Today, you're getting a super short and sweet dose of the good (and not so good) words. This morning, I was reading Sin, and Its Indulgences, on the New York Time's Room for Debate page. Looks like the Catholic Church is reviving indulgences.

For those of you who may not be up on your religious history and/or know next to nothing about Catholic theology, I'll fill you in a bit. Indulgences are given for good deeds and are supposed to help cancel out some of the time you'd have to stew in Purgatory before getting to waltz through pearly gates and spending the rest of eternity with Jesus and the angels and God the Father and the Holy Spirit and the rest of the Do Good Gang. The assumption is that very few folks are good enough to go straight to heaven. It is kind of like spiritual insurance. You're betting you'll need the coverage.

I will say that as long as the Catholic Church isn't selling them the way they used to way back in the day, then I don't see too much harm in the practice. If one believes in Catholic conceptions of sin, which obviously I don't, then it might be a very comforting sort of ritual. There does seem to be some valid criticism that this is part of the Pope Benedict XVI's creepy tendency to resurrect the skeletons of old timey Catholic rituals, superstitions, Holocaust denying priests. Some would suggest that Catholics would be better off if all those things/people stayed dead and buried.

All this made me think I that maybe I should start me some sort of indulgences program. I could I start haw. . .anding out indulgences. The idea of all those sinners down on their knees asking for an indulgence from me is just way too exciting. This could end being a cornerstone of my mission to save the whole wide world and little old you. And it could bring in the big bucks, which means I could reach even more people with the good (and not so good) words.

Of course, if folks came to me for indulgences, they probably would end up going out and sinning some more- since I think we are all saved by a soupcon of sinning, now and again.