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àc an offense against religious or moral law
àc an often serious shortcoming/fault
àc transgression of the law of God
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àc an act committed against others that degrade, oppress, or
exclude
àc mt is a state or attitude instilled by society.
àc he idea that there exists a larger, social dimension of sin beyond
individual wrongdoing. Structural sin proposes that we can have
corporate responsibility for sinful actions that originate from
social systems. (he Other Journal)
àc he concept of structural sin may seem strange to americans
with a strong characteristic of individualism.
Ôc ëest warns:
he real danger of structural sin is that we usually do
not recognize it. mn order to see structural sin for what it is
we need those who are the victims of particular structural
sins to teach us. For example, women will teach us about the
enveloping structural sin of patriarchy; black people will
teach us about the enduring structural sin of racism; ...and
the poor will teach us about the structural sin of global
capitalism.
Ôc uxhibits a complex relation to personal sin, because
structures do not have wills but people do.
Ôc ½ohn Paul mm (Reconciliatio et Penitentia): ´he
responsibility of structures consists in the
 accumulation and concentration of many personal
sins«of those who cause or support evil or who
exploit it; of those who could do something to
eliminate or at least limit certain social evils but who
fail to do so out of laziness, fear of the conspiracy of
silence, through secret complicity or indifference.µ
àc Ñiberation heology (traditional views of sin as committed by
individuals) added the concept of ´structuralsin.µ he idea is that
the social climate fosters sinful attitudes as normal behavior.
àc Sin in the Bible means something more than individual acts of
wrongdoing. There is another dimension to the whole
experience of sin. mn very general terms we could say that it is the
corporate or social dimension of sin.
Ôc mt does not speak about it in terms of social, corporate
or collective sins or in terms of structures or systems,
but in terms of false gods, demons, devils, evil spirits,
principalities, powers and the law (Nolan 1988: 42).

Ôc ´he personal and the social are two dimensions that

are present in every sin. all sin is both personal and
social at the same time. all sin is personal in the sense
that only individuals can commit sin, only individuals
can be guilty, only individuals can be sinners.
However,all sins also have a social dimension because
sins have social consequences. Sins become
institutionalized and systematized in the structures,
laws and customs of a society.µ (Nolan 1988: 43).
dc u  
àc racism
àc classism (high - middle - low)
àc materialism (haves and don't haves)
àc sexism
àc political affiliation