Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. — Matthew 6:12
There are moments in history when the goodness of humanity brilliantly illuminates the darkness. June 1, 2010, was just such a moment. The place, appropriately, was one of the darkest cities in America — Detroit, ravaged by the collapse of the automobile industry.
At Comerica Park, the Detroit Tigers’ Armando Galarraga was pitching. The crowd fell silent as Galarraga — a young man who had been slated to be sent to the minor leagues — retired the first 26 batters. He was on the verge of making baseball history. Only 20 perfect games have ever been pitched.
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Galarraga was one out away from throwing the 21st. With two outs in the ninth, the Cleveland Indians batter hit an easy grounder to the Tiger first baseman. Galarraga, the pitcher, raced to cover first. It’s a routine play; Galarraga and the ball reached first base at least a step ahead of the runner. Galarraga was about to become a baseball immortal.
Except he didn’t. “Safe!” shouted umpire Jim Joyce. Galarraga’s response was a simple smile — a smile that, as Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated said, seemed to ask, “Are you sure? I really hope you are sure.”
The blown call outraged fans across the country. For Joyce’s part, as soon as he saw the replay, he knew that he had gotten it wrong. He told reporters, “I just cost that kid a perfect game.”
By baseball standards, such an admission was extraordinary: Umpires are paid to make judgment calls and stand by them. Players and managers can argue with them, but only within limits, and with no expectation of having the call reversed.
So when Joyce apologized to Galarraga, we were already in unfamiliar territory. When Galarraga, in turn, forgave Joyce, adding that the umpire probably felt worse than he did and that “nobody’s perfect,” we were witnessing something extraordinary.
The victim of what Posnanski calls one of the “most absurd injustices in the history of baseball” went out of his way to comfort the umpire who made the mistake. And the umpire was humble enough to ask for forgiveness. It was a spontaneous, unforgettable moment.
The ability to forgive is one of the most powerful forces for good in any society. It can reconcile the most grievous altercations, which are an ever-present reality in a fallen world. Forgiveness brings about shalom — the biblical term for concord and harmony — between people who have the greatest differences imaginable and can transform institutions and even warring nations.
America is rightly known for its forgiving nature. The land of second chances, we like to say. What other nation in history has simultaneously fought major world wars against two mighty military powers — Japan and Germany — eventually conquered its attackers, and then turned right around to rebuild the very countries it fought?
And yet in recent years, Americans have become a deeply cynical and unforgiving people. A 1988 Gallup poll revealed that 50 percent of Americans do not believe that they could forgive others; another revealed that “forgiveness is something virtually all Americans aspire to” (94 percent) but “is not something we frequently offer.” Only 48 percent acknowledged attempting to forgive others. And yet, as Melissa Healy, in the Los Angeles Times article “The Science of Forgiveness” noted a few years ago, a refusal to forgive those who have harmed us can increase the risk of heart attacks and depression.
How and why did we reach this tragic place?
Some saw this sad state of affairs coming. In 1973, psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a popular book titled Whatever Happened to Sin? Good question. What happened is that sin has become the most politically incorrect subject we can possibly raise in polite company, because it involves being judgmental.
Mr. Colson? Phil Donahue was asking you a serious question, not a rhetorical one: why don’t you just find God and go home and be quiet? Or at least go on doing your work without preening in NR?
Our capacity for forgiveness ought to be infinite, but it isn't. We all fall short of the Glory of God and His infinite capacity for forgiveness. That being the case, I'm sure you can understand that our forgiveness is rationed. Try to forgive us if you don't get what you think is your fair share.
Consider yourself close to the bottom of the list -- above John Edwards, but not by much.
First, you misread the article. Did you read it at all and yet remain so callous? Phil Donohue didn't ask the question of Colson.
Comparing the unrepentant, self-loving Edwards to a man who has devoted his life to help other sinners is shameful. Your second paragraph is cynical. I'm thinking now that all your purported concern for poor people is phony.
We can ration our forgiveness by not rationing the pleasure we can find in cynicism. The pleasure of a cynic is to accuse others of lacking a virtuous character while pretending to have a virtuous character. I read no cynicism in Mr. Colson's words. I find much cynicism in MikeB's post.
Well said, Mr. Colson, the power of forgiveness through the love of Christ is a great power for healing and reconciliation. Kudos for a fine reminder of that.
You have beautifully illustrated Cole's point. We do not forgive people because we judge they have groveled enough; we forgive people because they sincerely ask our forgiveness. Perhaps Cole has not groveled as much as justice deserves, but he has sincerely asked my forgiveness. I can grant that forgiveness at absolutely no cost to myself, leaving it to God and the powers that be to look after justice, so it's meaningless to talk about exhausting some mythical finite pool of forgiveness capacity by expending it on the wrong people. On the contrary, the more I forgive, the easier it becomes to continue to forgive.
There is an important difference, by the way, between Joyce and Woods. There is nothing to indicate Joyce's bad call was malicious. It was mistaken, not sinful. Whereas Woods acted in malice. I mean this in the broad ethical sense; I'm not suggesting he was deliberately trying to hurt anyone. The false category we've created of "victimless crimes" may play a part here.
Yes, it was a woman in the Donahue audience, not Donahue himself.
Sorry for the error.
The rest of my argument stands. I have less compassion for a guy who writes about deserving compassion than I have for someone who merely shuts up and behaves contritely.
You should only have as much compassion for the welfare queens as you do for the Dagny Taggarts.
Perhaps, just perhaps, Mike, you should stop and consider that maybe Colson is being genuine. Maybe he believes that by sharing this he can help even one person find forgiveness. Maybe, hard as it may be to admit in that small, dark world of yours, he actually wants to do good in this world and believes that spreading his message advances that cause.
It is truly a sad commentary on your state of mind that you object to this story. You are so blinded by cynicism and hate that you attack a message of forgiveness.
As I said before, our ability to forgive should be infinite, but it's not. So it all boils down to who you cut some slack and who you don't.
Throughout the NRO community, patience for the poor and downtrodden is thin. No coincidence that Colson's piece appears here. Who do we forgive -- the guy who crossed the border illegally, but is working hard and playing by every other rule now? Or the guy who was counsel to the President until he got caught doing something that did vast harm to the country, but now does an enormous amount of good running a charitable organization?
It's good to focus on such differences, and good to criticize me personally for having less patience for the Colsons of the world than for the illegals who made my sandwich a couple of hours ago.
Mike B, seems to me that you are confusing forgivness, and accountability. The illegal alien can be forgiven, and understood, but if the law is broken, there is justice to be upheld. We can deport, and still be forgiving.
Now the question of determining how to mete out justice, and if justice has been served is another question. In this case, its apparent that you don't feel justice was served for the Colson's crimes. Fair enough, that argument could be had, but you could still forgive a contrite sinner. By the grace of God (and He alone).
The bitterness you are harboring will eat you up, and that's the point of this article.
Colson is contrite, and repentent- would that I could claim a quarter of the fruit in my life that he's born in the past several decades of his.
Mikey thinks the illegal should not be held accountable - he thinks those who want the law enforced do so out of personal animus, not ... well, you know ... a belief that the law should be enforced.
As for Colson, who HAS been held accountable .... well, accountability isn't enough for Mikey.
Mike - do you realize what a sanctimonious hypocrite you've made yourself out to be?
Thank you for your essay. You reminded me of the importance of forgiving people who sin against me from my heart, just as God forgives all my awful sin.
On another note, I often wonder how a lack of forgiveness shapes societies and history. Some peoples emphasize the importance of honor, reputation, and vengeance against enemies. This leads to an inability to put disputes to rest. For example, consider the domestic aftermath of the American revolution vs the French - in which one were the victors more forgiving? In which was peace more quickly restored? In which did the victors obsess with executing and dispossessing their political enemies?
And thanks very much Mr. Colson for your essay and prison ministry work over the years.
It's only human to resent being lampooned and sneered at for doing good works. Most good Americans are not as devoutly Christian as you, and so our patience wears thin. But now, when we are named the Great Satan and accused of imperialism and conquest, well, personally, I'm done.
In the natural man there is a limited ammount of forgiveness. There is a keeping score, a tally card, a sense of the fufillment of one's own benevolence.
Colson is talking about somthing else:
Context
<< Matthew 18 >>
New American Standard Bible
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24“When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25“But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26“So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27“And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28“But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ 29“So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30“But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31“So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32“Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34“And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35“My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
If by God's grace you come to an understading of the infinite glory and holiness of Alimighty God, you come to an awareness of the infinite depth of your sin - against an infinite God. When you repent and believe on Chirst for the remission of sin you have at your disposal a well of INFINITE FORGIVENESS. You do not forgive perfectly, but you are given the ability to forgive "sevety times seven" sins when your brother comes to ask for forgiveness!
It also seems you are confusing issues of temporal justice and spiritual justice. Isn't it always the Libs who are crying about how conservatives don't understand the distinction between church and state?
Immigration laws must be enforced to maintain proper order and protect the nation. That is a civil responsibility - for the government to maintain the border, and keep lawbreakers from entering. Colson served his time, remember?
And when you say that NRO (and I suppose you would mean conservatives in general) have little patience fo rthe poor and downtrodden, you are speaking falsely.
You should know, by now, (from all your carfull reading of NRO articles) that the conservative notion goes something like this:
"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Give a man a fish for two years and you will make him dependent on you. Give the man the opportunity to fish on his own, and you feed him for a lifetime."
I disasgree with liberal entitlement notions of "compasion".But I do beleive that there are many who genuinely beleive that if you keep spending enough money you can make poverty go away. In fact I think that such programs desroy communities and create certain classes of people dependent on politicians. I think your vision for caring for humans is flawed, but I don't base my argument against yours by relying on contiual ad hominem arguments like most liberals do. If libs would actauly LISTEN to conservatives sometimes, they could really improve thier own arguments.
And remember, in study afer study it is conservative Christains who, in study after study, give more money and time away to the weak and downtrodden than any other deographic group in america. Is that patience, MikeB?
Amazing that a convicted felon who lived for many, many years in prison should now lecture gay people. Why is it always the closeted ones who hate on the gays the most? Colson reminds me totally of Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, Ken Mehlman, etc.
