Follies or Sins?

Every Thursday our paper's "C" section is the Faith section. They alternate between two different columns. One week there is an article from "An LDS Member's Perspective" and the next week there is one from "A Protestant Perspective." I typically read them and sometimes find them interesting but this week's article from the Mormon perspective caught my attention more than normal.

It starts off "There's a difference between sin and folly. As I see it, sin is deliberate wickedness and folly is every other thoughtless action that keeps us from perfection." Oh, if only that were true. I'll admit, it is sometimes easy to fall into the trap of thinking that way. Especially because the world works that way. The punishment for speeding is not the same as the punishment for selling drugs... and we view that as "fair". And to think otherwise hurts our egos. I certainly don't want to think that because I yell at my husband I am as bad as a woman who steals.

But to God, they are the same. He doesn't draw distinctions between those who aren't perfect because they sometimes get angry, or sometimes forget to think about others, and those that are imperfect because they have embezzled money or lusted after someone else's spouse or even those who have murdered someone. To Him, all these actions are sins that put a barrier between you and Him. Thank goodness that we don't have to be perfect though. Jesus has died for my sins and if I accept that gift he lives within me so that when God judges me, he doesn't see all the black and sinfulness that is within me, he just sees Jesus, his perfect son. Oh happy day!

But this article wants us to justify our imperfections by calling them follies, as if you merely forget to take the trash out instead of admitting that they are sins, times of deliberate disobedience that separate you from God. A perfect example of this occurs later in the article when she quotes the late Mormon leader James E. Faust, "The folly of rehashing long-past hurts..." Oh, the folly of rehashing long-past hurts, I think the Bible calls that unforgiveness, and as I see it, that isn't a folly, that is a sin that can get you in big trouble:

But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:15

If doing this, she (and Faust), are rejecting the gift that God is offering, saying "oh, I know I'm not perfect, but you don't need to worry about cleansing these sins, they aren't really sins, just little follies." God doesn't want anyone to go to hell, he really doesn't. He loves all of his creations and wants to be in a relationship with us all, but if you can't accept his gift, you won't be able to have that relationship and that is what I would call one big folly.