I believe that they are sins, as is everything else that defiles our bodies. I gave up drinking because I knew it was wrong before God and gives a wrong picture to others.
God changes our hearts and these things start dying in us, and we start wanting to give them up.
But we can do all that outwardly and it will mean nothing if our hearts are wrong, this is what the Pharisees did, licking themselves clean whilst their hearts are full of dead men's bones.
God wants our hearts cleansed first and foremost, then the rest will follow. We can't judge others, they might be smoking or drinking yet their heart could be far better than ours. And one might be smoking, but no one can criticise as we are all doing something wrong, none of us are perfect, but still it's good to strive to give up what we know is wrong.
Usually when we enjoy it, is wrong before God.
I think, in a way, you're right. One sure sign of sin is enjoyment, because we have such trouble differentiating and discerning and discriminating and determining between sinful enjoyment and righteous enjoyment, when we are sinfully enjoying something. Sure morals are a sign of not sinning. Sinning is a combination of an objective trespass (transgression of law; essentially "crime"), with full knowledge and complete consent, I'm paraphrasing the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can be an audacious trespasser (And forgive us our trespasses) and not be a sinner, only if you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ the son of Mary the mother of God rose from the dead. If and only if, as He is the only Way to the Father Jn14:9KJV.
There's some sort of problem with the Catholic Church in China, I just caught wind of. The grapevine in the Church isn't as efficient as the major media outlets, they really are "killing" news and journalism. They don't advertise the major Church news though, because major Church news isn't necessarily going to sell newspapers, so the Church has to do what she can to get the word out. She's having a problem in China right now, there's a problem with the Catholic Church in China, some conflict, I believe with the Chinese government. I'm certain that the whole problem can be avoided if the Chinese people understand that the Christian faith is simply about one thing, and that is the Resurrection. Everything else about the Church is explained completely and satisfyingly when one understands that the Church is the naturally expected result, if the Resurrection is nonfiction. If the Resurrection was fiction, then there's no reason that there are two-to-three ("[.]223") billion Christians now; it would have died out by now. If the Chinese understand this then the Catholic Church's problem will be solved, and as a Christian, I am rooting for the Catholic Church in China, because China is the biggest threat to America right now, just because they are such an enormous country, with so many potential warriors that it is daunting, especially to any American president, because while we might not all appreciate this grave position, is immaterial, the president concerns themselves with China because China is huge, and, China is prudent, wrt defense. China is modernizing and modernizing and modernizing, slowly and surely. There are reportedly over five times more Chinese than Americans. Chinese people are physically different from Americans, but there is not clinical reason to believe Chinese people are less intelligent than Americans, so the Chinese are more than five times more likely to have among their population a true, polymathic genius living among them, and I mean right now. The only play again China right now, is the Catholic Church. It's the truest mission of peace there's ever been. Countries don't learn not to wage wars, by reading books. They learn not to wage wars by waging wars and losing, and China could be the country that wages war and wins, and so therefore never learns to not wage war,
Ceteris paribus, in that, throughout history, all aggressors have eventually succumbed to free nations, and so have learned "the hard way" that they have been the aggressors. Economically, they've been less successful, and it's because they're not Christian enough, frankly. We don't need to wage war for them to admit and acknowledge and accept that they are aggressive by nature, like we all are, and because of that we need to trust each other, and that means we need to compare notes, and the Chinese people will be eager to cooperate with us, if they receive the Catholic Church happily. All the Church wants to do is celebrate the sacraments and pray the mass; baptism, confirmation, reconciliation, holy orders, marriage, extreme unction, and the Eucharist; the Lord's Supper, the eating of His body and drinking His blood, in remembrance of Him; a remembrance of His Resurrection.
This isn't an emergency by any means, since China has wavered in their support of North Korea very recently. But the sooner that China makes peace with the Catholic Church, the sooner we are off to peace and profit. Like with Japan, but without a major military conflict. We just need the Catholic Church to have a good experience in China, and we'll get China to change in the minor ways that would help enormously.
So, if you can help, that'd be great.
