an exercise

topic for discussion: is a sinful thought necessarily the same as a sinful deed?

according to the bible, a man who lusts after a woman "in his heart," has already committed adultery.

this is from Jesus' sermon on the mount.
it's something i've wrestled with for a long time. not adultery, but the idea that what you harbor in your heart, as distinguished from the mind, is just as bad as the act, itself.

i'm not sure if the two are the same. maybe, because all sins are the same (according to the scriptures), they are. but, it seems to go without saying that, if you were to go out and do serious bodily harm to someone, your action is going to be more effective--at least, in a physical sense. that is, it's going to effect that person directly vs. some sort of fantasy where you work out your anger, or compulsion, in a healthy and therapeutic hypothetical situation.

jhonen vasquez, in his preface to jthm, defended his titular "homicidal maniac," as nothing more than a healthy manifestation of his (vasquez's) bitter imagination. he makes the case that, it's far better to exercise your malicious thoughts in a constructive manner (i.e. through art or, in his case, a comic book) than to keep it pent up where it may be unleashed through actual physical violence.

like i said, it's a form of therapy.

so, in that sense, i think it's better. i don't know if it's right. but, it's definitely better.

i think it's in our nature, as humans, to feel compelled to express ourselves through violent and physical means when we are directly affected by others. it's how we express our emotions. but, i think, by it's very definition, human nature can often be equated with sin. and your feelings come out, one way or the other. writing something down is just as much a physical act as beating someone up. and who's to say which is more detrimental?

in that sense, i think a sinful thought can be seen as on par with a sinful deed. at some point, a thought become an action. maybe not the action in question, but an action. and one that is, probably, similarly unhealthy.

but, this begs the question: how do you block out a sinful thought? is there any way to suppress human nature or is this an absurd quest in and of itself?

i don't know. i think, it's in our nature to be sinful (as i've already said, the two are very much equatable). and i don't know if it's possible to change what is in our nature to do, but i know that there are some things, innate inclinations, which seem infinitely more harmful, to our mental health, than other natural leanings.

of course, it's important to bear in mind that Jesus uses the word "heart" (read: conviction, passionate belief) where thought could, but doesn't, do. he also uses the verb "lust," which implies an honest longing, an honest desire for something vs. any old thought that just happens to pop in your head. so, in terms of semantics (not intended), it's important to remember, here, that what He is saying is that just thinking of something, sinful in nature, is not an actual sin. it's backing that thought with a natural desire to act upon it. or, to want to act upon it.

what i'm saying is that, you're not going to go to hell because the concept of murder popped into your head. say, you hear about it on the television and immediately a mental image is born in your skull. no, you have to want to commit murder for it to actually be a sin.

then again, like everything else in this entry, this is all speculative. i could be wrong. (but if i believe it to be the truth--that's another story altogether).