Wednesday, December 26

Confessions

This is very interesting. The page Christians Confess has a rolling headline that reads "Christians have often been self-righteous jerks. We hope that you will accept our apologies. We have been wrong and we are sorry. We recognize that words are sometimes cheap. Please help us discover how we can do better." It then gives Christians the opportunity to submit apologies, and it gives non-Christians the opportunity to submit stories of times that they have struggled with Christians or other feedback. I think it's very interesting. It reminds me of the Confession Booth talked about in Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks to Chris Salzman of Think Christian for the link.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand the concept of the page. And normally, my bent is towards grace. But I have mixed feelings about the "Confessions" page. I think the church needs to stop *confessing* and start repenting. It would be awesome to read that someone who posted actually put action to their confession. I just reread my comments and I know they might *read* a bit harsh...not my intention.

Tim Gleason said...

Tami makes a good point. Speaking only for myself, I would hope that when I come to the point of realize that the way I have treated non-Christians poorly and am prepared to apologize for it, that I will also attempt to not do that in the future. All we can do is hope that others who are confessing are prepared to make personal changes as well. On the bright side, at least people are realizing that they haven't treated non-Christians well. The more followers of Christ who make that realization and change their actions, the better we will be able to represent Jesus to the people who don't know him.

Terrace Crawford said...

Good blog post Tim. Thanks for this. I hear what Tami is saying but I'm a mixed bag... I think its important for us to confess when we need to confess...yet at the same time there does need to be some repenting going on. A confessions page or site? I'm not so sure about... but I'd agree that Christians can be very self-righteous and there is always room for transparency.

Good discussion nonetheless.

//TC//