I’ve been teaching on spiritual disciplines as evangelism at Otter Creek the last four weeks. Tomorrow, I’m going to teach (with a friend) on the power of confession.

The tendency in many confessions (public/private; religious/secular) is for the one confessing to tell the amount of truth necessary to convince the audience of a contrite heart without telling too much as to increase one’s chances of being completely marginalized for the sin/violation/transgression under examination. I like how Mark Twain wrote that if “you always tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said.”

Tiger’s first confession was an example of the former. His second was an example of a profound awareness that perception and reality were as distant as Republicans and Democrats on health care reform. It appears now that his second confession has cleared the landscape for authentic healing.

Confession’s ultimate power is it’s ability to create a community without barriers. When we talk about how great we are, we become competitors. When we talk about the darkness within, we become family (to paraphrase Karl Barth).

U2 calls this, on their newest album, a “Moment of Surrender.” That speaks to me. That makes me want to find someone I trust and get on with the business of confession.