The seven deadly sins as we frequently call them --- pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth (laziness) --- are clearly found in the writings of early Christian authors. However:

---The number can vary and is not always seven.

---And they are not referred to as "deadly" but as "capital."

The seven that are identified today were first listed by St. Gregory the Great in his text, The Morality of Job, which is a commentary on the Book of Job. They are more correctly called "capital" rather than "deadly" because they are not necessarily mortal sins, but they do refer to the most common "tendencies" we find in ourselves that can lead to sin.

Human inclinations, sinful tendencies
In the Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas points out that our very human inclinations, received as part of our human nature, and thus good in themselves, can lead to sinful tendencies. Our desire to be our best can lead to pride; our senses and appetites can lead to lust and gluttony; our desire to provide for ourselves can lead to avarice. And envy, anger and sloth can be the result of a desire to flee from perceived attacks on our persons, our reputations or even our equanimity.

As such, it has been suggested that rather than speaking of the "seven deadly sins" it would be more accurate to refer to the "seven capital defects or vices." Seen in this way, they challenge us to grow in our holiness not by solely focusing all our energy on "avoiding" particular acts, but also on cooperating with the graces we are offered to become persons of virtue.

A while back, a television series called "Scared Straight" attempted to document a process of bringing "at risk" youth to prisons for a brief visit that included conversations with inmates about the reality of life "on the inside." It was hoped that with the knowledge of the brutality of prison life, young persons might see beyond the apparent glamour of being a gangbanger to the harsh reality that awaited them if they chose the largely empty but alluring promises of a life of crime.

Despite the good intentions of the program designers, one wonders about the actual effectiveness of such programs. Do people make life changing decisions primarily out of fear? Do such convictions last over the long term?

Would not the vision behind programs that offer a positive alternative like that of Homeboy Industries and the Homegirl Café be both a more effective alternative and more authentically founded in Gospel values? Guided by the mantras, "Nothing stops a bullet like a job" and "Jobs, not jails." Homeboy Industries (Homeboy-Industries.org) in Los Angeles assists at-risk and formerly gang-involved youth to become positive and contributing members of society through job placement, training and education.

Instead of fear as the solitary or even primary motivation to move oneself or another from self-destructive choices to life-giving choices, what about the power of hope and joy? The path from darkness to light from choosing sin to choosing life is the path of love and forgiveness. Programs that offer a life-long path and hope for a dignified life might be more in line with the Gospel of Life as outlined by Pope John Paul II.

At both Homeboy Industries and Homegirl Café, young people are offered the message of Jesus' Gospel that is clothed in a vision of hope, not fear. Similarly, a desire to pursue holiness and avoid sin could be more authentic if based on a love of God's authentic forgiveness and compassion rather that a fear of God's wrath. This has been articulated by the eminent Dominican moral theologian, Father Servais Pinckaers, as a movement from a "morality of obligation" to a "morality of joy."

Unfortunately, there are numerous preachers, both Catholic and non-Catholic, who continue to use the "scared straight" approach regarding the moral life of Christians. One can listen to multiple stations on the radio to preachers who continue to have the single message of "hellfire and brimstone."

It would seem that in their undoubtedly sincere desire to encourage Christian morality they have adopted a vision of literally "scaring the hell" out of Christians. Perhaps they need to be reminded of the beautiful words of Jesus in the Gospel of John: "I have come that you might have life and have it to the full."

Hellfire vs. 'perfect love'
Two theological questions arise from the hellfire and brimstone approach:

---Like the "scared straight" methodology for "at-risk" youth, how effective is this strategy for helping Christians develop a mature and life-long relationship with Christ?

---Is this approach really in line with the Gospel and Catholic tradition?

Before we answer the questions, it might be helpful for us to acknowledge the reality and ugliness of the seven capital vices. These vices --- pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth --- are certainly a part of our lives, our society and our world.

One has to look no farther than the Enron scandal, the Wall Street Meltdown, the fascination of the American auto industry and American society with gas guzzling and environmentally destructive SUV's, the recently revealed torture memos, the pro-abortion and pro-embryonic stem cell movements, the growth in the pornography industry, the astronomical rise in the addiction to internet pornography, to see that Catholics need to admit the presence of and talk about the reality of the capital vices in our world today.

If we are not careful, every one of us can succumb to choices that are selfish rather than self-less. Envy and pride can be powerful motivators to engage in words and actions that are uncharitable. Our appetites, if not guarded with reason, can lead to a life devoted to satisfaction of wants rather than of needs.

How much of our time and resources have we wasted feeling sorry for ourselves, shopping for things we don't really need and sometimes don't even want, flirting with pornography on the internet, talking about others behind their backs? These seven deadly tendencies are real and they can be a chronic part of our lives.

However, it should be clear that relying on personal "will power" or "fear of hell" to avoid such sins would be foolish. It is God that offers us a path to virtue. Scripture (1 John 4: 18) is quick to remind us, "Perfect love casts out all fear."

Fear vs. desire
So is an exclusive focus on the seven deadly vices the best way to encourage a mature and lasting relationship with Christ?

It would seem not. At its best, the Christian moral message is found in the virtues. Aquinas made it quite clear that the center of Christian morality was the "new law." The new law is enunciated by Christ as the Beatitudes, and the goal of the Beatitudes is happiness --- "Happy are the poor, Happy those who hunger and thirst for holiness, Happy are the peacemakers," etc.

An immature spirituality and its concomitant morality are based exclusively on what we have to do, whereas a mature spirituality and morality are based on what we want to do. The content of morality does not change, but the motivation for adopting a virtuous life is significantly different.

One of the biggest dilemmas facing physicians is that of patients' "compliance." Patients who are first recovering from a serious or even life-threatening disease are strongly motivated to follow the healthy advice of their physician, but unfortunately this is all to often a short-lived compliance.

After patients begin to feel "normal" again, they resume all the bad habits that contributed to their illnesses in the first place. The "fear" of death that first motivated healthy life-style changes fades into the sunset and has less and less effect. Fatty foods, salt and sugar slowly return to the diet, exercise fades, a sedentary life and maybe even cigarettes reappear.

The same behavior is too often the result of someone whose moral "conversion" is motivated solely by a "fear of hell." Thus we find that the seven capital vices were not originally identified by theologians and spiritual writers to "scare the hell" out of people, but were attempts to articulate the reality of the human condition and help Christians be aware of temptations to excess that arise out of our human nature.

We are fallen creatures and, though we are created in the image of God, we are still affected by original sin. The vices are best seen as "tendencies" that we need to acknowledge and are internal and therefore need to be tended to and monitored.

A faith of hope and joy
Is an exclusive focus on the seven deadly sins really in line with the Gospel and Church tradition?

It would seem not. In Luke 4: 18, Jesus is clear in proclaiming his mission: "He has sent me to bring good news to the poor." Similarly, Jesus reminds the Pharisees who are murmuring at his call in Mathew 9: 13, that "I have not come for the righteous, but for sinners."

In the Gospel of John (8: 1-11), to the woman caught in the act of adultery, Jesus --- after he has written on the ground and all the accusers have left, beginning with the oldest --- asks, "Is there no one left to condemn you? Neither do I condemn you; now go and sin no more."

It is clear that Jesus brings good news to sinners and so should preachers. The reality of the seven deadly sins, or more properly the seven capital vices, is that they are not to be used to frighten us into a temporary behavior of moral compliance, but rather to challenge us to want to be moral, to see our relationship with Christ as one that challenges us to be selfless people who choose life, not death, for ourselves and others, and who embrace virtue and morality as a path to authentic happiness.

Authentic holiness is based on a faith that is marked with hope and joy, not one that is artificially buoyed by fear, or being "scared straight."

Vincentian Father Richard Benson is academic dean and professor of moral theology at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo. His column appears monthly in The Tidings.