More on Imus: What About Forgiveness?

Channel-surfing a few nights ago when Don Imus's racial slur about the Rutgers University women's basketball team was the obsession-du-jour--you remember those days, don't you?--I heard one host excoriating those who had called for Imus to be yanked from the radio and cable TV. "The man apologized and asked for forgiveness and then, these people sought his firing!" he intoned.

He acted as though it was hypocritical for a Jesse Jackson or an Al Sharpton, Christians, to seek an apology from Imus and still seek his firing. He was wrong.

Time for me to tell one of my favorite stories about forgiveness.

On May 13, 1981, Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City. The pope nearly lost his life. Two months later, Agca was sentenced to life in prison by an Italian Court.

In 1983, John Paul visited his would-be assassin in prison. There, in a corner of a prison cell with bars on its windows, Agca asked for forgiveness and the pope granted it. One of the weekly news magazines featured an image of the event on its front cover with the words, "Why Forgive?" emblazoned across the top.

In the New Testament, the most commonly used word for forgive is aphiemi, which literally means release. The person forgiven is released of the debts for their trespasses of God and others. But the person who forgives is also released, freed of the terrible weight represented by grudge-holding. That's why Jesus taught His followers to pray, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." There's no doubt in my mind that John Paul really forgave Agca that day.

But as the news magazine article pointed out, even after forgiving Agca, the pope climbed into a vehicle and went back to the Vatican; his attacker remained imprisoned. Was the pope being hypocritical? NO!

Agca's assassination attempt was both a sin, a violation of the fifth commandment prohibition of murder, and a crime, a violation of human law. It's perfectly possible for a murderer or would-be murderer to seek and receive forgiveness for their sins and still be forced to face the consequence of crimes.

It's even possible for someone to be forgiven for both crimes and sins and still have to deal with the consequences of their wrongdoing. In the Old Testament, Israel's greatest king, David, committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his dedicated soldiers, Uriah. Uriah was off in battle when David took up with Bathsheba, who soon became pregnant with David's child. Eventually, David arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle, hoping then to take Bathsheba into his home to live happily ever after. But a courageous prophet, Nathan, exposed David's wrongdoing and to the king's credit, he took responsibility for his actions. David repented. (His prayer of repentance can be found here.)

Eventually, much of David's former authority was restored, a tribute to God's gracious willingness to forgive and restore repentant sinners. But there were, nonetheless, consequences to David's rebellion against God. Most notable was the death of the son born of this illegitimate union. And there were other consequences as well, which you can read about in the Old Testament.

The head coach of the Rutgers women's basketball team says that she is trying to forgive Don Imus. No doubt others slandered and dehumanized by his remarks are involved in the same process.

But even if Imus is forgiven by God and others, it can't necessarily insulate him from the consequences of his racial slurs. Responding to the loss of revenue from advertisers, CBS and MSNBC became the agents by which those consequences were meted out.

Will Don Imus work again in broadcasting? Possibly. But one consequence of this incident may be that it will be a more chastened, sensitive Imus who sits behind a microphone.

However that may be, no Christian leader who accepted the former radio shock jock's apology and still thought he should be fired acted hypocritically.

There may be dozens of reasons to criticize Jackson or Sharpton. Their actions in the Imus situation aren't among them.