Flustermiller Intro Post on Hold, Concerns?

[Anonymous]

I am a little concerned about Flustermiller’s intro post. Here is a link:

It is on hold, and I would like to leave it that way until I get some opinions from the other moderators. I imagine he is dealing with the shame and guilt of some type of sexual sin. That is the only type of “problem” I think the Church would frown upon and psychologists would call “normal” (according to his perception in his story). Here are my two main concerns:

1. He does not express doubt or problems with his faith in the Church. In a way, I think that might make it off-topic for the mission of our site. I don’t want our more liberal-minded members here talking him out of his beliefs.

2. He is using the forum to confess sin. I am not totally comfortable with that, but mostly because he seems like a faithful member of the Church (TBM-ish). I am not comfortable because we are not his priesthood authorities. I don’t want him leaning on us for absolution incorrectly (based on his belief system).

He is coming here to confess. We may end up giving him another crisis.

What say ye?

Here is the PM I sent him:

***************************************************************************

Hi Flustermiller,

Thanks for posting your introduction. All registered users are blocked from their post becoming visible when they post for the first time. This is partially due to problems we had in the past with people spamming the board with inappropriate advertisements. Another part of it is the editorial nature of the forums we run. We want to make sure the topics are appropriate and add to the mission of the site. We have many hundreds of people that read the content every day, even if they don’t post.

I’m going to put this one on hold temporarily. I want to ask the other moderators about it. There’s nothing wrong with your post, and I totally understand the need to get things off your chest. This is more oriented around the specific question of overcoming sin from a faithful perspective. We tend to deal more with the turmoil of people’s doubts about the Church.

-Valoel

[Anonymous]

Honestly, when I read it I had the exact same reaction. I’m not comfortable with it as written, especially given what I think the issue probably is.

[Author]

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