CALL SIN SOMETHING ELSE, PLEASE?
There is a story about a Methodist preacher who often spoke on the subject of sin. He defined sin as that abominable thing that God hates. One day some of the leading laymen came to urge their pastor to stop using the word sin. The laymen told their pastor that they want him to stop being so plain and always talking about sin. We believe that because you speak against it so often that our young people are more likely to try it. Couldn’t you just call it an error, a mistake or even that it was the fault of nature.
The pastor said I think I understand what you are saying. Then he got up went to his book shelf and took a bottle from the shelf. He pointed to the bottle and said according to this label this bottle contains strychnine and the label is saying that it is poison. Then the pastor took some paper wrote on the paper and glued it to the bottle. The he handed the bottle to the laymen and said have a drink because as you now can see the label say soda pop.
The laymen looked at their pastor and said are you trying to kill us. It doesn’t matter that you have changed the label; the bottle still contains poison. The pastor looked at his laymen and said isn’t that what you want me to do. You think that just because I call sin something else that it will suddenly become harmless.