Tag Archives: forgiveness

national news

Rep. Scalise is searching for forgiveness; he might find it

U.S. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise is on the hunt for forgiveness.

I hope he finds it. If he does and then accepts what happened to him as the act of a deranged individual, then he’ll likely be an even better man for it.

Scalise was gravely injured when a gunman opened fire on him and other Republican members of Congress who were practicing for a baseball game planned against Democrats.

The gunman was killed in a fire fight with capital police. Scalise, meanwhile, fought for his life. Happily, he is still recovering.

Scalise said he found additional strength while talking to the pastor of one of the predominantly African-American churches that were burned in Louisiana. He said the pastor imparted wisdom, saying that he — the pastor — had forgiven the individual who has been charged with torching  the churches out of hate.

The gunman who opened fire in Arlington, Va., in June 2017 at GOP House members also was filled with hate. According to The Hill: “I’ve never internally fully forgiven the shooter from the baseball shooting and it’s something I struggle with as a Catholic. I mean, part of my faith is forgiveness and I’m, I’m working to get there, and it was actually helpful to talk to him afterward about,” he continued. “And if we agreed to talk some more — I asked him if we could talk some more and he wants to so we’re going to do that.”

I wish Rep. Scalise well in his search for forgiveness. If he adopts it, I would consider him to be a better man than many of us.

national news

Where do these people find forgiveness?

The loved ones of the men and women Dylann Roof allegedly shot to death have done what?

They have forgiven the young man? They say that if God can forgive him, how can they not?

Families forgive accused church shooter

This one is going to take some time for me to process.

Roof stands accused of killing nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C. It appears to have been a racially motivated massacre. He is known to have said he wanted to start a “civil war” and that he believes blacks and whites shouldn’t mix.

So, he went to a Bible study, was welcomed by the African-American church members. He sat with those victims for an hour — and then he opened fire.

Today, he went to court for an arraignment and several family members said they forgive this individual for committing a monstrous act of terror against them and those he killed in cold blood.

I consider myself a committed Christian. I know what Scripture says about forgiveness, how Jesus Christ urges us to love one another, no matter the sin. He didn’t distinguish among sins, never said one sin was greater than another.

What the young man is accused of doing, though, crosses a line that makes his alleged sin far greater than, say, using impolite language.

Could I forgive someone for doing something that Dylann Roof is accused of doing?

Hypothetical questions are tough to answer.

Perhaps one day, I could.

One day.

Perhaps.

From my perch halfway across the country where this carnage occurred, I harbor intense anger toward this young man.

I stand amazed that those who are suffering such intense grief and heartbreak can find it in them to forgive.