“11. Do you gamble or play cards, even without money, with relatives and people at home to "kill time" as the saying goes?”
Can someone explain this one to me? I don't gamble but I play card games like Uno or solitaire sometimes, is this one more about wasting time?
In “
Examinations of Conscience” as we call them, sins are typically listed and helpfully arranged according to categories: such as sins against each of the
Ten Commandments, or sins against the seven
theological virtues. These are then further broken down into degree of sin such as mortal or venial, according to one’s state in life (individual, couples, etc.) and so forth. Presumably, these helpful categories were removed when this confession guide was “Orthodoxized” since classifying things like sins and virtues in such rational manner just reeks of papism and the Latins’ legal, juridicial, Augustinian mentality, not to mention Scholasticism and —distinctions and categories and all that bad stuff, ya know.
Based on what I’ve seen before, this confession guide was probably following a numbering arrangement based upon each of the Ten Commandments. We Catholics number the Ten Commandments differently from Protestants (except Lutherans, they use the same numbering we do—based on Augustine). OrthodoxInfo omitted these from its version, but under this scheme, the question you posted would fall under the category of
sins against the Seventh and Tenth Commandments: “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not cover thy neighbors goods”. That would have given you, the penitent, a clearer idea of what it’s getting at.
Strictly speaking
gambling is not sinful and immoral in itself. It can be made the occasion of sin (such as when a passion for gambling leads a man to spend money which is not his own, or which is necessary for the upkeep of wife or children, or to pay his lawful debts)... besides, there is generally an element of danger in it, most people gambling arouses keen excitement, and quickly develops into a passion which is difficult to control. If indulged in to excess it
leads to loss of time, and usually of money; to an
idle and useless life spent in the midst of bad company and unwholesome surroundings; and to scandal which is a source of sin and ruin to others. One can see how gambling, then, could
lead to sins against the 7th and 10th commandments. Playing cards & gambling without money, likewise, are legitimate forms of amusement and not in themselves sinful but could become such. Like you said, it’s talking about wasting time on idle amusements (“thou shalt not steal”).
I wouldn’t worry too much about playing cards with family members or playing Uno or solitaire and things like that becoming an occasion of sin though. If anything, those are all wholesome activities, especially to do with family members (“relatives and people at home”) You have to remember, this is also probably based upon something that is based upon something that is from the early 1950s
at the very latest. You are more likely to be “kill time” in idleness by being holed up inside playing video games these days, than by playing rummy or canasta with your relatives.
