When the church teaches that “confession is good for the soul,” it teaches
false doctrine; it is only good for the church. Men once confessed their
sins, believing that it was the evidence of the loftiest courage to
acknowledge that they had made fools of themselves or that they were the
veriest knaves. But never was a greater mistake made. Confession is itself
a sin, a base betrayal of one’s own heart. It shows utter lack of shame.
Our sins should be sacred. We should let no eyes see them but our own. To
exhort one to confess one’s sins is to ask the sinner to become the slave
of his confessor.
Man has learned to keep still in respect to those things that concern no
one but himself. He has found that where he has done wrong it is wiser to
hold his tongue than to speak. We are not likely to confess what will harm
us. This prudence is utility in morals. A wanton confession of wrongdoing
shows a loss of self-respect, and a virtuous confession is proof of mental
weakness. No human necessity requires self-degradation. To tell what we
have done is to pay a compliment to prurient curiosity which it does not
deserve. When we are commanded to do such a thing, resistance is a greater
virtue than compliance.
The human conscience to-day says: “Hands off.” It is impertinent to touch
the soul against its will. Secrecy is our right. No one can demand that we
expose our indiscretions. If the church asks if we have sinned, we feel
justified in answering: “It is none of your business.” A man’s sins are
his own. Our actions are private and subject only to voluntary betrayal.
We are at liberty to own our weakness or our meanness and to tell whatever
we have done; but when another attempts to coerce a confession from us, we
refuse to submit to such unwarrantable authority, and assert our right to
be custodians of our own deeds. The court which does not require a man to
criminate himself is higher than the church which bids a man lay bare his
soul.
There is no ear pure enough to listen to the story of the secret struggles
of the human heart. The doctrine of “confession of sin,” which has been
taught by the Christian church, is detrimental to manhood and womanhood.
It is a police arrangement where the private conscience is under the eye
of the priest. There can be no independence where the soul has surrendered
to another.
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To make crime easy is to make criminals. One cannot rob the clothes-line
if the clothes are in the house.