Churches and apologies

Recently, there has been a trend developing where churches feel a need to apologize for the douchebaggery of their checkered past. The newest example of this is the Church of England apologizing for misunderstanding Darwin.

For some reason, this has become the thing to do for years. The Southern Baptist Church apologized for their support of slavery. Nevermind that support for slavery was the reason for their founding. The Catholic Church recently apologized for their treatment of Galileo. The Mormon church just issued an apology for the Mountain Meadows Massacre last year.

I guess the reason that these things keep popping up is that they really don't accomplish anything. Nothing is sacrificed and nothing is achieved besides cheap publicity for the church. It either opens up wounds that were long closed or seems like a shallow gesture by a public who really doesn't care.