Comments on: Do Women Sin Differently Than Men?

By: Irish

Irish — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:49:52 +0000

I believe that women also struggle with lustful thoughts. Obviously, men engaging in sexual relationships are doing so with a womem sometimes or men. I might add from a woman’s point of view, that women may be less likely to confess this sin for it’s in their mind not acceptable for them to feel that way, lustful. I might add a friend of mine herself seemed to be struggling with sexual addiction and when she confessed this to her priest she said she thought he would have a heart attack for she taught in a Catholic School. His perception was the same,
this is not an issue for women.

The best time for someone to stop any addiction is before they become habituated to it. Also there is some controversy if there really is such a thing as sexual “addiction” or if this is an excuse to continue to engage in this behavior. However, some studies show the opposite as usual.

Irish BSN,

By: Tony Fey

Tony Fey — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 01:13:30 +0000

It seems to me that the Catholic Church has somewhat of lopsided view sexuality. Nothing is ever mentioned about how women look at men.Priests try to tell me that women don’t struggle with lustfull or impure thoughts,or masterbation. But the women I have been around have the same lustfull thougts men do.

By: Fr. Jeff Belger

Fr. Jeff Belger — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:38:45 +0000

Okay, so this topic is nearly 3 month stagnate. I would like to see it resurrected. I don’t keep a tally sheet in the confessional, however I do see patterns as far as guys go. By no means does it affect every guy who comes into the confessional, but a good percentage struggle with addiction; particularly sexual addictions. “I know it is wrong, but I cannot seem to stop.” is a constant refrain.

It would be great if you could shed some light from the social sciences on sexual addictions. Or point me to previous articles you have posted.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Sat, 23 May 2009 04:26:01 +0000

Women and pride? That really surprised me. I thought that was more of a male thing. I’m surprised gluttony didn’t score higher on the female side, considering how diet conscious women are. UNLESS, they register their diet consciousness as vanity and that got grouped under pride?

By: Harrison

Harrison — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:48:39 +0000

“Might it just be that women are more likely to think that their feelings of pride are sinful, whereas men think their feelings of pride are well-deserved and normal?So a woman who gets an ‚ÄúA‚Äù on a test and thinks she‚Äôs da bomb for doing so might feel a twinge of guilt about her excitement, whereas a man would not.”

I’m kinda confused. Since when did the Church teach that feeling something was sinful?

I don’t believe its theologicaly correct to confess feelings in the confessional. We confess guilt, which is a result from a immoral choice. Its acts of the will, not feelings that make our actions evil. This idea of feelings being immoral sounds extremely rigid and off. Feelings contribute to our desicions but that doesn’t make them bad. Thats like saying hunger is evil cause it causes me to overeat. Or feeling tired is evil because it makes harder to overcome laziness. Anyone else agree here?

By: johanna

johanna — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:21:24 +0000

Thanks for your analysis Christine – much more measured and thoughtful than my original (more visceral) response. :)

By: Jarrad Venegas

Jarrad Venegas — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:14:34 +0000

Excellent article Christine! I’m adding a link to our Confession 101 videos.

http://www.bustedhalo.com/features/confession-101-part-one/

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:28:35 +0000

We should notice that the data indictates that men and women confess these sins but it does not say whether these sins are actually sins. Some women may in fact confess pride but may simply be downplaying their accomplishments. A good confessor would be able to point out that her behavior in this instance may indeed not be sinful at all.

So while women may confess pride–they indeed may not be committing that sin at all. The same with male confessions of lust which may just be natural feelings of attraction at time that someone interprets too scrupulously. Hopefully, the priests doing the compiling (which is dangerously close to breaking the seal of confession in my opinion) were able to tell the difference.

By: Christy

Christy — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:35:19 +0000

I do indeed wonder how this “data” was compiled. Did he keep track (which seems like a very unethical thing to do – even if you’re not recording names)? Did he just make a random guess based on his memory of confessions he’s received (completely unreliable)? And, well… what would the purpose be of keeping track of this anyway? I’m thinking that a “sin survey” filled out with informed consent just seems like a better idea.
The “findings” do seem like logical conclusions. But who knows? Maybe the priest is projecting his own gender bias into his data?