WHEN ARE MY SINS YOUR BUSINESS AND WHEN ARE YOUR SINS MY BUSINESS?

By Edwin Cooney

About a week ago, I asked my friend “Albany Steve” the above question. Steve's response was straight and simple. He said: our sins are society’s business when they affect society.

I insist that our personal sins are society's business only when a case or cause has been demonstrated to be detrimental to the structure and function of society. Hence Indian genocide, slavery of Blacks, religious bigotry, and gender prejudice have all been proven to be everybody's sin.

The relevance of this question can easily be found in the depth of this terrible "culture war" that has been going on between conservatives and liberals since the days of President Lyndon Johnson and Chief Justice Earl Warren during the middle and late 1960s. The intensity of this culture clash was increasingly strengthened by the moral outrages created by the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal of the early and mid 1970s. The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade in January 1973 intensified much of the public's unhappiness with the judicial branch's striking down of state laws in 1962 requiring prayer in public schools. 

Since the 1960s and 70s, what were once political differences have become largely moral differences exemplified by the presidential philandering of Presidents Clinton and Trump and by the misleading policies of President George W. Bush as well as by President Gerald Ford's pardoning of President Richard Nixon.

The moralization of politics has succeeded the mere politicalization between Republicans and Democrats. When most Americans merely had political differences, the American "body politic" functioned quite amicably. Today, even our personal gender identification is an ongoing public issue. A public issue is generally regarded as a matter threatening to the public's welfare.

You'll be glad to know that I have no solution to this quarrelsome state of affairs even as I outline the existence of this disturbing phenomenon. Still, I think we'd be better off if we took the following positions on public issues.

(1.) Your religiosity or lack there of is exactly none of my business and matters only to the extent you choose to share their significance with me;

(2.) What tomorrow may or may not be, socially and politically, is not for me to judge;

(3.) Understand that God isn't going to bless America any more than He blesses the other nations of the world-after all, nowhere in scripture does it say that nations are worthy of Heavenly salvation;

(4.) Everyone, no matter his or her profession, is subject to legitimate limitations and  regulations;

(5.) What you do with your body is strictly your business, but remember life is precious;

(6.) Absolutely no one is superior due to their race, religion, or political philosophy;

(7.) You may be a taxpayer but you are also a worker, customer, client, patient, student, neighbor, family member and citizen who is subject to the advantages and outrages thereof;

(8.) Although we're told that the poor will always be with us, a poor customer's money is as valuable as a rich person's money even as it comes through government succor;

(9.) Climate change, be it cyclical or due to human greed, is a reality that must be faced;

(10.) You and I love someone or some cause when their welfare is equal to, or greater than, our own welfare;

(11.) The opposite of love is indifference not hatred;

(12.) The parents of anger and hatred are usually ignorance and fear.

That's how I see a few things. Now it's your turn!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY