After seeing this article on a ai confessional booth made for a university project I felt that I would have to make a rebuttal, as it turns out none was needed after reading it, however it left me with the need to make a comment on the church's attitude to confession.
The Catholic church adheres to a doctrine of confessing to a priest and asking for penance and absolution, Protestants did away with the practice confessing only to God directly. Now we can argue one way or the other if a priest can grant absolution but that isn't what I'm going to write about.
The modern idea of a confessional is a complete perversion of the original, the bible states clearly what was intended by confession:
'Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed...'
Confession is not merely acknowledging that one has sinned, its telling that you have done wrong to other members of the congregation. The problem with modern confessionals is the privacy itself, the idea is to admit ones failings and have others help you, not merely hiding away in a box with a priest who has to deal with many others. It also is vital for the shame element of sin.
Shame drives us away from forgiveness and drives us to judge each other, when one confesses their sins to another they make themselves vulnerable and in doing so humbles themself. There is no room for hypocrisy in confession nor in a community that practices it. It is the death of the 'holier that thou' and the gossip.
When we feel shame, we feel inferior to others and don't feel worthy of forgiveness; now whilst their is rational shame, i.e. we have done wrong, the shame of feeling that we are less worthy of forgiveness than the next Christian is a chain that drags us down. When others confess they show that they are not perfect and that none of us were ever worthy in the first place but forgiveness is a gift that God brings.
In the modern age, no in any age making oneself that vulnerable is a terrifying thing. What if the gossips take what you have said and say it to those outside the church? The answer is simple: So what? If you cannot let go of the shame of your sin, you have yet to forgive yourself. Furthermore you have confessed your sins and been gossiped about, but of those who are found out 'what credit is it to' them?
We must do more than what society asks of us, for that is what we are called to do, but to do that we must first acknowledge we are not any better than anyone else.
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