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Great. Reminds me of one of my favourite Mother Theresa comments that saints are just sinners who keep trying.

New to the bog world, but wanted to share the Sainthood Project. Challenge and Ideas to become a modern day saint.
http://www.sainthoodandsurrender.com/2000/06/welcome-to-sainthood-and-surrender.html

Seriously? How many people does it take to figure out how to read a simple Venn diagram? NDEnvirochick, if that ND is for Notre Dame, you seem to have spent your money well, as you appear to be one of the few commenters on this thread who can interpret a simple picture without mistaking it for the Rosetta Stone. And Randy, there’s a little thing called a DICTIONARY. Find one and use it. Yes that’s the word’s origin, but my goodness man, connotation is not permanently affixed in a living language! Sigh. Sorry all, sharp tongue again, I’ll try and keep it behind my teeth.

I would disagree with Shane. The diagram seems to imply that a prude is someone who shows resistance in the absence of temptation, while a saint is someone who shows resistance when temptation is present. A Venn diagram cannot depict fewer or more, a Venn diagram is all or nothing – thus the diagram states that prudes resist when temptation is lacking, saints resist when temptation is present.

The diagram seems to imply that to be a saint is to submit simply to *fewer* temptations than sinners, but *more* than prudes. Now saints surely do sin in their lives. However, that’s not what makes them saints. It’s what keeps them from being even *greater* saints.

Prude in its common English usage is closer to puritanical than prudence. A prude, for instance, might not listen to Don Giovani. A prudent person would.

Prude is short for prudence. That is a virtue last time I checked. This seems to call it a vice.

I’d agree with John more if I didn’t live in a country where even Catholics are occasionally plagued with the skewed protestant opinion that saintliness and stoicism are the same thing. It is definitely a reductionist diagram though. One man’s prudishness can be another’s virtue. And one man’s libertine life can be another man’s virtue. Well played JohnnyB!

Haha…thanks John…and Thomas. The demotivator is great!

Haha!

I sent you an email with my take on it (in image form)