Atonement

When the flock sins, or acts against the wishes of the god, the faith usually has a way for the sinner to reenter the god's good graces. This is an act of atonement. Usually, the bigger the sin, the more extravagant the act of atonement must be.

The first part of this process is usually the confession , a formal meeting of sinner and priest where the sinner confesses his deed. This puts the priest in the position of having to evaluate that sin and then charge the sinner with a course of action which will remove the stain of sin.

Remember that each different god will have different ideas of what constitutes sin. To the god of Love, for instance, the greatest sin is denial of love (particularly, growing old without having loved) or interfering in love (messing up someone else's romance).

Too, you must remember that in a pantheistic society (one which worships many gods), it is not usually a sin to do one god's will at the expense of another. If one culture worships both a god of Peace and a god of War, fomenting a war is not a sin directed at the God of Peace; it's a boon to the God of War.

To just about any god, an insult to the god (including verbal insults or desecration of a temple) is considered a sin.

Typical ceremonies of atonement include fasts and meditations where the sinner asks forgiveness of the god. More extensive sins require some sort of sacrifice (such as donation of a cherished object to the god's temple) or an act of expiation (the sinner doing his best to straighten out the bad situation he caused).

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