What does the Bible say about confessing sin in front of the congregation of a church?
Several years ago a young lady of my church had pre-marital sex and her parents (supported by the pastor) had her confess her sin in front of the congregation of the church for forgiveness. Is this biblical?
Anonymous
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Danny Hickman
This is my opinion: this wasn't a good thing for parents to do to a daughter. This was not a good thing for a pastor to support for a family. What was this intended to accomplish? It wouldn't keep her from repeating her behavior!
These parents can never undo the embarrassment their daughter suffered that day. It's a parent's duty to protect their children from traumatic situations such as public shaming. This is public shaming on steroids! This won't be forgotten by the young lady whose parents and spiritual leader got lost in a controversial church dysfunction. Clearly, they were under the confused assumption that the young lady could be shamed out of doing again what she'd done.
What's worse, having premarital sex or having your parents treat you this way? I don't mean which displeases or pleases God; I mean which hurts the relationship between the young lady and her parents more?
This is cultic behavior!
That is what "churching" your children instead of lovingly raising your children with a biblical knowledge of truth leads to: cult lite living! It's lite, but it's cultic.
Random sex is far more damaging to a person's spiritual psyche than relationship sex before marriage. I'd rather be guilty of both than to be guilty of treating one of my daughters the way these parents did.
To whom were they reporting her behavior to, God or the other sinners sitting there, glad it was someone other than themselves being exposed?
How can both parents not know any better?
Danny Hickman
Is there an example in scripture of this, or do we only go by our opinions? I believe the John 8 woman caught having "unlawful" sex can teach us something about this kind of thing.
Did Jesus seem pleased with the men who brought the lady to him to judge? I don't get the impression that he was pleased with them. They brought her to the temple where he was teaching. It had to be very embarrassing for her! The bible doesn't say he laid hands on her, prayed in tongues or otherwise, or did anything we recognize as a spiritual exercise. It says he wrote something on the ground. (what's that about?!!) And it conveniently leaves out what he wrote!
I ain't sure whether many people in church congregations can connect the dots of life now with life depicted in the bible. The difference in the John 8 case and this one is this young lady is being betrayed by her parents. I think that makes it much worse!
In the John 8 case the Lord is being tested; the lady is just a pawn being offered up to be sacrificed. In this instance a daughter might be being used for church authenticity. The parents are evidently of a false belief that God agrees with them publicly shaming their daughter into celibacy.
I don't believe it'll work! Of course they know that virginity doesn't have leftovers; once it's spent it can't be reclaimed. But it can be a source of self-centered pride. It's a good thing to want for your children, but it shouldn't be a source of pride for the parents.