Antinomianism

I somehow got through 27 or so years of education without hearing — or at least remembering — the word antinomianism. When I read about it on that Wikipedia page, and first on this BlueSky thread, I recognized it as what I had learned of as the historical debate in Christianity about faith vs. good works. 

So that's what it is, but the term was never used in my hearing or reading. Martin Luther came up with the word, though I never learned that. 

I also don't think the way my teacher explained the faith vs. good works debate included the idea that the "faith" side of it included the idea of exemption from being able to sin at all, after a person professed belief.

Like... what? The Wikipedia says, antinomianism posits that "believers have a 'license to sin' and that future sins do not require repentance." 

A person in the BlueSky thread put it this way: "if you ARE saved, all your impulses and desires now serve God, so if you are inclined to do something that would otherwise be a sin you can rest assured it's God's plan, since saved people don't have sinful impulses any more."

Like the people discussing in the BlueSky thread, I am aghast at this idea, and can see how it serves the powerful (mostly men) within Christian sects. Nothing you do to anyone else is wrong, and you have no requirement to do anything good for anyone. 

Sounds great if you're a psychopathic narcissist! I can see how we got the place where there are almost daily reports of fundamentalist preachers accused of various forms of sexual abuse. 

Antinomianism: it's not about systems thinking.