Looking for a short horror story about a secret fiercely guarded by the church. The secret is that EVERYONE who dies, good or bad, saint or sinner, goes into eternal torment, consumed by a giant beast over and over again continually forever. The church guards this secret to avoid worldwide chaos fear and panic. Somehow the secret gets exposed.
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Hi, welcome to SF&F. Do you recall where and when you read this story?– DavidWCommented Apr 26 at 20:15
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tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheSalvationWar– ValorumCommented Apr 26 at 20:19
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1It is supposedly part of a horror anthology, maybe including stories by Stephen King? I wanted to buy the book but lost track of it. I never read the story, just saw the synopsis– KenCommented Apr 26 at 20:21
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Are you sure this wasn't an SCP?– tbrooksideCommented Apr 26 at 21:21
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Reminds me of a short story about a psychic who sees the last moments of a supposedly devout priest's life and even he, the priest, goes to Hell.– CassfrankCommented Apr 27 at 4:02
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1 Answer
I'm going to guess this is the same story as I mentioned in my answer to Telepath investigating saint finds proof of eternal damnation as the themes seem similar even though the details differ. If this is the story then it's This, too, we reconcile by John M. Ford from Analog May 1976, which appears to be the only place it has been published.
The secret is revealed when a psychic is asked to investigate the life of a saint, and finds that even the most saintly of humans are inevitably damned by a single sin.
However in this story sinners are not devoured by any giant beast. The story doesn't say exactly what damnation entails. Also it has not been collected in any anthologies (unless the ISFDB entry for the story is incomplete) so if you're sure it was in an anthology this probably isn't your story.
