We’ve all heard of the “seven deadly sins” according to Christian doctrine: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.

But how many have heard of the Seven Social Sins?

I hadn’t either, until I read about a British Anglican priest named Frederick Lewis Donaldson, who rose through the Church’s hierarchy to become Archdeacon of Westminster.

On April 1, 1925 — and this was not an April fool’s joke — in an address at Westminster Abbey, he spoke of what he considered to be the “seven social evils”:

> Politics without principle.
> Wealth without work.
> Pleasure without conscience.
> Knowledge without character.
> Commerce and industry without morality.
> Science without humanity.
> Worship without sacrifice.

I doubt that Archdeacon Donaldson had the slightest inkling that he had just described every single member of an American presidential administration 100 years in the future . . . and if he had, he would most certainly have been horrified at the prospect.

But it’s eerily prescient, and more than a little disturbing . . . isn’t it?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/16/26