Over the last few weeks I’ve seen the CS Lewis quote: “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” frequently. And I was glad that Erika Kirk spoke of forgiving her husband’s killer. I genuinely pray she has the resolve to maintain that sentiment because forgiveness is both difficult and an ongoing process. What has discouraged me comes from the same vein. At the same event where Mrs. Kirk pronounced forgiveness the President rejected forgiveness in favor of hatred. And further one of his top aides has made similar statements. Now I am not going to criticize the President’s comments nor Mr. Miller since neither make claims about being Christian. I will note that Jesus forgave his enemies when they did not repent (or even understand they did wrong) and calls us to do the same. So as Christians we need as Lewis said, to forgive because Christ forgave us.
What I find even more distressing that Mr. Trump’s or Mr. Miller’s comments is that Christian commentators are celebrating them. So many Christians are cheering on this sentiment.Christians (including pastors) are calling on other Christians to learn to hate.
They are telling people not to forgive.
This is contrary to Jesus. How can we have Christians defending hating our enemies when Jesus explicitly says to love our enemies? Or if these commentators are not telling us to do so they are glad that someone is hating our enemies so we do not have to.
While it should be blatantly obvious that the first notions are contrary to Jesus’ teachings Allie Beth’s is more subtle. She is a Christian Nationalist and proudly proclaims that she wants a Christian Nation. But she also makes statements like this where she wants our leaders to act in anti-Christian ways. note she says nothing about laws or justice or redemption or any other Christian concept. Instead she gives the leader a pass. She wants Mr. Miller to be about hatred and destruction. This gives her the freedom to “forgive” with no consequences. She can forgive while not having to do the work of forgiveness. She can offer cheap grace to herself. I say this because all that is required of this kind of forgiveness is to look the other way while another person’s hatred does what you sincerely want done. True forgiveness is about hoping for and offering a chance of restored relationship. True forgiveness is about a desire for reconciliation. Forgiveness holds out hope that the party that has wronged you will change to the point that a relationship can happen.
What Stuckey and others are advocating is not forgiveness it is scapegoating. She is transferring her own hatred to another person so that person can bear the blame while she “offers forgiveness” and so appeases her own conscious. Even her use of Romans 13 is wrong. Paul wrote those words to warn Christians to act like good citizens not as a threat of punishment against our enemies. This sort of twisting of Paul’s words belittles the admonition he gives. His words were meant to help Christians realize they need to live at peace with one another, not to provide a convenient cover to our ill-will. Stuckey treats this passage like a mafia Don allowing a lackey to be an enforcer while staying “innocent”. If it is a Christian’s job to give grace (as she says) then there is no standing aside and washing our hands while others “destroy our enemies”. There is no cheering while government officials say “I hate my enemies”.
The idea of forgiveness is at odds with this idea that government can hate and destroy. To forgive a person is to want that person not to be hated, but to be pitied. To forgive a person is to want that person restored not destroyed. To make these claims that we should hate our enemies or want their destruction is at odds with Jesus. I opened with a quote from CS Lewis and I think it is fitting to close with one. I will offer one addition to this quote everyone especially loves the notion of forgiveness when it is shown to them and as Lewis said,
“Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.” ~C. S. Lewis
Squinting in the Light 
Leave a comment