Giving someone emotional abuse a sin?

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Is giving someone the "silent treatment" a sin?

And no I'm not just talking about people not talking to me.
I meant to purposely give someone the cold shoulder and ignore them whenever possible a sin?

No.

Sin is an affront to God.

Unless they are ignoring God, they are not committing a sin.

Are you God?

depends on the situation

Is holding a grudge against a sinner a sin?
And giving the cold shoulder for the rest of their life...

IF you accept the Bible as truth; IF you accept Paul as an apostle for Christ, and IF you are the one giving the cold shoulder, then you would be justified in calling it a "sin".

Are you the giver or the receiver of this "cold shoulder"?

the receiver

You can judge only your own "sins".

The other person does not have to like you, or even acknowledge your presence.

What have you done to offend them?

I'm starting to experience a whole bunch of self-realizations about my life. I know that I don't live up to society's standards and that he has a right to ignore/ give me the cold shoulder. I know what I did was wrong before he set about doing this. I feel bad. I prayed to God. I have social anxiety so its hard to sum up the courage and "apologize for my past mistake in person". I also CANT let go though. I know Jesus says Go and Sin no more, but its hard to live with myself. I want to punish myself. I want someone to continue punishing me. In fact, I've been doing horrible things to myself hoping that what I did will be paid for by my own misery in life. I've even felt so bad about it at one point that I feel that suicide will be my way of paying for it. <Despite that, I've tried to live with myself and hope to change for the better and try to figure out a way of helping others (VIA niceness, opening doors for people, running errands for people, etc)

Its still hard to live with myself. I mean I'm PUNISHING myself already, to have him to continue to hold a grudge on top of that... (That's lasted for more than 1 year now)..

"In everything, treat people the same way you want them to treat you", you know, the Golden Rule? Do you want to be given the silent treatment or emotionally abused whatsoever? "Yes"? I won't believe you. "No"? Then don't do it to others.

^As I said I'm not the one giving the person the cold shoulder. I'm the one receiving it.

If you are a christian, you are commanded to turn the other cheek, right?

As an atheist, I just find that it's exhausting and unproductive to get too worked up about people treating me poorly.

The Bible does say "words can cut like a sword."

Dont know what it says about the absence of words, but being given the cold shoulder is speech-by-omission I suppose.

Not that is an actual sin.


The question is what to do about it.

Sounds like youve suffered enough for whatever crime you commited ( you still havent said what it is).

So either move on, or try to make contact with this person and talk it out and apologize. Fish or cut bait.

Well, we as mere humans without authority cannot control the actions of others. There are many things which could be set right, but there seems to always more that turn wrong. I can understand how it stinks to be treated wrongly, but what can really be done? Smack them upside the head? Somethings are best to just let go. If they become actively abusive though, then there are laws against that in many nations. Since you are able to communicate online I'm betting your nation has such laws. People giving the silent treatment would probably not be illegal in any country but it is rude.

Last edited by iamnotaparakeet on 15 Nov 2011, 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

When i was religious, i came to the realization that "Justice" is not something that occurs in this life. Nothing and no one can truly be made whole once it has been wronged.

The only thing that's different now is I'm pretty sure justice doesn't exist at all other than as a concept.

Maeko, your best course of action may be to ignore them in return. Some people can not accept an apology without an act of total debasement on the part of the person making the apology. Even then, they may retract their "forgiveness" at a later date if you ever offend them again.

Especially if they lack a Y chromosome.