{"id":2243,"date":"2008-09-10T11:03:52","date_gmt":"2008-09-10T11:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/seeking-forgiveness-in-a-posts.html"},"modified":"2008-09-10T11:03:52","modified_gmt":"2008-09-10T11:03:52","slug":"seeking-forgiveness-in-a-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/seeking-forgiveness-in-a-posts.html","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Forgiveness in a PostSecret World"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, the PostSecret <\/a>site took off, providing people with a central place for posting their own hidden truths and spy on the secrets of others. This public confessional was perfectly reflective of the technology-enabled, “tell-all generation.” The site took something shameful–a person’s most embarrassing secrets–and transformed it into public spectacle.(One example: a confession reading, “I danced with two men on my wedding day–the one I married, and the one I wish I’d married instead.”)
\nWe all play games of judgment. These are my secrets: what are yours? Are they worse than mine? How does my morality rank compared to that of the next person? We pose these questions of ourselves to try to justify the choices we’ve made, and if we’re inclined toward introspection and self-improvement, to assess how we can change our behaviors in the future.
\nConfession is a substantial part of the High Holidays’ liturgy, especially on the repentance-centered Yom Kippur–Jewish confession is different than the Catholic version….confession is between a person and God, and there’s no intermediary in a booth providing prayers as penance.<\/p>\n


\nNow the National Jewish Outreach Program<\/a> adopts a similar model with Project Forgiveness<\/a>: a Jewish High Holidays-based approach to secrets and regrets revealed. The website provides a public confession of sorts, to put people in a state of self-assessment in approaching the repentance-based High Holiday season.
\nA step toward forgiveness or a dumping ground for secrets? As always, such judgment is in the eye of the beholder. And maybe that’s precisely the point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, the PostSecret site took off, providing people with a central place for posting their own hidden truths and spy on the secrets of others. This public confessional was perfectly reflective of the technology-enabled, “tell-all generation.” The site took something shameful–a person’s most embarrassing secrets–and transformed it into public spectacle.(One example: a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nSeeking Forgiveness in a PostSecret World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/seeking-forgiveness-in-a-posts.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeking Forgiveness in a PostSecret World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago, the PostSecret site took off, providing people with a central place for posting their own hidden truths and spy on the secrets of others. This public confessional was perfectly reflective of the technology-enabled, “tell-all generation.” The site took something shameful–a person’s most embarrassing secrets–and transformed it into public spectacle.(One example: a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/seeking-forgiveness-in-a-posts.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-10T11:03:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Esther Kustanowitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Seeking Forgiveness in a PostSecret World","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2008\/09\/seeking-forgiveness-in-a-posts.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Seeking Forgiveness in a PostSecret World","og_description":"A few years ago, the PostSecret site took off, providing people with a central place for posting their own hidden truths and spy on the secrets of others. 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