Mollie Hemingway on the modern culture of confession – some of it sponsored by churches.

But this confession was not delivered to a priest or pastor. It was typed online at IveScrewedUp.com, a project that Florida’s Flamingo Road Church began at Easter. With the tag line “Confession is good for the soul,” the site says “We hope this is the beginning of a cool journey for you” and says the confessions will be discussed over eleven weekends and that the church hopes the penitents will “hang out with us.”

snip

American society has placed confession and absolution on two wholly separate tracks. In the church, there is no separation: We confess that we are poor, miserable sinners who have failed to do good and have broken the Commandments. And God absolves us, forgives our sins on account of Jesus’ sacrifice in our place.

As Martin Luther said: “Now mark well what I have said often, that confession consists of two parts. The first is our work and doing, that I lament my sins and desire comfort and renewal of my soul. The other is a work which God does, who absolves me from my sins through His Word spoken by the mouth of man. This is the most important and precious part, as it also makes it lovely and comforting.”

Compare such a comment with the disclaimer that greets visitors to the Flamingo Road Church’s website: “By sending information to this website, the sender has granted Ivescrewedup.com a perpetual, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, and otherwise exercise all rights with respect to the information, at its sole discretion,” it says in part.

Flamingo Road pastor Troy Gramling says the goal of the online site and the eleven-week-series of discussions is to help congregants learn from their mistakes. This comment gives pause. In churches where private confession and absolution is taken very seriously, the reason why people do it before a priest or pastor is not primarily to learn from their mistakes, empower themselves, or confide in a therapist. The primary purpose is to be absolved.