Are Thoughts Sins?
Equating thought and action is a symptom of OCD. Does Christianity make OCD worse?
This is our first joint post. Enjoy!
I (Anna) have been counseling many people who experience obsessive thoughts and actions due to OCD. Some of them experience a cognitive distortion where a person conflates the thought of doing something with actually having done it.
Psychologists call this “thought-action fusion.” The mind conflates the thought with the action.
Meanwhile, I (Joel) have been writing about sexual desire and sin, mainly same-sex attraction. I have argued that same-sex attraction is not sin.
But in that discussion, many people argue that same-sex attraction is sin, on the basis of Matthew 5:27-28:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
In this passage, Jesus says that lust is equivalent to adultery. Doesn’t that mean that thought is equivalent to action? If so, then Jesus exacerbates the OCD symptom of thought-action fusion.
But no: Equating thought and action is incorrect. Thought-action fusion is a cognitive distortion, and Jesus does not want us to commit it. This essay explains how Christianity can inadvertently promote thought-action fusion.
What Is Thought-Action Fusion?
People who experience thought-action fusion (TAF), especially devout Christians, feel guilt and anxiety about their moral status, by equating thought and action.
Two types of thought-action fusion can occur:
Likelihood TAF: This is the belief that thinking about a negative event makes it more likely to occur.
Moral TAF: This is the belief that thinking about a negative event is morally equivalent to actually carrying out that event.
With “likelihood TAF,” an individual believes that thinking about their house catching fire makes it more likely for the fire to occur. With “moral TAF,” the individual believes that thinking about harming a loved one is as morally wrong as actually harming them.
TAF is especially associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder but can also be present in other anxiety-related disorders.
Logic cannot convince someone with OCD that they did not commit an act and quiet their anxiety. One woman I (Anna) have been counseling has been through medical school but is still convinced that if she walks past an abandoned band-aid (without touching it), she has been contaminated and needs to go through her cleaning rituals.
A major category of TAF is intrusive thoughts of “unacceptable/taboo thoughts with mental/covert compulsions and reassurance-seeking.” Their most taboo thoughts tend to be centered around pedophilia, homosexual desires, blasphemy, and violent acts.
Everyone experiences unwanted, intrusive, taboo thoughts of some kind. Individuals with thought-action fusion tend to attach excessive weight to these thoughts.
Another woman I’ve been counseling is convinced that she is a pedophile because she has intrusive images, thoughts, and fears of molesting children.
“What if I ran this person over with my car?”
Many people have thought of this. It’s actually not weird; it’s human to have some intrusive thoughts. Usually, we dismiss the thought and move on.
But someone struggling with thought-action fusion might say, “I wanted to kill that person; so, I must be a murderer.” They are overwhelmed by this.
The same goes for unwanted sexual thoughts: “I had a thought of committing adultery with that person; so, I must be an adulterer because I wanted it.” Then the person will spiral into “cleansing rituals” of making sure that she did not want that thought.
Christians place a lot of value on the character of our inner lives and thoughts. This makes us particularly susceptible to TAF.
Christian scripture frequently refers to how we ought to think:
Philippians 4:8: “Whatever is true, … honorable … just … pure … lovely … commendable, … think about these things.”
2 Corinthians 10:5: “Take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
We read these Scriptures and conclude that thought is as important as action. Christians who have obsessive thoughts find their thought-action fusion reinforced by Christ’s teaching.
Christianity provides rituals for those seeking reassurance: Confession and repentance. But treating TAF requires breaking the cycle of obsession (confession) and compulsion (repentance). When an OCD sufferer confesses thoughts as sins and repents, seeking reassurance, the thoughts can become more powerful and frequent. It is a vicious cycle.
But in treating OCD, counselees must stop the compulsions and rituals, which means not repenting of these thoughts.
In my experience working with clients, not repenting for thoughts has helped my OCD clients reduce the compulsive, unwanted thoughts. Saying “Stop doing this thing!” will terrify someone with OCD. But my job is to help the client see that these intrusive thoughts are not sins, and that they are experiencing the distortion of thought-action fusion.
Anyone Who Looks, Intentionally
In Matthew 5:28, Christ appears to teach that lusting after a woman is equivalent to committing adultery with her in your heart.
In this essay, I (Joel) argued that sexual attraction is NOT equivalent to committing adultery in the heart.
For example, if the young man in the above image merely felt attraction to the woman in the foreground, he wouldn’t have sinned.
Obviously, if he hops into bed with her, he has sinned.
Jesus says that the young man could also commit adultery with her in his heart. He would do that by an inward act of imagination and lust.
In the linked essay, I argued that Jesus is condemning inward action in addition to outward action, but not mere attraction.
But take a second look at the verse:
“Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
What does Jesus say is sin? In addition to committing adultery, intentionally looking at a woman to lust.
Hold on. Looking is an outward action. When a man looks, observers know it. Especially women. And that’s what the man in the “distracted boyfriend” meme is doing.
Jesus also says “with lustful intent.” Committing adultery in the heart is intentional.
Those who say same-sex attraction is a sin argue that unintentional and unchosen desires are sins. But Jesus doesn’t say that.
In Matthew 5:28, Jesus condemns intentional looking. He doesn’t condemn peoples’ unwanted desires, unbidden attractions, and unintended feelings or thoughts. He doesn’t encourage us to commit thought-action fusion.
I suggest a new translation:
“Anyone who intentionally looks at a woman to lust, but not everyone who experiences unwanted sexual attraction, has already committed adultery in his heart.”
Helping Those in Misery
Pastor John Andrew Bryant writes powerfully about his OCD in A Quiet Mind to Suffer With. As he describes it, the thoughts he experiences are not his own:
“If they are mine, they are only mine in this way: that I am the one they are happening to. I am the one who has to see them.”
Key to Bryant’s being able to function well with OCD was recognizing that he is not his thoughts. They happen to him.
Christians do more damage to these sufferers when we say, “your thoughts are sins.” “Your intrusive thoughts about violence or sex are sin.” “Your sexual orientation is sin.”
Jesus does speak about hating someone in your heart as “liable to judgment” (though not equivalent to murder). But hatred and lust in the heart still require intention.
It is not sin to have intrusive, unwanted thoughts in our minds. That’s a result of being in a fallen world and having broken bodies and minds. “The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.”
Those who focus on the sinfulness of sexual thoughts and temptations confuse thought and action. This causes Christians more shame and hiding:
“The anxiety and shame these irrational thoughts and sudden warnings create is tremendous. The content is unspeakable, the peril feels unmentionable, so you make sure you tell no one.”
The Book of Job is dedicated to warning us not to chalk it all up to sin in this miserable life. Job’s friends represent the voice of Satan when they keep telling Job to repent: “You’re suffering? You must have sinned!”
Had Job sinned? No.
When Christians tell people that their unwanted thoughts are sins, we are parroting Job’s friends.
Instead, let’s come to fellow sinners and sufferers with comfort and reassurance. Unwanted thoughts are part of the human condition; and some people experience it even worse, as OCD.
Those who are suffering from OCD and other mental disorders have a unique experience of life that we struggle to understand. However, God does understand our suffering completely: “He knows our frame; he knows that we are but dust.”
To those suffering from thought-action fusion, our message is not, repent of your thoughts. It’s, your thoughts are not sins.
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Amazing entry! Thought-Action Fusion is such an interesting topic, and in my opinion is a game changer in recovery when you finally grow to understand it. 💜
Nice. I like the quote from John Andrew Bryant