. A child was abducted.
. A child was returned alive
. The parents met with and forgave the alleged abductor.
. The story said the parents are Christians.
Comments were as follows:
“I find this story of forgiveness impossible to believe”
“Are they stupied?”
“This family's forgivness is the result of the co-erced protestant christian politic, and most do this type of thing for their own sake... the threat of eternal torturous hell if they don't forgive.”
“I haven't seen anything about **** being convicted of the kidnapping. So - what are these
"deeply religious" people forgiving him for? Did these "deeply religious" people already convict him in their own "deeply religious" minds? I hope the police investigation considered the possibility that the entire thing was a set-up to run **** out of their "deeply religious" backwoods community.”
“Forgive him? It must be hard to be a christian. I'd never forgive him.”
“Who are these people trying to convince of their so-called Christian agenda, and why?”
“vengence is a religous virtue not a human one.”
“As an atheist, I don't typically use terms like "Christ-like" to describe people, but I don't even have to hesitate to apply it to **** and ****. Their three year old child was kidnapped. Most parents would want to murder the person who put them and their kid through that. I know mine would. Instead, these people decided to put aside vengeance and they've forgiven the man for what he did. That's what Jesus would do, and I pity anyone cynical enough to see harm in such an action. I hope they are able to move past this and have an excellent life with their son, because they really deserve it.”
“How incredibly naive of them...”
“Why do so many people think forgiveness is a good thing? I think it just encourages perpetrators of evil to continue doing what they're doing.”
“They must be as nuts as he was.”
“I'm getting a little tired of the whole Opra forgiveness thing”
“Maybe resentment has value. First, it is protective, you will be less likely to put that individual in a position to hurt you again if you resent, rather than forgive them. Secondly, resentment sends a message to the person who has done harm that their actions are not OK, socially acceptable or excusable.”
“I understand the peace and forgiveness of the ***** and I'm sorry it is so unusual in our society that it merits a headline.”
=====
(sigh) Happy Thanksgiving. God willing I'll be back Tuesday.
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. Guy goes home unpunished.
ReplyDelete. Does it again.
This sort of mentality isn't always bad, but Christians have shown they can take it to the wrong extreme. Just look at the Catholics:
"I'm sure Father Grabass won't do it again... he said he's REALLY sorry he got caught this time, so I'm sure it won't be like last time..."
". Guy goes home unpunished.
ReplyDelete. Does it again."
Actually there were few comments along the same line.
First, the police don’t drop kidnapping charges just because the victims forgive the perp.
Second, the parents said he absolutely needs to serve time for his crime. This is not out of line with what the Bible teaches. God forgives our sins but He doesn’t protect us from the consequences of our wrong behaviours. Eg. He may forgive you for screwing around on your partner, but He'll allow the relationship to break down anyway.
======
“Christians have shown they can take it to the wrong extreme.”
Ya, I know. Human always find it hard to strike the right balance and Christians may be th worst of the lot for doing that.
I would love to believe that the whole Catholic mess (after the abuse) had to do with forgiveness as opposed to just a cover up.
I remember working with a Pastor and his wife (his third wife) and as she was protesting the wrong of them ending their marriage he said, "You think God can't forgive us for this?"
Religious people! Pretty pathetic. What are you going to do with them?
It kind of defeats the concept of forgiveness if, as you are sinning, you think, "Well, I'll be forgiven."
ReplyDeleteI think that should be an instance where God is like, "Yeah... not this time."
That fake request for forgiveness is a big deal for people with addictions. "Lord, I'm sorry I got drunk again," and even while they're saying it they know that they'll do it again. And it's even worse when they do mean to repent it. They are truly sorry and know they'll do it again. That's a hard way to live whether you're saying "sorry" to God or to your family.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, God knows what our motives are. He knows if the, "I'm sorry," is a scam.
That's what is going on when Jesus tells of Judgement Day when people come up to Him and say, “Jesus is my Lord (which means Master) and then say that I did this in Your Name and I did that in Your Name and He says, “I never knew you. Now get away from Me.”
While we often lie to ourselves, we can’t ever successfully lie to our Creator.
I don't believe people can actually lie to themselves and fall for it. There is still some part of them that knows they're a horrible person, some part of them that remembers the truth. Psychologists may disagree with me, but barring some special cases, people know themselves. They may ignore it successfully, but they know. A bald person may stop looking in the mirror, but they remember, and the longer they go without looking, the worse it probably gets without them noticing.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. You're right. But we don't have to completely believe our lie. We just have to believe it enough to allow us to do what we we want to do.
ReplyDeleteWe want pleasure - now.
We want to stop the pain - now!
We'll deal with the consequences later - often by repeating the lie to get more pleasure or to end the pain of the consequences.
Humans are intriguing but also pitiful.
Counselling has made my expectations of humans very low.
Kid's are home from school - gotta go.
ReplyDelete