8th sin? Readers chime in

Is seven really enough? That's what we wondered as we began our Seven Deadly Sins series in early March. Are the original seven sins, as codified by Pope Gregory in the sixth century — lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, anger, envy and pride — really the worst human transgressions, or has something important been left off the list? And is there something about life in the beginning of the 21st century that provokes us to sin in ways that Gregory could never have imagined?

Many of you who responded to our query nominated apathy (also identified as indifference and complacency) as the eighth deadly sin, much as British respondents to a BBC radio poll did in 2004.

"In this world of quick fixes, easy access and noticeable intolerance, along comes the 8th deadly sin to torment mankind," wrote Susan T. Holt of Salt Lake City. "It is an insidious and often unrecognized addition until its hold is unrelenting. I refer to the sin of indifference, which creeps in slowly by allowing one to skip a political caucus meeting here and ignore a neighborhood watch meeting there until one is lulled into the complacency of thinking the input of one is of no matter to the outcome."

Or as Cynthia Woo of San Francisco pointed out: "Turning away from people in need is a form of apathy that lets us forget how much in need every one of us is and how blessed each one of us has been."

Rudeness also got several votes, because, as Duane Nelson noted about the rude among us, "they are all over the place. I mean, where were these people 40 years ago?" There were also votes for a cousin of rudeness, ingratitude. As 81-year-old Jeanne P. Lawler said, "I send out many gifts, for instance, in reply to wedding announcements, and rarely do I receive a 'thank you.' "

Votes also came in for, in alphabetical order: aggression, complicity (the justification of sin because someone else is doing it, as Steven J. Allison notes), cynicism, demagoguery, denying God, dishonesty and duplicity (including 'spin'), e-mailing and blogging, fear, feeling like you never have enough, hatred, ignorance, impatience, intolerance, not forgiving others, prurience and porn, self-doubt, self-indulgence, self-righteousness, self-victimization, self-worship, "the relinquishing up of one's attention to whatever glittery thing that happens to capture it," wanting immediate gratification, and wanting to make money without working for it.

Betty Ann Leasure of Bountiful suggested we take a look at Gandhi's version of the Seven Deadly Sins: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, science without humanity, knowledge without character, politics without principle, commerce without morality and worship without sacrifice.