I keep thinking about the Seven Deadly Sins, and I continue to be helped by Dorothy Sayer’s thoughts. She writes in her essay, “The Other Six Deadly Sins” the following:

“The Church then, officially recognizes six other capital or basic sins–seven altogether. Of these, three may be roughly called the warm-hearted, or disreputable sins, and the remaining four the cold-hearted or respectable sins. It is interesting to notice that Christ rebuked the three disreputable sins only in mild or general terms, but uttered the most violent vituperations against the respectable ones. Caesar and the Pharisees, on the other hand, strongly dislike anything warm-hearted or disreputable, and set great store by the cold-hearted and respectable sins, which they are in a conspiracy to call virtues. And we may note that, as religious opinion, the common man is rather inclined to canonize the warm-hearted sins for himself, and to thank God openly that he is broad-minded, given to a high standard of living and instinct with religious indignation–not prurient, strait-laced or namby-pamby, or even as this Pharisee.”