PeaceBang

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1. I’ll have to think about it for a little bit … I feel like I do know of a popular character who could represent sloth, but it’s not at the front of my brain just at the moment. The DH suggested Homer (Simpson).

   Comment by h sofia — August 6, 2008 #

2. Sloth might become a better sermon topic if you think of it in a different way. I don’t think it corresponds to depression, but rather to a lack of ambition, and particularly, a lack of spiritual ambition. Sloth, I say, is our chief sin, not pride. I think we would be embarassed to say, “I want to become a saint.”

   Comment by Kevin Holsapple — August 6, 2008 #

3. Sloth = watch any Judd Apatow film. Heck, start with Knocked Up. The big divide between the couple? What appeared to be an abundance of sloth on the part of the daddy-to-be. [That is a really fun idea, LE. Thanks!! - PB]

   Comment by Lizard Eater — August 6, 2008 #

4. I know we’re all happy with Paris Hilton right now for her witty repartie to the McCain people (even if she didn’t write it herself — she delivered it with brio) but I think she embodies sloth. I mean, she doesn’t do much for either herself or others and she is the epitome is capitalism consumerism and a cult of celebrity that has nothing to do with being famous because of art or politics or (heaven help us) religion.

   Sloth doesn’t just mean sitting around slow-moping (that is, as you pointed out, depression, and a lot of us have experience with that. Okay, and with laziness, but it’s hard to tell them apart sometimes), it is deeper and more deadly (these are the seven deadly sins after all) and I think it is related to this glutting ourselves with consuming (which could also be greed, but I think of it more as sloth, because it involves a passive or reactive attitude toward life) and is important in a series like this. It might really grab people where they live.

   The spiritual life, or the religious life, invites us to being alive, awake, and the very opposite of letting the culture insinuate itself into us. The business types would say we need to be proactive but that’s not the right word for a sermon. Sloth is the opposite of being awake, alive, proactive, decisively living by one’s values, exercising the discipline that goes with that. (Oh my, think environment and oil consumption. Though the issue is much broader.) You could really do a critique of both capitalism and American Empire here if you wanted to push it in that direction.

   But you could also just talk about us as individuals; inevitably this issue of sloth, and perhaps the others, leads to some kind of critique of the culture. Sloth makes me think of it especially because if we are *not* slothful, we actively go against the culture. Paris Hilton has embraced the worst of it (and has the privilege of class and race that enables her to do so easily) but we do it too, all of us, to some extent.

   Comment by Jane R — August 6, 2008 #

5. Back in Seminary, I had a church history prof who gave us a reading on the Seven DEGREES of sin. Oooo, good stuff! I think it was William Tyndale, but I can’t check right now as all my books are in boxes as I get ready to move Friday. BUT Seven DEGREES of Sin was a really fun lead-in to a sermon I did once, if you can be properly dramatic and have the right sort of congregation.

   No movies/pop culture ref (mostlybecause I’m brain dead right now…) but just Church History.

   Comment by Rev. Bee — August 6, 2008 #

6. Slothwise, Kathleen Norris has a great book coming out on acedia, which I just reviewed. I gave away my copy (mailed it to a Catholic friend in New Orleans, so I can’t get it back) but I could probably get another reviewer copy if you want. I like Lizard Eater’s comment … there was a good New Yorker article a while back on the current trend of romantic comedies with the Female Striver and Male Slacker.

   Sloth is so tricky in a consumerist, busy-ness-idolizing culture. On the surface it can look like something else–admirable self-acceptance, anti-materialism, detachment. And it can disguise itself as many things–workaholism, Crackberry addiction–that look like its exact opposite. It’s probably the hardest of the sins to identify in this particular cultural moment.

   I think Tony Soprano is a good example of sloth. Someone who just refuses to do the *real* work that’s set in front of him. Someone who won’t pay the price, won’t make the real sacrifices. Won’t face up to the discrepancy between who he sees himself as and who is is and adjust one of the two accordingly.

   Comment by Miss Conduct — August 7, 2008 #

7. PB,
   Instead of thinking of sloth as apatheia (which you don’t want to do), think of it as superficiality or laziness (in the mental sense).

   My guess is that we can all think of lots of examples in modern culture which show both superficiality and mental laziness.

   Comment by Kim Hampton — August 7, 2008 #

8. Instead of the Hulk for wrath, this fits Magneto (X-men villain) better. The hulk is bestial, blind fury (at least, the early Hulk was). Magneto feels victimized and inflicts that suffering on humanity. In the 1980s comics he comes to terms with his anger when he almost kills a mutant child. The reimagining in the X-men movies has a very good wrathful Magneto and Mystique.

   For sloth I think of the Big Lebowski. Might be hard to work in, but he’s definitely lazy. Maybe not appropriate for children.

   Envy reminds me of Homer Simpson and Ned Flanders. I’m pretty sure you can find instances of Homer Simpson acting out all 7 of the sins.

   If you want more nerdy style references, Spike from Buffy for lust and the captain from Firefly for pride. You could probably find examples for all 7 sins from the Buffyverse.

   Comment by Valdis — August 7, 2008 #

9. You might want to check out THIS “What’s Your Sin” calculator as well.

   Comment by The Eclectic Cleric — August 7, 2008 #

10. Wouldn’t the humans in Wall-E (which I haven’t seen) do for sloth?

    I also think Amanda Priestly/The Devil Wears Prada embodies a number of deadly sins, perhaps even sloth. Though she’s always working, she won’t do anything for herself that another person could do. She’d be a good “wrath” person, too.

    Lust is interesting because I think it could relate to anybody who wants it NOW. Lust as intemperate desire, not just for the flesh, but for anything. Not coming up with a good example, though.

    Laura

    Comment by LauraToepfer — August 7, 2008 #

11. Possible tool for a counterpoint–a book titled “Seven Sins Worth Living For.” (Roger Housden)

    I picked it up for the title, I admit. And I got half-way into it before losing it into the pile of “read later” that developed when I had to focus almost completely on material for seminary classes. But it’s remained in my mind as material for sermons.

    Comment by Patrick McLaughlin — August 7, 2008 #

12. I, too, think that Paris Hilton could be the exemplar of sloth (the self-centered disengagement with the world that leads to spiritual isolation and disinterest). But “sloth” is also refusing to do the work for which we are fit. So, Miss Conduct’s comment about Tony Soprano fits the bill. I believe that medieval monks considered not sharing their spiritual gifts as a form of “sloth,” but I can’t be 100% sure. Darn, now I’m going to have to google it up!

    Comment by Nelle Stanton — August 7, 2008 #

13. Consider renting or viewing the 1967 cult classic Bedazzled, which provides some very interesting personifications of all of the seven deadly sins. [Is that the one they remade with Brendan Fraser and the supermodel? If so, I saw it and thought it was a hoot. Thanks for the suggestion.- PB]

    Comment by Comrade Kevin — August 7, 2008 #

14. I love the idea of using Into the Wild. J. Krackower’s other book Into Thin Air would also work- he even writes about the idea climbing Mt. Everest as an issue of hubris/pride in the book.

    (He makes a point that in the past you had to have really, really, good climbing skills and resources to ascend ME, but these days, you need only have good skills and money.

    He writes that ME isn’t that hard to climb if all the conditions are right, but if the weather goes wrong or you get injured, and are working at 90% of your capacity, you haven’t got the resources to deal with altitude, weather, AND the climb. I think it’s him that also points out that climbing ME isn’t something locals would do for fun because of big risk and little profit.)

    Comment by Kate — August 8, 2008 #

15. Lizard eater said it first, but the first place my mind went with sloth was the guy in Knocked Up as well.

    i had to go back & re-read Kate’s post. the phrase “climbing me isn’t something locals would do for fun” sort of leapt out at me!

    Comment by marcia — August 8, 2008 #

16. I look forward to seeing what you do with gluttony. There is a bakery in my neighborhood called Canto 6, named after the circle of the gluttons in Dante’s Inferno. While I must salute their literary ingenuity, it makes me quite sad. There is every difference in the world between destructive, obsessive overconsumption and joyful, celebratory indulgence. I would hope that the owners of the Canto 6 bakery are all about joyful indulgence. So is God, if the bounty of creation is any clue. Gluttony is something entirely different.

    My best literary reference is a counter-example: Babette’s Feast. There is NOTHING moderate or restrained about Babette’s Feast and yet it is far from gluttonous. Babette’s Feast is a celebration of our bountiful Creator.

    Comment by Kristen — August 13, 2008 #

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