Programs lead to change or confession

Once upon a time, confession was private. Roman Catholics enjoyed the anonymity of seeking absolution in a dark confessional box where the priest could hear but not see the penitent. Psychotherapy was also typically a one-on-one encounter in the privacy of a psychiatrist’s office.

That was then; this is now. Private counseling has largely yielded to group therapy.

Even Catholics are more likely to confess their sins generically during the course of worship rather than specifically, privately, and anonymously to their priest.

Ironically, many Americans today not only seek absolution in public but actually flaunt their failings. It is estimated that half of all Californians are in some kind of 12-step group program modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous.

Where once addiction was something to hide, now it is something to shout about. Jerry Springer was only the most notorious of the television hosts to attract guests who want the world to know how badly they behave.

The tawdry thread that now runs through “reality” TV shows is that the seven deadly sins entertain viewers even when the sinners are rank amateurs.

Moreover, in contrived “survival” ordeals it is not virtue, but shamelessness, that favors a competitor.

Rest assured, if Machiavelli were still alive he would have his own TV show. Remember when a $19,000-a-year construction worker, pretending to be a multi-millionaire on TV, succeeded in attracting scores of avaricious women? Even after they learned they had been duped, most of them attempted to parlay their appearance on the tube into celebrity status.

In large cities the meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous can substitute for social life. In London, the NA group at Notting Hill is so fashionable that insiders refer to it as “the cocktail party.”

Addictions multiply as people seek forums to talk about themselves. There are now 12-step groups for sexaholics, shopaholics, rageaholics, helpaholics, wheataholics, and chocaholics. There is even a 12-step group for people addicted to 12-step groups.

In our new confessional culture absolution comes not from remorse and assuming responsibility for one’s actions, but from simply venting one’s troubles. Instead of abandoning bad habits as faults, it’s considered easier to boast of being “compulsive.”

Initially, the idea behind the 12-step programs was that confessing one’s helplessness would facilitate reliance on a “higher power,” namely God, to help cease destructive behavior. Increasingly, however, it has become just another exercise in buck-passing.

A more reliable formula can be found in the Book of Common Prayer: “The Almighty and merciful Lord grant you absolution and remission of all your sins, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of his Holy Spirit.”

Scripps Howard News Service