First, my wife has told me that my previous entry about the sin of overeating might offend overweight people, and that I might come across as critical.  Since I myself am overweight, and have struggled with my weight for most of my life, I just assumed everybody would understand that I was talking about myself in my previous post, as much as anybody.

This post is a follow up to my previous one, The Church Approved Sin.  So if you haven’t read it yet, you might want to read it first.  I mentioned that overeating is an unusual sin, in that you can often spot it in people you may pass in Wal-Mart that you have never met.  That reminded me of the book we had to read in 11th grade, The Scarlet Letter.  In it, Hester Prynne had to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her dress as a punishment for committing adultery.  So everybody that saw her knew what she had done.  Overweight people do have a little in common with Hester Prynn.

Then I was thinking, what if that were the case with all of us and all of our sins today?  I guess the kids have a version of this with Pinochio.  Everybody knows when he lies.  What if our sins were somehow plastered across the front of our shirt, or forehead.  Imagine what your shirt would say.  I don’t really want to think about mine.  I’d probably need the 2XL shirt.  How would life as we know it change?  Do you think you would still have the same friends?  Same job?  Would you lose your friends?  You job? Your family?

Then I began to think about how this would effect church.  Hmmm…. Interesting.  I’m guessing most people would think this would be a bad thing.  But’s lets think about it.  If everybody’s sins were known, it would really cut down on the judging of each other.  Everybody would not have to put on their fake Sunday smiles, and could just be real people.  Forced transparency.  That would change a lot of our relationships at church.  Maybe then churches everywhere could actually be places of healing like they are supposed to be, instead of a place of pretending to be somebody we are not.