Coming clean

Wow. You’ve heard the saying “Confession is good for the soul,” which seems ridiculously obvious, except to the arrogant or those who feel they do no wrong, or that it’s all relative, or…”whatever.”

Not the folks in this crowd! There’s a whole cottage industry growing around the mystery of iniquity — doing wrong and being sorry for it.

About a month ago, LifeChurch, an evangelical network with nine locations and based in Edmond, Okla., set up mysecret.tv as a forum for people to confess anonymously on the Internet.

The LifeChurch founder, the Rev. Craig Groeschel, said that after 16 years in the ministry he knew that the smiles and eager handshakes that greeted him each week often masked a lot of pain. But the accounts of anguish and guilt that have poured into mysecret.tv have stunned him, Mr. Groeschel said, and affirmed his belief in the need for confession.

This is both heartening and worrisome. Good, because so many people are recognizing the wrong they’ve done and the need to make things right again. Troubling in that some folks leave it at that.

Since its inception, mysecret.tv has received more than 150,000 hits and more than 1,500 confessions, Mr. Groeschel said. Absolution is not part of the bargain, just the beginning of release.

“There’s no magic in confessing on a Web site,” Mr. Groeschel said. “My biggest fear is that someone would think that and would go on with life. This is just Step 1.” 

Both release and absolution come with the real thing, the Sacrament of Penance – or confession – in the Church. And more, because many people need professional help.

Because the site is anonymous, the staff at LifeChurch cannot reach out to those who are in danger of harming themselves or others, Mr. Groeschel said.

Professor Thumma pointed out that the resources section of the site could be improved. It now lists mostly religious books rather than mental health services.

It’s a cyberspace start, but there’s so much more available in the real Church.

Thanks to Carl Olson at Ignatius Insight for snagging that story.