Thread:RRabbit42/@comment-27171758-20180323041259/@comment-961279-20180323133210

They are actually different things. Reformed is the one where you get information that helps you see you need to make a change to stop bad behavior. Redeemed is where you take steps to correct the affects of your previous bad behavior.

For example, if someone was a thief and they kept getting thrown in jail, they might reach a point where they realize it's not worth it any more and they'd just keep ending up in jail, so they make a decision to stop being a thief. That's reformed.

If that person then decides that they are going to pay back everyone they stole from, beyond whatever the courts said they had to, and they followed through with it to improve the lives of those they hurt, then that's redemption.

I'm going to throw one more in here. If we didn't see the thief reach the point where they get that info and then they make the deliberate decision to stop their previous behavior, that isn't reforming. It's simply no longer doing what they used to do and they are a "former thief" because they could go right back to being an active thief.

"Reformed" and "Redeemed" are used pretty casually, and most of the time, it's for situations where "former" is the better description. Example: "The movie ends and we don't see the manager belittle his employees any more, so that must mean he reformed and was redeemed. I'll put both categories on his page." It actually wouldn't be either, but that's the kind of thinking people are using when they put most of these categories on the page.