can be described as sinful when the restrictions, enablements, and incentives those persons encounter encourage morally evil actions.
Seven Social Sins
- Wealth without work.
- Pleasure without conscience.
- Knowledge without character.
- Commerce without morality.
- Science without humanity.
- Religion without sacrifice.
- Politics without principle.
What is the structure of sin?
Structural sin proposes that we can have corporate responsibility for sinful actions that originate from social systems. West provides a simple illustration of how systems work to perpetuate sin: “Give a man a fish”, the saying goes, “and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will always eat”.
What are the common structures of sin?
He labels the two blocs as ”structures of sin”: ”on the one hand, the all-consuming desire for profit, and on the other, the thirst for power, with the intention of imposing one’s will upon others. ”
As you read these verses, study them to see why social injustice is a sin, according to the Word: Proverbs 31: 8-9 — “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Because we act with others on a day to day basis (our social nature), our personal moral responsibility is often shared. Pope Blessed John Paul II states that because of human solidarity, our individual sins affect others in some way. “Every sin can undoubtedly be considered as social sin.”
The three things that determine whether a human act is sin are what the person is choosing to do, what the persons intention for the act are, and what the circumstances are in the situation.
Every sin has a personal dimension because every sin is the result of a real human person’s making a free decision to disobey God’s law. All sin also had a social dimension, this is clear for sins such as murder and theft because of the immediate harm they cause other people.
Is killing a mortal sin?
A mortal sin is to murder. A similar pattern applies to the other sins.
Living in poverty is not a social sin. Ignoring poverty and not making a difference to help the people living in poverty is a social sin.
Examples of Social sin may include War and Poverty. These effects damage entire communities and countries. War is a state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country.