Lisa over at Feminist Mormon Housewives posted today on small sins with, “It’s easy to condemn the simply evil, but most people aren’t. Our motivations are complex and our sins are small or necessary or thoughtless or convenient. I’ve never sewn a tiny military uniform, but I’m sure I own things that were produced by child labor. I know I have habits that contribute to global warming.”

In my continuing journey of exploring Christianity and Wicca, this struck a cord in me and probably would in many pagans, since one of the most common reasons for leaving a church and converting to Wicca is how that faith deals with sin. In Christianity, we are forever reminded of how imperfect we are, how we’ll never measure up, how we have to keep striving no matter how tired we are or how hard life has gotten lately. I often feel like the child of over-achieving parents since nothing I do will ever be good enough.

In Wicca, we’re taught that everything we do will come back to us threefold, possibly even in this lifetime, that punishment could be immediate and severe and yet… pagans tend to obsess over their faults alot less than Christians. Since punishment for Christian sin is delayed until after death I had to ask myself why the difference in outlook, logic says it should be the other way around.

The answer seems to lie in how pagans view humanity in general. In Wicca, people are not inherently bad even if imperfect. In fact, in many ways we view our imperfections as opportunities to be individuals. We do try to do what’s right, and self-examination is a huge part of the faith, but we know we’re not going to be perfect and we don’t even try. We just do the best we can, accept responsibility for our faults and the results of our actions (even the unintended ones) and move on.

Given what Christianity often does to self-esteem, I think the Wiccan viewpoint is alot healthier. But going back to Lisa’s post, I agree that we all need to strive to improve and not let apathy or general “busy-ness” keep us from doing this.