Would this question about the weight of sins be on topic?

Question

I've been looking around Christianity Stack Exchange for some time, but I've only joined today, and I'm still not entirely sure of some parts of the scope.

I wrote up a question - and actually went so far as posting it, before deleting - and I'm not sure if it's on topic or not:

I stumbled across God created male and female.... What about those who do not fit in the box?, and then I read David's answer.

In it, he writes

. . . but the Bible is clear that no one sin is any more serious than another. (Matthew 5:19, James 2:10) Everyone is damned whether straight, gay, black, white, kind, mean, giving, greedy, because all of us have sinned in one way or another.

Both passages seem to support this. However, cwallenpoole commented in response

Not all sins are equal. See the first epistle of St. John where he differentiates sins "unto death" and sins "which are not unto death"

To my knowledge, the issue was never settled.

So, does the Bible ever state that all sins are/are not equal?

sin biblical-interpretation

Is this question okay? Also, are the tags right?

Answer 1

Welcome to the site. We're glad you're here. We also greatly appreciate the effort to understand the site guidelines.

There's two ways you could take that question:

1. Biblical Basis for a belief
2. Dogmatic assertions of a specific Christian group

Biblical Basis questions ask how the Bible is used to justify a belief. With your question, there's the positive and negative question that could be asked.

• What is the Biblical basis that all sins are equal?
• What is the Biblical basis that some sins are worse than others?

Sometimes some verse seem unequivocally saying something that contrasts with an extant Christian belief. A type of question that spawns from biblical basis questions is asking how those who hold that belief explain the verse that seems to conflict with that belief.

Dogmatic questions are about beliefs of a particular group of Christians. With your question, you could ask what a specific denomination believes about this topic.

• What does the Catholic Church teach about the weight of sins?

This is probably not the best fit for what you are trying to learn about and also happens to be a duplicate.

Another option is overview questions. If you don't know a lot about a certain topic, asking for a brief overview on the dominant Christian beliefs is very helpful. For your question, you could ask for an overview on the various beliefs regarding the weight of certain sins.

For reference, consider the Types of questions that are within community guidelines. The post could use an update, but it is still very helpful in learning what kinds of questions this community responds positively to.

Answer 2

Yes, I definitely think so, its one of the only ways to make talking about sin on topic.

As a Catholic, I know that is totally bogus, that some sins are much worse than others, some sins cry out from the earth for vengance etc... Some sins scandalize the youth... So you'd have to be clear on what mainstream/fringe group you're asking. But it should almost always be on topic and asks me if you're talking about Catholicism.

BTW, I'm also trying to start a Catholic Culture site on Area51 where that kind of stuff will definitely be topical, even without a specific dogmatic reason for asking. (not to do a shameless plug or anything)