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Don Follis Religion News Articles

Don Follis 1/25/2002 religion column:
"Sins won't be ranked on judgment day"

        When Sara Jane Olson of Minneapolis and Clyde Hood of Mattoon were both
sentenced on January 18th, I tried to imagine hiding from the law for 20
years or swindling unsuspecting people out of millions of dollars.
        Back in the 1970s Olson ran with the radical Symbionese Liberation Army as
Kathleen Soliah.  She was sentenced in Los Angeles to 20 years to life in
prison for a 1970s Los Angeles bombing plot with intent to kill.
        The Minnesota mother and community activist was on the lam for more than
20 years before being arrested a couple of years ago.  Last Friday Olson
told a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, "For any mistakes I've
made, I accept responsibility.  For any pain I've caused, I accept
responsibility.  I'm truly sorry."
        Clyde Hood, the 67-year-old retired Mattoon electrician, crushed the hopes
of thousands of people through an international fraud known as Omega Trust
and Trading.  Hood controlled millions of dollars through the
money-laundering conspiracy.
        Last Friday U.S. District Judge Michael McCuskey sentenced Hood to 14
years in a federal prison. Before his sentence was imposed Hood released a
statement that said, "I am very sorry for what I did, and I ask the judge
to please have mercy on me."
        Of course, I never would have committed the grievous sins credited to
Olson and Hood.  To prove this, I decided to list the "sins" I do struggle
with, or easily could.  I trust you'll forgive my subtle shortcomings,
hardly noticeable to the average person.

addiction               anger                   animosity
anxiety         bitterness              boastfulness
closed mindedness       condemnation            condescension
covetousness            deception               demanding
dissension              domination              envy
factions                fear                    gluttony
gossip                  half-truths             hatred
haughtiness             hostility               idolatry
impatience              impurity                indifference
inflexibility           insincerity             intemperance
irritability            jealousy                judgment
lack of affection       laziness                lukewarmness
lying                   materialism             negativism
prayerlessness  prejudice               pride
purposelessness rebellion               resentment
rudeness                self-righteousness      selfishness
skepticism              temperamental           unbelief
unforgiveness           ungratefulness  vanity

        You see what I mean?  I'm not as bad as Sara Jane Olson or Clyde Hood.
Oh, you want the truth? Okay, here it is.  No part of any person (mind,
emotions, conscience, will) has remained untainted by the fall in the
Garden of Eden -- not Sara Jane Olson, not Clyde Hood and certainly not me.
 This is not about ranking who is better or worse than the next person is.
We all equally and desperately need salvation.
        We fine redeemed folks in East Central Illinois who have yet to plot a
murder or bilk gullible people out of millions of dollars need to
continuously confront the subtle sins in our lives.  Every person is
inevitably and ultimately accountable to God.   All will "stand before
Christ to be judged" (II Corinthians 5:10).
        I like Clyde Hood's statement to Judge McCuskey a lot.  I even have
rewritten it and put in my wallet to pull out on Judgement Day.  It simply
reads, "Be merciful to me, a sinner."
 

Don Follis is an Urbana minister.  Reprinted with permission from the
Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, copyright 2002.