Confess Your Sins...Online

Friends: Confess Your Sins.....
Online

It was bound to happen...the confessional booth has moved from the church to the internet. And why not? Everything else is available on the internet, why not a "sin-confession catharsis" site? Why, one can always be "prayed up" when nasty transgressions come to mind in the privacy of your own home, office or Blackberry-on-the-go.

Check it out: www.Dear-god.net. Even if you don't think much of the public confessions, the art is pretty cool, and actually speaks, at least it did to me.

Being the curious type, I checked it out and confessed on-line to my darkest most heinous sin, the one that has shadowed and plagued me all my life: Procrastination. (Shhhh...don't repeat it.)

I was offered a choice beyond public confession: an interview with a priest in the Bronx or an Indian Shaman in New Mexico. Preferring NM to NY, I chose the Shaman. After the initial discussion, actually the "negotiation" was about price, I was advised that such an embedded sin as procrastination could only come out by long counseling sessions over many years, and I must furnish proof of financial ability before the "forgiveness process" could begin...cash preferred. Apparently even Shamen love a "cheerful giver." I replied, "Let me think about it." (Perhaps it had only been a dream, I can't be sure.)

As it would happen, yesterday I drove up Hwy. 341 out of the quaint prison village of Brunswick, and noticed the diverse abundance of churches. Of course, each church has a sign out front offering motorists 2-second sermons of scriptural puns or dire predictions of the uncertain future. You know, like "the Wages of sin," or "Repent," or "If you died now, would you go to heaven?" I never fail to take the free advice offered, and always feel better the rest of my drive.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any specific advice for my particular sin from any of the dozen or so signs I saw, which I took as a "sign" to me that my sin of procrastination might actually be a good thing...perhaps it will come in handy later on and I will be late for my own funeral. We'll see.

And so, for the first time ever...ever! ...my Friday Forum email will go out on time...see what public confessions can do for you? I'll be looking for yours!

Bud
May 15, 2008