If you read atheist polemics against Christianity, Christian ideas about sin come up relatively infrequently. I know I’ve been tempted to dismiss what Christians say about sin as a superficial rationalization for the one really vile doctrine of Christianity, the doctrine that God damns people for unbelief. Recently, though, I’ve realized just how wrong this approach is.

Understanding Christian thinking about sin is important for understanding why much of Christianity is so messed up. The problem isn’t what Christians believe, but what they don’t believe–and the effects of Christians pretending to believe what they don’t.

Some background: Over the past couple of months, I’ve been thinking a fair amount about Evangelical attitudes towards sex, and homosexuality in particular. The puzzle is this: the Bible says nasty things about homosexuality, plenty of Christians in the U.S. today spend their time saying nasty things about homosexuality, and yet some Evangelicals try to insist they’re tolerant and loving people without jettisoning the basic anti-gay views common among conservative Christians.

Sometimes, this insisting sounds sincere. Sometimes, it doesn’t. Earlier this month, Hemant spotted Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute trying to distance herself and her fellow Christians from anti-gay bullying. He then dug up a number of nasty things Higgins had said about gays, including this gem:

No sane person would ever argue that homosexuals have contributed nothing to society. That’s as absurd as claiming that adulterers, porn users, or gossips have contributed nothing to society… Those who experience, for example, selfish, vain, greedy, gluttonous, deceitful, promiscuous, incestuous, sadistic, pederastic, gossipy, philandering, or polyamorous impulses and engage in behaviors impelled by such impulses have also contributed to society.

This is nasty. Higgins is comparing gays to pedophiles. Nevertheless, the basic thought isn’t that different from the logic of many allegedly gay friendly Evangelicals. They tell themselves they can be accepting of gays by saying “homosexuality is a sin like any other,” and avoid dwelling on the fact that the “other sins” category includes things like child rape and genocide.

Lumping lots of different “sins” into one category is not a recent development in the Christian tradition. Here’s the Sermon on the Mount:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

[snip]

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

In other words, think bad thoughts and your as bad as a murder and an adulterer. This suggests that, in general, all sins are created equal. This is what I think no Christian really believes.

I have no doubt that countless Christians have read that passage and told themselves they believed it. Liberals like it because it helps back up the “judge lest ye be judged” idea. Conservatives like it because it supports the belief that we are all miserable sinners. Indeed, it’s a staple of many Evangelists’ sales pitches: “Have you ever thought a bad thought? OK then, you deserve Hell as much as Hitler and need Jesus(tm) to save you from it.”

In spite of the number of Christians who claim to love this idea, it’s not hard to find signs they don’t really believe it. A pastor who admits to having an affair risks his job, but who would want to fire a pastor for pulling a Jimmy Carter and admitting to having lust in his heart? Similarly, while the Bible tells Christians to repent and sin no more, they quickly learn that they’re never going to stop doing everything the Bible calls “sin,” which can be real theological headache. A common solution seems to be to sort sins into big ones and small ones, and mainly worry about not doing the big ones: “yeah I’m a sinner whatever at least I’m not having sex like those damn liberals.”

To put a finer point on it: no one believes that all “sins” are horrific crimes the way raping children is a horrific crime. If you try to believe that, one of two things will happen. You might start failing to take child rape seriously. Or, you’ll fall into bizarre inconsistencies about what you denounce: insisting you’re not a homophobe one minute and hinting that gays are conspiring to destroy civilization the next.

Critics of Christianity should talk about this more often. I’ve seen non-Christians attack Christians for believing that Anne Frank is burning in hell for being Jewish. I’ve seen Christian apologists, say, roughly, “It’s a misrepresentation of Christianity to say Christians believe God damned Anne Frank for being Jewish. What we believe is that God damned her for failing Ray Comfort’s good person test.” (The Christian might add, by way of further explanation, that God forgives Christians and only Christians for failing the Comfort’s test.) I’ve never seen an atheist go after a Christian for saying that, even though those two claims are roughly equal in moral insanity.

Why don’t critics talk about this? Maybe because they see the connection with the “judge not lest ye be judged” line, and that line sounds really nice to them. If so, it’s not just Christians who need to think about the question of whether they really think all the things they think they do.