Coach,
I think it may be that your question is flawed. I mean,
is sin "stuff" or "things" that you do? or
is it more of a disposition that one has that comes out in things that people
do? And then, the sinful disposition comes out in other ways than men?
Could
it be it is socially acceptable for young men to own up to their darkest sins
but not young women. I ask the question because on a blog I read recently a
young woman confessed her struggle with porn, her opens and the anonimity afforded by the web opened a flood gate of young
women admitting they struggled with many of the things young men do but that it
is not acceptable for them to publicly or privately talk about such things in
"christian" circles. Could this be true of
some of your students, as the generation brought up on the net I suspect so.
Where you may be on to something is with the classification of sin as sin. I
remember reading some survey that revealed that many American Christian teens
did not regard oral sex as "sex" and therefore was not sinful. Could
this redefining of sin be a factor?
In
my opinion, I think that the reason we seem to think that women sin less is
because we have imbibed cultural ideas that have become now accepted as
"Christian". We now believe that feminine spirituality is the epitomy of Christian graces. (Hyperbole...but I'm making my
point).
Then we subconsciously interpret sins and good and evil through that grid, and
voila!...we get lists like your students have.
So, I'm with John Eldridge and others who believe that the pendulum has swung
too far. Yes, there were some preacher in the early holiness movement who were
all about strong preaching and little about tender love, but now we've gone the
other way, to where men are expected to in reality become a little more
feminine.
We need both!
It's a Christian culture where the soothing flannelgraph
Jesus Who never did anything but love is preached...but rarely a Jesus Who was
so strong and unflinching in His preaching that they actually took Him out and
crucified Him!
What I'm saying is this: The reason that we tend all too often to label
masculine sins as more serious than the feminine ones, is not because women (or
men!) are more naturally "spiritual" than the other, it's because
we've transplanted our post-modern cultural values and called them Biblical
values.
Practically speaking, I've heard men talk about "problem women", and
women talk about "problem men". When we start picking and choosing
one race, gender, or ethnicity as more spiritual than another, it reveals OUR
faulty perception of Biblical values, not some problem with ____! (fill in your age, gender, etc. group here.)
I
too wonder if women are struggling with some sins that have not been aired
often enough that they would willingly mention them, whereas men have aired
Drury's "Foul Four."
In one post, Ken Schenck mentioned how his female students were not only more
organized and got better grades, but that he perceived that they were often
more spiritual. I would be less willing to say that this is the story behind
Dr. Drury's repeated response in class, but what if: we have the women on
campus are more spiritual than the men? What if they really do struggle with
lesser sins?
Or: Do not resentment and bitterness involve pride, or even give birth to it?
If lust and internet pornography are "private" sins that affect the
mind of men (as we are discussing here, but of course all examples would stand
true for both sexes), do they make it hard for them to think of and treat women
they encounter in public in a healthy and respectful manner? Do resentment and
bitterness belittle other people, devalue and distance them from ourselves?
According to this list, men struggle with 1) Lust and internet pornography, and
2) pride and anger.
Women struggle with 1) self esteem and 2) resentment, bitterness, and lack of
trust. As I see it, it is possible that for both men and women, whose minds
work differently, that the sins in categories 2 are similar or related, or even
comparable in seriousness. The sins in category 1 belittle the human
individual, whether it be one's own self, or others;
not to mention that the other sins belittle others as well.
Is it possible that the case as stated by both women and men is really true,
but that we just see the men's sins as worse. Or
perhaps they are worse, but still very related to
women's sin. Does the outcome of original sin change from individual to
individual, or between sexes? In other words, are men and women just
susceptible to different sins because of the same natural pull toward sin
because of their biological differences? Women are not nearly as visually
stimulated as men. My mother told me today, and has told me a number of times
in the past that if she saw a good-looking man in nothing but a bathing suit,
she wouldn't be the least bit inclined to lust after him in any way. Women seem
to be more relationally oriented, or at least more social than men (at least
sometimes they do); so do the sins of pride and anger for women stand out to
them as their struggle of how they interact with others? And are men generally
better loners? Are they more inclined to think highly of THEMSELVES (notice here
pride separates the individual from the group, and self-oriented, while women
mention a similar sin in terms of how it affects others), and more likely to
become angry by THEMSELVES? Guys can let things go pretty fast sometimes,
especially if they can play a game of basketball as a result of making up. I
heard on TV (I know, dangerous) that the huge majority of murders are committed
by men, and not women. Do men deal with rage, more than bitterness?
A lot of writing and reading. Sorry. No one will probably
read it.
You
mentioned "the grip of original sin." That original sin is pride
isn't it? And isn't it pride that keeps us from admitting sin? So in a very
simple formula one could conclude that women can't think of their sins because
the great sin of pride is at the top of the list! But men are more humble and
open.
Perhaps that oversimplifies because I appreciate much in the other responses
about how our culture has shaped our ability to respond to the question.
I also see the obvious link that the men's list of sins actually belittles
women, hence women suffer from low self esteem because of the men's sins. It's
ALL men's fault! That's the message of our feminstistic
culture. And that still feeds women's secret pride.
All this from a man who often points out, tongue in cheek,
that women should not be annoyed that the Bible seems so patriarchal and always
addressed to the male gender. If the Bible talks as if men run the
world, it all implies that men really are more to blame for all the world's
problems! Outside of Jezebel, how many diabolically evil women are portrayed in
Scripture?
In spite of the above, I know women struggle with their own list of besetting
sins, even if it is difficult for them to identify them. I know this because I
am married to a sinner. But so is everyone else so don't
feel sorry for me. I love mine very much.