"Oh trespass sweetly urged!  Give me my sin again."

~~Act 1, Scene 5, Romeo and Juliet

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sin  n.  1.  A transgression of a religious or moral law, especially when deliberate.  2.  Theology.  a. Deliberate disobedience to the known will of God.  b.  A condition of estrangement from God resulting from such disobedience.  3.  Something regarded as being shameful, deplorable, or utterly wrong.

~~The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

~~*~~

I've been called a sinner, a transgressor,

one of the damned, and to hear these

harsh words, they seem to think I

should be packing my bags  for Hell

right now.  And yet when anyone says

these things to me, I have to pause

and give them a strange look.  I am a sinner –

but what do they mean by that?

I think I'll claim diplomatic immunity on

the charge, seeing as I doubt their god can

punish me for breaking laws I'm not

subject to in the first place.  My moral laws

are mine alone, the dictates of my own

heart, truer and more noble than arbitrary

mandates from an ethereal legislator.

They throw all sorts of things into their

category of "sin" – most anything one could find

pleasurable is, to be sure, damning, as well as anything

different, that sets one apart – my personal favorite is

pride.  For not humbling myself before their self-

centered god, for having the audacity to have

a sense of dignity, they say I'll be burning forever.

Their concept of sin is ridiculous – if it is a crime

against both divine and human natures, then the

only real sin is being untrue to one's self.  For

nothing could be more sacred -- the personal

soul, the sense of identity is more important

than some imagined transgression, some supposed

moral deficiency frowned upon by a egocentric deity.

And so if they call me a sinner, then a sinner

I'll be.  I'll consider that a mark of glory, coming

from them.  Sinners are visionaries, leaders, those bold

enough to stand out , who revel in life's glories

and don't worry about the admonition of any

god.  They are the true souls, the true spirits, and

I should be proud to count myself among them.

[Authoress's Note:  I got a lecture on being a sinner the other day, and it provoked this.  Please don't come at me with the usual "why are you only targeting Christians?"  I'm not.  They're targeting me.  This is just a response.  I swear to you, if a Buddhist ever tells me I'm doomed to eternal torment, you can expect a poem directed at them, too.  But as it is, I've never had anyone but Christians attack me on religious grounds, so I've had no one but Christians to respond to.  And, as I've said a few dozen times, I'm not against all Christians.  Just the ones who seem to think any faith but their own is ridiculous.]