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Notes -
It’s rather fascinating to me that confession is seen as a draw to converts, given the strong resistance to it among many members of my own church body. When the denomination was organized, congregations were initially required to introduce private confession wherever possible, but that provision was dropped within a decade or so due to massive pushback from the laity. I wonder if the difference is just that private confession seems “too Catholic” to many Protestants, while pagans have no such hang-ups, or if there are other factors at play.
Animist pagans typically live in superstitious terror of having offended powerful and invisible beings through misconduct. Confession is quite a draw to them, therefore- missionaries to places with lots of animists will still tell stories about poor villagers walking several hundred miles through hostile territory because they’ve heard their sins can be forgiven by a more powerful God than the ones they’re so afraid of.
Third world villagers who’ve never seen a Bible are not the same thing as wiccans who do drugs and dance around naked- the latter don’t like the idea of confession any more than Protestants usually do.
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