[Serious] For former Christians only, why did you leave your faith?

[arewethereyet]

If you wanted to avoid spiritual consequence for bad deeds, you should have remained a Catholic. The whole confession/absolution thing is kind of a ‘Get Out Of Hell Free’ card.

Boru

That is not what Catholic theology teaches, not in the slightest.  In Protestant Christian theology, one has neo-Calvinism ("Onced Saved, Always Saved") versus Arminianism, which believes that an individual, once saved, can lose his/her salvation.

The Church makes a distinction between venial versus mortal sins, and the simple act of confessing one's sins does not necessarily remit those sins.

Going to confession and doing the assigned penance is the get out hell free card.  The key there is that you have to do the penance...ours was typically something along the lines of saying an Our Father, a few Hail Marys, and an Act of Contrition.  

And yes, there is a distinction in the 'level' of sin.  The worse the sin, the more you have to pray.

Of course, it helps to have received all the sacraments along the way.