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Web Site Invites Sinners to Confess Online

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the surf-and-ye-shall-be-healed dept.

slackeress writes "The Internet Report on Yahoo has a story about The Confessor Web site that invites sinners to confess online. Finally a chance for me to be redeemed. Ha! I'm glad to see that the Big Guy is Internet savvy." Wow! I wonder what those local loops charges are! :)

2 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Catholic Church and confession by Zach+Frey · · Score: 4

    What do they think "teling them to god" means? Telling them to a priest to recive pennance? But a priest is just a proxy for god (proxy meaning "a person authorized to speak for or represent another")... so by their own words they've condemened their own practices.

    Not really. A quick primer on the theory of the confessional, from a Roman Catholic perspective (disclaimer: no, I'm not Catholic, but I think I understand their theology well enough to explain it):

    Yes, only God can forgive sin. Jesus, being God, had/has the authority to do this (and did so, as recorded in the Gospels). Now, he also delegated some of this authority to the apostles (see "binding and loosing"), and this is where modern-day bishops and priests claim to stand in persona christi, as proxies for Christ.

    No, the Bible does not say that we must only confess our sins to God. "Confess your sins one to another." And the bit about the apostles being empowered to forgive on Christ's behalf is also biblical.

    I also think you're misunderstanding what they mean by saying that "Confession can not be done ... by proxy." They are not referring to the priest, but to the penitent. In other words, if I've done something wrong and want absolution, I can't send my mom to tell the priest and ask him to pronounce forgiveness for me. I have to go myself and ask for myself.

    There's a good argument that "cyber-confession" denies the Incarnational nature of God's grace, and this is why the Catholic Church officially condemns it as invalid and spiritually fraudulent. I think they are right to do so.

    "All men thirst to confess their crimes more than tired beasts thirst for water; but they naturally object to confessing them while other people, who have also committed the same crimes, sit by and laugh at them."
    -- G. K. Chesterton
  2. FORGIVE ME SLASHDOT, FOR I HAVE TROLLED by opensourceman · · Score: 5

    i have taken richard stallman's, eric raymond's, larry wall's, tom christiansen's, jon katz's, roblimo's, hemos's, cmdr taco's, natalie portman's and drew barrymore's names in vain, along with several others i can't even remember.

    i have lusted in my heart for hot young actresses.

    i have encouraged masturbation and marital infidelity.

    i have stolen nearly an infinite number of moderation points.

    i have murdered legitimate discussions.

    i have uttered countless untruths.

    please slashdot, redeem my eternal karma!!!


    wiping tear from cheek.