Not Your Typical Confession *


I am no longer surprised, when I get a new sponsee, to learn that he was introduced to the addiction at a young age, continued in the habit throughout his youth, experienced anxiety around girls, acted out on the addiction regularly (or tried to not act out on the addiction regularly) went on a mission, continued to act out, got married,  continued to act out, and confessed to his priesthood leaders the whole time.

For a church that bears the name of Him who cannot look up sin with the least degree of allowance, we seem to allow a lot of pornography and masturbation.

Which is why I was so glad when my last sponsee added a different ending to the story. He was living the regular ritual of confession and relapse, and was quite comfortable. He had relapsed again and made an appointment for the confession. Because bishops had changed since his last relapse, he knew he’d be confessing to someone new, but that didn’t bother him, he’d been doing this for years. Sound familiar?

The interview lasted 5 minutes.

The bishop released him from his calling, took his temple recommend, referred him to a therapist, said he he couldn’t act out any more, and told him not to come back into his office till he had some good news. No talk about scripture study and prayer, just a focus on stopping the madness.

After hearing this I told my sponsee that I was impressed, and that in my opinion most bishops didn’t know how to handle guys like us and ended up coddling. He assured me that his new bishop didn’t coddle.

Guess what happened. The bishop’s wake up call, woke the guy up. He is now meeting with a therapist, working with a sponsor, and attending meetings. He is learning. He is growing. It is painful. He doesn’t like it.

If he keeps it up he might actually get sober.

* The original post can be found at EmbracingPowerlessness.com

1 comment:

korinne said...

I loved this story. Thanks for sharing it!