Dr. John Young 12/7/08
Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville
Sloth or Temperance
Monthly since August in a sermon, I have paired one of the seven deadly sins with one of the traditional Western seven virtues. Everyone participates in all of these sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth. Each of us also, at least occasionally, personifies elements of the four Greco-Roman virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance and justice as well as the three New Testament virtues of faith, hope, and love.
Today we consider sloth and temperance. ‘Sloth’ comes from early English meaning slow. It is a dis-inclination to action or labor; it is indolence. As a deadly sin, it is specifically spiritual apathy or inactivity. ‘Temperance’ also from early English means to be moderate. The temperance movement fixed in the public mind temperance as only moderation in or abstinence from the use of alcoholic beverages, but, temperance is moderation or restraint in any action, thought or feeling. It is a habitual moderation in the indulgence of the appetites or passions, the absence or avoidance of extravagance, violence or extreme partisanship.
When you get down to the specifics of these aspects of our lives, it becomes obvious that sins are getting stuck at one end of a spectrum. For instance, self-confidence is a virtue while spiritual pride is certainly a vice. Being completely fearless in a dangerous situation is stupid while courage, thoughtful bravery in the face of fear, is a virtue. On the other hand, virtues are not the other end of a spectrum, but rather a balanced middle-of-the-road resolution of persistent human dilemmas. Humility is not being without self-confidence, but rather being realistic about yourself and how much you depend upon other’s good will and nature’s grace. The vice of anger grows out of fear and blooms into hate and violation. While the paired vice of courage may be motivated by justified anger and realistic grounds for fear, courage converts the anger into careful justice and resolves the fear through effective actions.
The vice of sloth is the most natural vice in the world. After all, the tendency of all things on Earth is toward inertia and rest. Life itself is a rebellion against sloth through the persistent expression of energy and will. For most of my life I have had the blessing of being energetic, and I have persistently nurtured a variety of ways to reinforce that natural energy, thereby, becoming willful. Now, at 65, I am running out of steam faster, and sometimes have less patience for what I perceive to be harmful in other peoples’ behavior. We, seniors, tend to become more convinced about our principles and less patient with those who differ from us. The young tend to be impatient because they have lots of energy and are in a hurry, but they often don’t know where they are going, or lack experience to understand the realities of a situation. More mature people have more experiences and hopefully better understanding, but also get more stuck in our habitual patterns of thought and action, and sometimes fail to notice that our own capacities and energies are degrading or are out-of-date. There tends to be different kinds of sloth at different points in our lives.
The contemporary world is not naturally excited about moderation or temperance. Individual liberation, uninhibited self-expression, and self-fulfillment have been the watch-words for modernity. Billions of people are stuck with excessive desires or over-the-top life decisions. They have produced more children than they can be responsible for, bought more things that they can pay for, taken on commitments that they will not keep, and continue wishing for fame, possessions, or achievements that are beyond their capacities or energy levels. The key solutions here are: nurturing the energy and skills that you have or can learn, thus effectively avoiding the sin of sloth, while facing up to your own appropriate levels of moderation in every facet of your life, learning to embrace the virtue of temperance as a central spiritual practice.
I believe that governments can and should do all they can to help people to become and remain temperate. We now have the capacity to genetically identify the parents of every child, and I think that should routinely be done, and that both parents should be held responsible for the upbringing of their children. We should not bail-out people that make dangerous or even unwise choices. People who persist in smoking, for instance, should pay more and more for their health insurance. People who live next to the ocean should not be subsidized by their governments. I think people should be free to make unwise choices, but I believe that they should pay for the social costs of those choices, and not be subsidized by the rest of us who make more sensible life choices.
In the course of our lives, most of us discover that in certain areas we simply need to go cold turkey. We need to practice abstinence because we simply cannot seem to develop adequate control mechanisms to be moderate in our consumption of that activity or substance. For millions of people that seems to be true with alcoholic beverages and narcotics. For many, it means staying away from certain environments or friendship circles. Most of us may choose periods of abstinence but then as we mature or our circumstances change, we may be able to choose a more moderate course. Most betrayed or disappointed lovers or friends eventually find a new and more satisfying lover or friend. Most people who lose faith in one spiritual community or ideological philosophy eventually find another congregation where they feel fulfilled and/or a new ideology that satisfies them. Our life tests are whether our chosen forms of abstinence are spiritual sloth or temperate wisdom.
Now let’s apply these ideas to all of us during these holidays. One thing we should all do during any holiday season is to ‘mellow out.’ Some of us may tend to consider ‘mellowing out’ to be a form of sloth, but I would argue that instead it is a good example of temperance. Mellowing out is not indolence or carelessness but rather asks us to become more careful and considerate. As one critic, on the UUCJ triennial survey, said when asked what I should focus on in my remaining months at UUCJ: “Mellow out. Show more love and acceptance for those who disagree with him or criticize things he says or does.” That sounds like good advice for all of us during our holiday gatherings. It is certainly easier to practice loving acceptance when others are being kind, but temperance invites us to become loving with the lovable and to be gentle and patient with the grumpy, nasty or ignorant.
The core of overcoming spiritual sloth is learning to avoid extravagance, violence and extreme partisanship. Violating another person is never the loving or wise thing to do. Very occasionally it may be the best among bad options, but almost always violation is to be strenuously avoided. Angry words can produce more lasting memories than the most generous gift and ruin a party for everyone present. Whenever you give a gift, you need to consider whether you are giving it to make yourself look good or in order to truly please the recipient. Extravagant gifts are ego-inflators for the giver not genuine gifts for the receiver. Give of yourself, of your respect, your time, and your talents, not of your wallet or your pride. We can each stand up for ourselves and have complete integrity without needing to win the argument in ways that put down other people. Use humor, connect, respect, and persuade instead of dividing, dis-ing, or condemning. The way to overcome the spiritual sin of sloth is to practice the spiritual virtue of temperance.
Unitarian Universalists place their faith in the worth and dignity of all and in a plurality of right answers to life’s basic questions. We are also all committed to everyone’s spiritual growth. This means that every one is worthy but that we are not all the same. It probably means that everyone should not go to college, own a house, have children, vote Democratic or become a Unitarian Universalist. This means that we are asking ourselves to respect Christians, Jews and pagans with their carols, candles and rituals. It means not making people ashamed of their holidays because they are serving meat or are not serving alcohol, have angels in their yard or do or don’t have a Christmas tree. Give everyone a chance to be their own best selves, and realize that will often be different from your present choices, and that that is not just ok, that is good. Spiritual apathy or inactivity among religious liberals is a downer for everyone around you; so, find ways to be spiritually active and enthusiastic that has integrity for you during this holiday season.
The keys to overcoming spiritual sloth and practicing the virtue of temperance are to nurture the energy and skills that you have or can learn, thus effectively minimizing the sin of sloth, while facing up to your own appropriate levels of moderation in every facet of your life.
Now an after-thought, part of the beauty of holidays are allowing ourselves a bit of excess, but for every temporary excess of your own, please give twice your tolerance to those around you. That surely is a fine example of the best spirit of these holidays!