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Now if you're on death row, I don't know if it matters or not. That might just be legitimate fear, and Jesus has been known to give people second chances where the court system hasn't. Few people spend every day thinking about their own death, but on death row, that's pretty much the only recreational activity available. I can certainly understand why people would go looking for a higher power.
What coreleation this has to recidivism, I don't know, but it's probably a positive signal. (If you believe scripture, you probably don't mind adding a few other rules and regulations on top. Follow those extra rules and regulations and you don't go to prison again.) On the other hand, a lot of priests seemed to skip seminary on the day they had the "don't fuck children" lesson, so I have no idea how it all works out in the end.
A lot of these people are in touch with prison ministries trying to get them to repent, so they probably weren't frequently meaningfully Christian before that on average. I don't have any way of knowing if these people were sincere or whether they'd have done the things they did all over again, but I don't really find it a bad thing if people realize that they've done bad and want to do what little they can to atone for it.
But yeah, I know it's not like an "I'm sorry" is going to bring mom back. And I say that as someone who heard those very words from the man who murdered mom.
So take the supposed repentance with a grain of salt, but I think it's at least better than the alternative where they never even acknowledge that they did something awful.
Your response is also predicted.
That's a reasonable question. Christianity does have an emphasis on forgiveness, which I suspect these prison chaplain programs emphasize - so it's more a matter of murderers turning themselves into Christians.
However murder is considered a mortal sin that separates one's soul from god and that cannot regularly be forgiven.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_sin, scroll to 'Actions constituting grave matter' for the list.
My grandmother was devout and spent her last few weeks convinced she was going to hell for something I do not know.
Don’t think that’s true. Murder is considered a grave sin but not one that can’t be forgiven…remember Paul (who wrote several books of the New Testament) was a killer, so was Moses in the Old Testament.
I think the only sin mentioned as unforgivable is “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” which is very vague.
(Was raised Christian, no longer one).
Edit: Another comment there’s a Catholic-evangelical disagreement on this, so maybe that’s the case.
FWIW I think god is not real, just playing devil's advocate.
By Catholics, specifically. Evangelical Christians don't typically share this belief.
[1]: https://ucatholic.com/catechism/1864/
[2]: https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/d... (see 46)
See for example the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1456
> Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance: "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly.
That seems to say mortal sins must be confessed. But I cannot see where it says they can be forgiven.