Confession
| Christ died so we could write articles on |
| Christianity |
| Random examples |
| Resources |
A Confession is admittance of having done something wrong, usually legally or ethically. Though anyone can confess anything at any time, even in a high stakes Court Room Drama, this article is about the specific religious act of Confession.
Confession is a spiritual practice where by one's sins are confessed either to a religious leader, who in turn "forgives" the person in the name of God, or directly to God.
Christian confession originated during or shortly after the life of Jesus Christ as a practice of admitting sins and begging God's forgiveness.
Contents |
[edit] Absolution
Absolution is the act of being forgiven by God, the gods, the FSM, the IPU after you have confessed and are sorry for your sins.
[edit] Catholic confession
The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches require Confession as one of the Sacraments, the "Sacrament of Penance".
Roman Catholics believe that a priest is needed to hear the confession on God’s behalf, set a penance on God’s behalf and, after penance forgive the sins on God’s behalf. After hearing the confession and determining whether it is genuine, the priest offers spiritual advice and, zap, you are forgiven all your sins before God. Absolution is the actual act of God forgiving the sin, through the priest. It isn't the real thing until you hear this: "I absolve you from your sins. Go in peace, and may the lord bless you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." In Latin Absolvo te.
Confession is one of the seven Sacraments, supposed to be signs of God's blessing to come in the world beyond. Far from being signs only, however, Christians believe that Sacraments have real power on earth. When a priest announces God's forgiveness in confession, the penitent (or one confessing) is really forgiven. Priests are careful to distinguish between ordinary (venial) sins and deadly (mortal) sins.
Roman Catholic priests listen to how sinners are tempted and yielded to temptation, then tell the sinners off and if they are responsible they try to get the sinner to stop sinning. Do Roman Catholic priests ever do bad stuff like suggesting to a penitent tempted to sexual sin, “Let’s do some sin together”? Sadly that does happen from time to time, [1]
Venial sins will not get you to Hell but they are still really, really bad. God would rather kill and burn everyone in the world than allow someone to commit a venial sin. Yes! God is sometimes a little bit keen on killing, see Examples of God personally killing people. [2]
Mortal sins are very, very naughty[3] Mortal sins include bonking or desiring or wishing you had not failed to bonk your neighbor's wife, eating meat on Friday during Lent or missing Sunday Mass with bad intent [4] performing a drive-by shooting on helpless heroin addicts, assaulting a Subway with a chainsaw and forcing its employees to be spattered with their manager's blood while you cry out "Eat Fresh!" again and again so they see psychologists for years but still have dreams about it, Revealing the truth about RC priestly child abuse, wishing you had been at Woodstock, and voting for Michelle Bachmann.
The Roman Catholic Church does not actually list the Mortal Sins, that would be too easy. They give "guidance" on what those sins likely are. Usually, they include: Killing, adultery, stealing, blasphemy, denying god, lying, and dishonoring your father and mother (from the Ten Commandments). Extra marital sex and divorce and masturbation are often included as Mortal Sins.
God forgives all sins through the agency of his priests but some sinners must seek his forgiveness through the Pope.
Typically, if you commit a mortal sin, and you die, and you didn't confess it, then you may go to Hell though an act of contrition may save you. It seems you can get to heaven without the Roman Catholic Church so perhaps you can manage without all that confessing. [5]
[edit] Other religions
[edit] Protestant Christianity
Protestants have no formal act of confession, however many believers feel it is an important part of worship, to admit one's failures, faults and sins. This is done directly between God and the petitioner.
[edit] Islam
In Islam, the act of confessing is always done directly to Allah. One generally silently confesses as part of the ablutions before prayer.
[edit] Buddhism
Confessing one's wrong doings before entering service to a temple is part of the novitiate training. Life time confessions to a brother or sister is a way of staying pure and focused, and is sometimes even a ritual in and of itself.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ↑ Crime of Solicitation
- ↑ Forgive me, Father, for I have touched myself
- ↑ The technical definition of a Mortal Sin is one that 1) is "grave", meaning directly from the Ten Commandments, 2) is done with full intent of the person, and with full knowledge of the nature of the sin.
- ↑ Mortal Sin
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/catholic/catholic_1.shtml