A central, oft-mentioned teaching of Christianity is that God forgives us our sins. A less cited but equally central caveat is that God only forgives us IF we forgive one another. Jesus Himself was very clear about this doctrine and stated it repeatedly. It is the central teaching of The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, which ends thusly: "In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matt 18:34-35) It is found in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us." (Luke 11:4) And it is simply stated, unambiguously, as an explicit fact: "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:14-15) Christians, then, should be eager to forgive and wary of anyone who tries to stir up bitterness or resentment, not only because these things are evil but because they imperil our very souls. Forgiveness need not mean excusing misdeeds or accepting wrong-doing, but at the least it must mean no longer wishing that the other person come to harm, no longer finding pleasure in the idea (or reality) of their suffering. And yet precisely that kind of resentment-building attitude has become a staple of modern politics, where candidates and politicians are openly applauded simply for "driving the other side crazy," where "trolling" has become an acceptable (even applauded) form of political engagement, and pundits and voters alike laugh at the idea of drinking "liberal tears." By no means is this tendency limited to the political Right, but it stands out there most starkly, not least because the Right has anchored itself in white evangelical Christianity and is far more apt to reference Christian values/heritage. I make this thread both as a confession and an opportunity to think more deeply about the implications of this growing resentment, this desire to see people on the other side suffer. The confession is that I'm certainly guilty of this. Far too easily do I slide from hoping someone's political aspirations are defeated (because I think them wrong-headed or dangerous) to hoping that the person fails and is unhappy in other aspects of life as well, simply because they deserve it. But wanting people to suffer because they deserve to is the antithesis of forgiveness. And it imperils my soul. How about you? And is there any good way this ditch of resentment into which we've sunk?
I suppose that would be the absolute bare minimum of justice. Though, at that point, I’m not sure it’s actually forgiveness anymore. I don’t know your beliefs, but certainly the Christian ideal is that forgiveness is [also and especially] for those who don’t deserve it.
Then why do you post a meme mocking liberals? As for Christ, something about feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, giving drink to the thirsty, doesn't make me think of conservatives, it makes me think more of liberals.
Just because, at least in my experience, it's the most common and iconic example of what I'm talking about. Personally, I think trying to squeeze Christ into the 21st century American political binary is a fool's errand. But the injunction to forgive strikes me as non-political.
There's a difference between personal forgiveness and fighting to defeat evil in the public square. Nancy Pelosi has done nothing to you personally beyond stealing from you through the public treasury; but, beyond those crimes, she is advancing an utterly evil agenda that is not personal to you beyond your disagreement with it. So there is nothing to "forgive" with her public activities. Rather, what needs to be done is that evil agenda needs to be opposed and defeated. To that end, we must work to ensure she fails. I can assure you that if she meets with failure she will not be in the least happy about it, but tough. It is not for us to "forgive" anything a public official does. Rather we must hold them to a high standard, and not apologize for it.
