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According to a google search he never admitted to this crime in his life, the admission is only posthumous.
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this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2026
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Why does a confession even confer absolution?
* flips chair around backwards and straddles it *
Lemme tell you about a really cool guy named Jesus Christ!
😆
From what I understand you can just go and say “sorry daddy i killed a bus of children” and the priest goes “its ok bro” and youre good for heaven????
As an ex-Catholic, that is not the way it works in Catholicism.
There is no such thing as true absolution for confession of mortal sins. The only true way for absolution of mortal sins is through continuous good works, and even that does not guarantee your place in heaven. More than likely the best you can expect is that you will end up in purgatory, in continuous repentance until Judgement Day.
That being said, one of the most common ways to gain this kind of absolution historically is through massive monetary donations to the Church, so let's not give the Church too much credit here, but let's also not flanderize it.
i think you also have to accept this Jesus Christ fella as your Big Buddy and Sponsor or something like that. but once you do that it's fine
You must let him fill your god-shaped hole. Otherwise he burns you forever.
Is this a reference to the donut man? If so, hello fellow evangelical protestant upbringing survivor
not the person you originally asked but holy shit a fellow donut man rememberer?? hi! ive literally never found people outside of my specific homeschool cadre who remember this guy lol. did you also have to suffer through psalty the singing....hymnal? prayer book? whatever it was? 😅
Oh yeah we definitely had psalty as well. Eventually we leaned into Veggie Tales which honestly was a pretty big upgrade.
No, that's new nightmare fuel to me, lol. I'm just frustrated by religious people asserting that any dissatisfaction or frustration is a result of lacking their particular god. But yes, I was raised southern baptist. 😞 Hello! 👋
Oh my. That's as bad as Pentecostal/Holiness/Evangelist nondenom in my area, and maybe worse, since at least the holiness recall Miriam as the high priestess, and do suffer women teaching, even if they have to defer to men, but only if the man leads in a biblical manner. There are exceptions here that go both ways. I've listened to women preach at my favorite Baptist church, and a family friend was ordained as a woman preacher into the AME church, back home.
I pretty much won't set foot into a white Baptist church, Church of God, Pentecostal, and I generally avoid nondenom/evangelical churches like the plague. All that said, the last time I was in a church was at a funeral, but I did attend an outdoor holiness service, lately, and was pleasantly surprised to hear a gospel hip-hop artist call out the homophobics, in one of his songs. The world of religion really is struggling to evolve, and the birthing process* can be long, slow, messy, and painful. It seems to me the most judgemental among the Christians are the ones who can't meet their own standards and sweat it, bit successfully hide that part of themselves from themselves.
Yeah. Our parents hit us if we disobeyed whatever stupid rules they came up with, including taking too long to get ready for church. Staying home was not an option. But they refuse to acknowledge that it was abuse, they think they were divinely entitled to treat their children like slaves.
Personally, I see more harm than good in religion. Superstition is dangerous. I hope more people can start thinking for themselves instead of trying to outsource it to an unreachable authority.
I and people around me came up similarly. A buddy remarked on a recent neighborhood shooting and said, "If they'd been whipped like we were, these things would stop, wouldn't it?“
I said, "I don't know about that. Whipping never stopped me from a behavior, but it made me slicker. Did it ever stop you?" He acknowledged it surely didn't. It's almost like authoritarianism and overindulgence are both abuse.
"My parents hit me, and I turned out fine." - person advocating for physical child abuse
that nightmare fuel was a sunday school staple for me. And yeah that frustration is real. Outside of my parents (who are respectful of my beliefs) I'm not really around religious people much though, so me recalling these things is more quaint than anything.
I am trying to get out of the bible belt. I no longer talk to my parents or my brothers. Life has not been pleasant. Thank you for sharing your experiences. ❤️
Yeah that's pretty much the Americanized Christian viewpoint and is why American fundies are a cult of the grand individual because "all is forgiven as long as I believe Jesus loves me and fuck everyone else". At least the Catholics have down the repent and self pain part correctly (still doesn't forgive them for being a pedophile shielding ring drapped in rosaries).
Confession for absolution of sins within Catholicism comes from the ideas of St Augustine. While Jesus Christ has forgiven all original sin in Earth through his sacrifice (supposedly), the absolution of sin in your life only comes from an accounting with God's representatives and contrition for your actions.
Lemme tell you bout a really cool merkavist named Hermes trismagistus...
The original brainworm
Can you explain the reference? I did a quick search on those terms and now I'm even more confused.
I only get this because I've been listening to a lot of Esoterica at work. Hermes Trismegistus, Thrice-Great Hermes, is a sort of character invented by medieval occultists and treated as an author and founder of Hermetic mysticism. He's also both Greek Hermes and Egyptian Thoth.
Merkavah mysticism is something different but possibly related if you go way back.
Ah ok, thanks for the context. I take it he was also a figure to whom the medieval occultists directed their confessions and sought absolution from? I'm still not clear on what Maeve was implying with that comment, but that's ok.
When I see "merkava" I tend to think of Judaism and now of course the infamous Israeli tank, but that's probably not relevant to the reference.
Merkavah is specifically a kind of Jewish mysticism.
It's just a blend of kabbalah lore (Hermetic and Jewish) https://lemmygrad.ml/post/12538409/8594703 and lore that's arisen from Dylan's All Along the Watchtower lyrics, as a result.
It gets pretty deep and intricate, I've been interested and studying it for several years, as time and interest waxes and wanes, but if you're inclined, here's a crash course that almost scratches the surface:
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ__PGORcBKxbM4y3wcYSObaUsr4guYAn
Confession confers absolution because God has infinite love for us, as we are his children. However, much like a child must come to their father to confess of a mistake that they have made and be forgiven, so must we with God.
At least according to St. Augustine. This whole thing was never originally a part of Christianity until he popularized the practice in North Africa.
You know how cults like to keep dirt on their members?
Religion targets vunerable people for recruitment. People with overbearing guilt are emotionally vunerable and offering them some means to absolve themself within the framework of the religion is an effective strategy. The confession part can also provide a bit of leverage to the recipient of the confession which can be wielded as a kind of soft power by local priests or used as straight up blackmail material as the Church of Scientology does.
Because God forgives sins if you are truly remorseful and strive to correct your error, at least according to Catholic doctrine
If you're not actually sorry it doesn't do shit
A broken and contrite heart will not be despised...
Mainly because it's a sociopolitical tool, wielded against the masses rather than for the masses.