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∙ ANGER, says Poet W. H. Auden, is a perversion "of something in our nature which in itself is innocent, necessary to our existence and good." The kinds of anger Auden finds most sinful are verbal wickedness substituted for physical violence, and the righteous anger often affected by police officials and governments. "Righteous anger can effectively resist and destroy evil, but the more one relies upon it as a source of energy, the less energy and attention one can give to the good which is to replace the evil once it has been removed. That is why, though there may have been some just wars, there has been no just peace."
∙ LUST is a sin that virtually every man knows about, writes Biographer Christopher Sykes, and the very universality of the vice raises the question: Is it so bad after all? On the one hand, Sykes notes, God created the sexual urge, and denial of it often turns Christians into cold-hearted prudes; on the other hand, a number of well-adjusted people do abstain from sex with no psychological harm, and full sexual freedom— judging from Sweden or Japan — does not necessarily lead "to an earthly paradise whose inhabitants lose all cruel impulse and dwell together in peace and bliss." Sykes suggests that churchmen tend to be too harsh in condemning lust, but joins them in condemning the Don Juan: "He seems to me merely the inverse of the flinty-hearted Pharisee: all the mental and moral energy used up in the strenuous play of seduction."
* The church fathers were very keen on distinguishing varieties of sin. Their basic distinction, still followed by most Chiristian moralists, is between mortal and venial. A mortal sin is a freely willed, deliberate offense against God on a serious matter, deserving of eternal punishment.
A venial sin is a spiritual misdemeanor, involving a less serious matter, or a grave trangression that the sinner did not know was serious, or did not really want to commit.
Deadly sins are evil states of mind that can include or lead to mortal and venial sins.