Even gossip is considered a sin.
In religious families, communities and organizations, he said, "unacceptable thoughts are considered a sin and are pushed away, put in a mental repository where they go unexamined".
"They used to be known as an evangelical company -- never mind the fact that they were selling beer in the first place, a product that used to be considered a sin -- but as they grew, that spiritual purity changed.
I suppose flirtation may be considered a sin, especially when it consists of sharing (as distinct from enacting) an explicit sexual fantasy with a person not one's spouse.
In Saudi Arabia, as in much of the Islamic world, it is considered a sin to depict a likeness of Muhammad, and until now, at least, it was unthinkable to show the face of a sahabi, an original confidant.
Music schools were closed, and it was considered a sin even to sign a document containing the word music, though many people kept their instruments and continued to play in private at considerable risk.
"A few years ago it was considered a sin to publicly oppose the Taliban," declared a prominent Pashtun cleric recently, adding that now "people just quietly wait for their demise".
It is up to you to follow your faith even if you don't think that something should be considered a sin or you believe that women should be priests: you can't be a cafeteria Catholic and a Roman Catholic.
Tom Wolfe, the author of "Bonfire of the Vanities," the 1987 novel that brought into the vernacular the phase "social X-ray," said: "In the '60s and '70s, it was considered a sin to dress in an extreme way, and then that was gone.
Any distraction is considered a sin.
