'I have no problem with the word "sin." I think it is one of our most brilliant evasions to have associated sin so strongly with sexuality that we can by coy about it, or narrowly obsessed with it, or we can dismiss it with as a synonym for prudery, as we go on hating and reviling. as we go on grinding the faces of the poor. We alone among the animals can sin - one of our truly notable distinctions. Or, to put it another way - we are the only creatures who are, in principle if seldom in fact, morally competent. Responsible, or at least answerable.'
Marilynne Robinson, The Givenness of Things, p.236.
