Volume 36, Number 2                                                                                                                                      

January 9, 2011

Confessions of Faith

   You might call Frank Warren a secret agent.    No, he’s not a spy. But he does gather deepest, darkest truths known only by those who harbour them, then he brings them to light.

   Warren runs PostSecret, a website to which people send secrets anonymously on home made postcards. A select few are then posted online. Though there are no restrictions on content, each secret must be absolutely true and must never have been confided before. Entries range from admissions of sexual misconduct and criminal activity to confessions of secret fantasies, embarrassing habits and heartfelt hopes and dreams.

   According to Warren, the postcards provide relief and healing to the senders while giving hope and inspiration to readers who identify with others’ secrets. He also says PostSecret creates an anonymous, non-judgmental community of acceptance. 

   Along with running the website, Warren maintains an online discussion forum, holds public presentations and has published five best selling books, including Confessions on Life, Death and God. Instead of mailing in their secrets, many people take their postcards to a bookstore and discreetly hide them in a PostSecret book. 

   Regardless of where they appear, the secrets are often poignant portrayals of guilt and regret, or loss and longing. In one, a minister’s wife confesses she doesn’t believe in God. Another is from a woman who writes, “I look at Facebook pictures to see all the things I wasn’t invited to.” Someone else confides, “My boyfriend went to rehab and I’m jealous of the friends he made there.”

  On both PostSecret and and an imitator called Soul Secret, religious doubt is a recurring theme. “I’m so confused spiritually and I don’t have anyone around me to talk to without freaking them out out,”confesses a Christian. “I’m not sure what, or in whom, I believe.” Another writes, “I fight periods of doubt that my faith is not as strong as others and I’m scared I’ve lost touch with God.”

   How ironic that at a time when many have literally hundreds of “friends” on Facebook, there’s such a desperate hunger for relief and confession; for the ability to be fearlessly honest; and for a place safe from the jaded or harshly judgmental. For the church, this is a wonderful chance to demonstrate the authentic love, acceptance and community found in Christ.

   Though priests or pastors can play a vital role in restoring hope through Jesus, transparent, trust-led vulnerability and accountability must be practised by all God’s people if we expect anyone (let alone everyone) to be wholly open about who they are and how they feel. 

   “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so you may be healed,” writes James (5:16). That comes after he admonishes us to be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry” (1:19), to love each other as we love ourselves (2:8), resist favouritism (2:9), show mercy (2:13), demonstrate our faith by our actions (2:19), recognize we all make mistakes (3:2), watch our mouths (3:3-12), practise humility instead of jealousy and ambition (3:13-16) and resist judging others. “Don’t speak evil against each other,” James says. “If you criticize and judge each other, you criticize and judge God’s law... God alone is the judge.” (4:11,12)

   In a church where those things are taken seriously— and they are, in many — we’re all free to express our sin, our doubts and desires and our deepest longings, without fear. And that’s important because, as Frank Warren says, “Sometimes when we think we’re keeping a secret, that secret is actually keeping us.” Yes, secrets are telling.

   Though there’s relief and release in anonymous confession, it’s much more powerful when combined with face-to-face empathy, humility and community. Effective confession begins when we’re gut-level honest with God, knowing he wants to make us who we could be, not slam us for failing to be who we should be. But we also need solid, accepting relationships that help us deal long-term with those powerful emotions that eat us alive if left suppressed. Things really do change with prayer and accountability. And that’s no secret.

By Rick Gamble.  Published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the followers of Christ congregation in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To subscribe to this free weekly article, send a request to info@followers.ca