Well most of us pray to the same God Richard, not all.
Having grown up Lutheran, (German Luthean) service was in German I was taught to believe that only God can forgive a sin.
Not a priest or a pope, but God.
So the whole Catholic confession thing is confusing and upsetting to me.
I did not understand how one can murder, rape and do other horrible sins, confess to a priest and be forgiven. How does this priest whom you might not even know, see into your heart? How can he know that you are truly sorry? Will the $500.00 you slip him make it easier to cheat on your wife next time and be forgiven once again? Priests are after all just men who went to school to study a certain line of thought and now as a job they wear a robe and pray, do weddings and funerals for a living. It is a job after all like being a nurse or judge, they too wear a uniform and deal with life and death. And even though the nurses see a human at their most frail, naked and frighened they do not tell them they can save their soul,
nor do Dr's or judges.
I believe only God can forgive, since only he holds the keys to heaven. Or does the priest e-mail his requests for souls before hand to let into the pearly gates? Do they send a permisson slip with that?
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