Christian Self-censorship of Dirty Words

[Lek]

I have committed the sin of dehumanizing people, but not in a sexual sense. I think it's usually men who struggle with that one. 

The way I've dehumanized people in my mind is when I've seen someone who is just super weird looking... like, wearing really weird clothes, having a ton of crazy piercings, weird hair colors, super goth types.... rather than just going on about my day and reminding myself that they are people, I kinda laugh in my head about it or think for a little too long about how weird they are. I've viewed them like pawns in a freak show rather than humans and that is wrong of me.

To covet just means to be jealous/envious of what someone else has and dwelling on the wish that you had that thing instead of them.  I think we've all done that. I'm sure I have.

That all seems like normal human behavior to me. I find nothing amoral in these thoughts. Just another reason why I don't understand christian sin. 

If you tied these thoughts to an action, that would be another story.

I think that you're not distinguishing properly what the bible teaches about sinful thoughts versus temptations to sin, which are normal human reactions. We are to give ourselves to God not only physically, but also in our minds. It we go against God's desires either physically or mentally, we are going against God. I'll give an example of what I'm saying about sinning in the mind versus having normal temptations. I can meet my friend's wife and right away feel attracted to her because of her looks or whatever. At that moment I have a few choices as to how to deal with it. One is that I can admit to myself that I'm attracted to her, but leave it at that and not let it go any further. This is not sinful, but rather reacting to a normal human drive and a temptation to commit an evil act. Another way to react would be to begin trying to get close to her and try to have a physical sexual relationship with her, which would be a sinful act. A third situation would be not to try to have a physical relationship with her, but to begin fantasizing and having the physical act in my mind or really wanting to have the physical act, but staying away from her against my own will because I'm afraid of God's reaction. This is sinful in God's eyes not because are you tempted, but because you really want to act on that temptation. Your mind does not desire what God desires.