Most, if not all, major religions wisely provide a process for the absolution of past sins. Generally, believers regularly get a chance to ask for and receive forgiveness, which encourages social renewal. Also, a sinner could move from one community to another and, for better or worse, try to rebuild their reputation. [Niche construction]. By contrast, the modern American culture doesn't offer forgiveness for old transgressions. Moreover, it barely offers forgiveness for past actions that might have turned into sin only recently, after the emergence of new moral standards. In a way, the new moral law seems to be applied randomly, retroactively and without much mercy. This is not a good recipe for building public trust in difficult times.

The holding 
        of a thing 
               to be true is 
a phenomenon
          in our understanding 
which may rest on 
             objective grounds,

but requires, also, 
                subjective causes 
in the mind of the person 
                       judging. 

If a judgement is valid 
                    for every 
                           rational being, 
then its ground 
               is objectively sufficient, 
and it is termed 
                      a conviction. 

If, on the other hand, 
                   it has its ground in 
the particular character 
                     of the subject, 
     it is termed 
                      a persuasion.

Persuasion is a mere 
                         illusion, 
the ground of 
            the judgement, 
                   which lies solely 
in the subject, 
          being regarded 
                      as objective. 

Hence a judgement 
            of this kind 
            has only private validity — 
is only valid for 
           the individual 
                     who judges,

and the holding of 
              a thing to be true 
in this way 
            cannot be 
                     communicated.

-- Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason.