Confession and Unknown Sins - Guest Post by Geoff Benson

Thanks to Geoff Benson, regular reader and all-round legend here, for putting his thoughts into words for this piece:

The issue of sin, and sinning, has been covered many times, and I'm sure will continue to be. I think it's safe to say that as regards the majority of readers here, it's a contrived concept that doesn't make sense. The idea that we are 'born' sinners is pretty ridiculous, the principle of atonement through Jesus Christ is ludicrous beyond measure, but the idea that all sins are equal, in the sense that they all equally qualify for forgiveness by a special ritual is morally repugnant.

That, however, is not what I want to discuss, and nor is the concept of original sin which, apparently, is seemingly wiped away at baptism, to Catholics at least.

It was whilst considering one of Jonathan's posts recently on forgiveness, I began wondering about confession, and what happens if you forgot to mention a sin, or perhaps you didn't realise you'd sinned? To be fair, and not limiting confession to that sanctioned by the Catholic Church, it is something that religious people have considered themselves, and I think the point is best explained by evangelical Billy Graham:

"Often we sin, and aren't even aware of it. We may say something that hurts another person, or do something from wrong or selfish motives - and not even realize it. But listen: God knows our hearts, and if we are truly sorry for our sins, he has promised to forgive all of them. Let your prayer be that of the Psalmist: "Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults ... Then will I be blameless" (Psalm 19:12- 13).

Never forget why God forgives us. He doesn't forgive us because we remember every sin we have ever committed. No, he forgives us for only one reason: Jesus Christ took all our sins -- without exception -- upon himself when he died on the cross for us. We deserve to be punished for our sins -- but Christ took the punishment we deserve."

Well isn't that nice! Explains it perfectly, I'm sure you'd agree, and on its face it does have a certain logic, given Graham's underlying beliefs anyhow. The trouble is, it really doesn't stand scrutiny.

I can see a few reasons why well-intentioned Christians might forget, or omit, to confess sins. This can apply to any type of 'confession', whether the more formal via some sort of priest or other figurehead, or else simply praying directly to god for forgiveness.

1. They simply forgot. I could be facetious as to the large number of sins Christians seem to want to carry round with them, but let me just limit it to oversight.

2. They didn't realise they were sinning at the time. There must be all sorts of things we do every day where we don't properly consider the consequences; perhaps being overly enthusiastic in punishing a child, who ends up doing badly in an exam at school, or unnecessarily upsetting a sensitive work colleague, or unintentionally throwing a used cigarette end into someone's flower bed.

3. Perhaps the worst is when we do things we don't know are wrong. There are simple things in the (UK) Highway Code that all of us get wrong a lot of the time (how many know that at junctions you should give way to pedestrians already crossing the road you are about to enter?), or maybe we forget what should go in our recycling bins. Of course, we at least have, hopefully, been brought up in a decent way, been educated, and can learn to understand the consequences of our actions. What of someone with a deprived upbringing, who doesn't know that fly-tipping is illegal, perhaps not even that shoplifting is a crime?

Going back to Graham's explanation then of how God will forgive you if you are sincere, I'm sure a genuine Christian person will say that's fine, perfectly sound reasoning. Well let me ask this person a question, and perhaps the dialogue might go something like;

'what's the reason behind confessing sins?'

'so God will forgive you'.

'rightio then, but didn't you say that God sees into your mind (they'd probably say 'heart' but let's try something a little more clinically precise), so if I'm sincere about wanting to be forgiven for sins I didn't know I was committing, then why do I even have to confess to them?'

Of course, Catholics would have to explain the concept of formal confession and forgiveness via a priest, but that simply adds another layer to the confusion.

Ultimately, I can think of non-religious reasons for the contemplation of things we do wrong, and consider how we might do better next time. In fact, almost everybody, religious and non-religious, do this all the time, because that's the way we improve and develop as a society. People who don't know how to behave properly, for whatever reason, have to be dealt with in such a way as to help them, whilst protecting society at the same time.

The criticism of the confessional approach to sin is that it doesn't actually seem to help in any meaningful way, unless you want to include the possible psychological benefits to the confessor. Indeed, it's perfectly reasonable to argue it's a positively harmful process, in that it:

Leads people to commit acts in the knowledge that they will be forgiven. It was considered normal in medieval times for knights and lords to commit the most horrible barbarous acts, having already consulted a priest that they'd be given absolution afterward.

Does not provide any sort of pathway or template for improvement. 'Go away and sin no more' to somebody who is, say, a persistent shoplifter makes no attempt to treat the underlying symptom.

And lastly, dealing specifically with the point of the post, about unintended sins, there seems to be little point in a sort of 'catch all' confessing to sins you don't know about, without some sort of feedback that helps in actually identifying those sins.