To answer your question in the OP, VL, I find the notion of admitting one's a sinner to be silly on the surface (mostly due to the idea of sin itself), but troublesome overall.
Demanding that people label themselves in such a way can be damaging. There are plenty of deconverts who can attest to that, our own drfuzzy among them. And that's because the label 'sinner' tends to come with a lot of negative baggage, which is evidenced in the language a lot of Christians use when talking about themselves. "I was nothing before I found god," "It's only through god's grace that I can do <whatever>," etc. It seems to often manifest as a negative feedback loop for one's self-esteem. That all positive things happen because of god, and all negative things happen because the individual is worthless and terrible.
It's psychologically unhealthy.
Now, obviously not all Christians fall into that kind of head space. There are plenty (most?) that are well (enough
) adjusted. But I'm not a fan of the practice as an outsider, and I give Olympic gold medal quality side eye to people who start their religious spiels with some version of "I'm a sinner, but/yet...."
Demanding that people label themselves in such a way can be damaging. There are plenty of deconverts who can attest to that, our own drfuzzy among them. And that's because the label 'sinner' tends to come with a lot of negative baggage, which is evidenced in the language a lot of Christians use when talking about themselves. "I was nothing before I found god," "It's only through god's grace that I can do <whatever>," etc. It seems to often manifest as a negative feedback loop for one's self-esteem. That all positive things happen because of god, and all negative things happen because the individual is worthless and terrible.
It's psychologically unhealthy.
Now, obviously not all Christians fall into that kind of head space. There are plenty (most?) that are well (enough
) adjusted. But I'm not a fan of the practice as an outsider, and I give Olympic gold medal quality side eye to people who start their religious spiels with some version of "I'm a sinner, but/yet...."
