I have been reading it each day in order to see how the agents of change in the secular world express their hopes and relating it to Christian discipleship.
Today's reflection was on the seven deadly sins (and also the seven virtues and righteous actions) out of the medieval Christian tradition, and an encouragement to drop one. I don't want to reflect too much on this, but on Mahatma Gandhi's seven deadly sins which were listed in the middle:
- Wealth without work
- Pleasure without conscience
- Science without humanity
- Knowledge without character
- Politics without principle
- Commerce without morality
- Worship without sacrifice
I found this particularly interesting as the first six of these take on the commonly accepted virtues of the modern secular world and suggests that they need moderating values to stop them becoming vices (as I believe they do), and I suspect most members of religious groups would have no problem agreeing with them. Then comes the call from Gandhi on religion, worship that does not change your life in a real and practical fashion can easily just become a claim that God is on your side - and that leads to dangerous territory indeed.
What do you think? Can you think of anything to add to Gandhi's list?
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