In Israel, people who don't keep Torah are called חילונים. In English they are called "irreligious" or "secular". It sounds innocuous. He is religious and the other guy is irreligious. Live and let live. We live in a democracy. Freedom of religion. One OTD teenager would tell me "I have בחירה חופשית" as if that means that one can do whatever one wants in the world and get away with it.
Chazal saw things differently. If someone transgresses even an איסור דרבנן he is called a רשע [see below]. He is also חייב מיתה.
But it is NOT POLITE to call people "evil". So we made up a polite name that is completely misleading. As if everything will be OK b/c, hey, free country. You choose to keep mitzvos and I choose not to. If today's חילונים are really תינוקות שנשבו and are not guilty is Hashem's business. We can't know. But a person who knows better and does aveiros is a רשע and no elegant term can change that.
That being said - there is always תשובה. But it is clear that in our times sinners are viewed with great tolerance.
Imagine someone violated [i.e. raped] someone's mother. How would the child feel? Would he say "That is the choice he made and I respect that". Of course not. A person who wantonly does aveiros violates the Torah and כביכול Hashem. We are tolerant b/c we lack the sensitivity and appreciation for what an aveirah means and the destruction it beings upon the world. Aveiros cause cancer [among many other illnesses].
"Mussar" is defined [among other definitions] as knowing the stringency and seriousness of aveiros and the value of mitzvos. The more mussar one learns, the more he is sensitive to the value of shmiras hamitzvos.
