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Setting an example of Christian forgiveness
By TWILA DECKER © St. Petersburg Times, published September 26, 1998 There's nothing as touching as seeing strangers working side by side to rebuild what Mother Nature destroyed. But there's also the dark side -- the looters who pick over a person's few remaining keepsakes and the opportunists who increase prices to take advantage of people at their lowest moment. Regardless of what consequences you believe President Clinton should suffer for his sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky, his problems have revealed those two very different sides of humanity. The African-American community has taken the lead in showing the generosity of spirit. After Clinton apologized at his Sept. 11 prayer breakfast at the White House, black Baptists, Pentecostals and others were among the first to hug him and tell him they had forgiven him. The hierarchy of African-American church organizations also has issued public statements, saying it forgives the president. Bishop John Hurst Adams, senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, tried to explain in a recent speech why African-Americans are so forgiving. "We understand human diversity and perversity -- both," Adams reportedly said. "We understand the human condition. "We are quick to forgive, first of all, because we had to practice deception to survive. We had to treat our slave master like we liked him. ... We've been forgiving folks who have treated us wrong for a long time." The National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc. also issued a public statment, saying it had forgiven Clinton. (The NBC, however, is the same group that has not only forgiven the Rev. Henry Lyons but also has allowed him to stay as president of its convention even though he is accused of a wide range of fraud, money-laundering and conspiracy.) But on the other side of the spectrum is the Christian Coalition. At last week's gathering of 3,000 of its members in Washington, D.C., the group showed just how ugly the human spirit can be. Founder Pat Robertson, the same person who suggested havoc would be reaped on Orlando for allowing gay activists to fly rainbow flags on its downtown streets, understandably criticized Clinton, then called for his impeachment. But when Robertson also suggested the president should be forgiven, he was greeted with a smattering of boos from the crowd -- from a group that claims Clinton's actions and policies don't support Christian family values. But what kind of values does heckling and jeering at the suggestion of forgiveness teach America's children? The Hillcrest Ministers Association of Little Rock, Ark., has one of the most reasoned approaches so far. In a statement, it condemned Clinton's behavior as deplorable but commended him for confessing his sin. The group also condemned "political partisanship which seeks destruction rather than justice" and encouraged the president and Congress to "seek truth and justice" in upcoming deliberations. "Let us all deal redemptively with one another . . . out of compassion rather than anger, a desire to do good rather than evil, to promote healing rather than continue to wound; so that when history looks back at this moment in time, may it be said that we all did which is good in the eyes of our God and Creator."
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hen a hurricane or other catastrophe hits a community, it often reveals not only devastation but the beauty and the ugliness of human spirit.
