Although generally we talk about actual religious bodies on this list, it's good to remind people that there are religious weirdos on the web.

I had the experience recently of reading several messages on one of several Church of Christ lists. Board discipline was getting out of hand. Usually a moderator warns people, then takes them off.

This list was normally unmoderated. If a person insulted someone, their messages were moderated. The remedy for getting out of the box (in their terms)?

A person has to write a confession of wrongdoing to the list. Not a mere apology but an actual confession. Plus, the person had to promise never to insult someone again.

I am all for politeness on message boards. And I'm not sure that this weird confessional style is common in the Churches of Christ-I have only visted a few times and they seem nice. But as in real life, buyer beware-internet moderators shouldn't extract confessions from people they don't know.