Kat at Cathouse Chat has a wonderful post on the role of forgiveness after the Amish children were murdered last week. Kat makes several valid points.

As an individual, I am commanded to forgive. The thing is, God doesn’t say “After that person apologizes, then you forgive.” No. He says, “Forgive.” The reason for this is quite simple: to hold on to rage and anger and bitterness harms no one butourselves. . . .

Vengeance is God’s business, not yours.

However, this moves us to the responsibilities of governments. One of the ways that God exercises justice is through the governmental process. The government bears the sword of justice, and it is supposed to wield it upholding the law and protecting the innocent. Romans 13: 1-4:

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. [emph. mine] . . . .

The government is not called to forgive, it is called to uphold and enforce the law.

I’ve seen that the Amish have gone to this man’s family, offering love and support and forgiveness. I think this is a splendidly gracious thing to do, and a beautiful example of the Christian worldview. I think this will help them in healing their shattered lives, and provide peace and comfort in the midst of this terrible tragedy.

But what has this man’s family done that needs forgiving? They are victims of his actions as much as the Amish families are. I am glad that the Amish did it, because this family needs to know that they’re not blamed, and that they will not be ostracized. But in the strictest sense of forgiving a wrong, it is not required, because they did no wrong.

Just to remind you that there are more victims of this atrocity than we usually keep in mind…

This entry was posted on Monday, October 9th, 2006 at 6:37 pm and is filed under Headlines/Current Events, Politics, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.