My kid is watching “Riverdale.” Telling him he could watch it is proving to be one of the dicier decisions I’ve made as a parent. He’s learned a new word that he’s having trouble with. The Black Hood is terrorizing the town in Season 2 in an effort to rid it of “sinners.” And my son is confused.
He’s confused because as a household guided by pagan tenets, the concept of “sin” just isn’t something we engage with.
Don’t get it twisted. I’ve been teaching my son the difference between right and wrong. It’s just that the underlying theory behind which is which, and why it matters is wholly different when you’re a pagan.
“Sin” is a technical term, one that has been pored over in fine detail within the Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism and Islam). For them, it’s a very specific kind of wrongdoing. The commission of a sin is not the working of injury on someone else, it’s violating sacred laws prescribed by deity. One can work injury against anyone, one may only sin in defiance of their god.
I am not here to expound upon the notion of sin from the Abrahamic perspective. I leave that to people who walk those paths. What I am here to discuss is how pagans see the idea of “sin.” (Always keeping in mind the “Rule of 100” — NOTHING is 100 percent true for 100 percent of pagans 100 percent of the time.) And the truth is, “sin” is not a…
