More than sin management

Maggi Dawn writes (emphasis mine):

The story Bob tells in his sermon is a personal testament to the grace of God. He mentions, among other things, how a thin concept of salvation had trapped him into a notion of repentance as "sin management" - a concept I remember well from my years in conservative evangelicalism, but have also seen played out in Roman and Anglo-Catholic settings. I don't think this thin, mean theology is the preserve of one wing of the church or another, but is in itself a kind of sin - a replacing of the grace of God with yet another straitjacket that keeps us trapped into something less than our full humanity. So deeply sinful is this notion of "sin-management" that I almost wonder whether GOd might prefer us to be joyfully abandoned to a few vices than the "miserable sinners"* religion would turn us into. Bob eventually discovered that repentance is not about managing sins, but about a turning of heart into the Grace of God, a transformative experience that bears little resemblance to the thin and mean account of keeping one's behaviour in line with the Church's rules. Whatever is thin and mean cannot be of God. Grace allows for human weakness; grace allows us to venture out safely. When my son climbs trees, I hope he won't fall out and scrape his knees. I know he might, but the importance of climbing trees leads me to allow him to take the risk. SO it is with God: he would rather we climbed a few trees than stayed on the ground being safe.

Comments

[Paul Johnston]

Sin is, before all else, an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him. Sin is self directed, chosen and indulged in. Without the sinner making a conscious decision to acknowledge his sin, ask for forgivness, offer reparation in the form of penance and make a sincere effort to change, full reconcilliation with God is made impossible. The sacrament of reconciliation (confession/penance) is hardly a "thin, mean" concept. It is the loving method by which the penitant is reconciled to God's forgiving grace. "...For those who receive the sacrament of penance with contrite heart and religious disposition, reconciliation is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation. Indeed the sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true spiritual resurrection, restoring the dignity and blessings of life of the penitant, of which the most precious is friendship with God." (canon 1468, Catechism of the Catholic Church) This restoration of dignity and renewal of friendship with God is the defining legacy of my "Confessional Experience" within the Catholic Church. I can only assume the author is unaware and inexperienced in this regard.