Forgiving Sins online

Already a repository for too much information from bloggers divulging their every intimate thought, the Web recently extended its reach into territory the church once dominated. Tens of thousands of the guilty among us are visiting confessional booths at ivescrewedup.com, mysecret.tv and dailyconfessions.com and unburdening themselves anonymously. As priests report a steady decline in sinners showing up to confess in person, according to a Georgetown University study, and parishes across America staff makeshift confessionals in malls with rotating priests, the guilty among us are repenting online. On camfess.com, a woman admitted, "I don't think my boyfriend is cute." If God is checking his e-mail, He might see the "ask for forgiveness" form you completed on forgivenet.com. Absolution is also available on YouTube, where videos of members of XXX Church, a team of pastors based in Michigan, discuss their unholy addiction to porn. Admissions on Christian church-operated sites such as ivescrewedup.com and mysecret.tv range from shoe shopping addictions ("I can't stop. They are all so pretty") to extramarital affairs ("I'm not sure whether I should tell my wife") to criminal acts ("I have stolen about $15,000 when working for a family member"). The majority of confessions, signed with initials and young ages, are descriptions of shame and guilt associated with sex. Confession 2.0 is a place where anonymity is a substitute for privacy and the intimacy traditionally experienced by talking to a priest, therapist or friend is replaced by a virtual community of strangers. Among the Web site managers CNN spoke with, none has professional counselors monitoring confessions. "This is a new genre of confession," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Sherry Turkle, who has researched cyber relationships and interviewed people who post confessions online.