Penny Thoughts: The Power of Forgiveness

Those of you who know me know I am no paragon of Christian behavior.  I have often observed that, “Church is not a museum for saints…it is a hospital for sinners.”  And as a matter of personal assessment, consequently, it is fair to say that in this context, I am a “code blue’ in any hospital’s Emergency Room.

With this as a backdrop, let me add that I do believe in the power of forgiveness.

When we forgive some offense or some person for a perceived offense it seems to me that we are called upon to dig deeply into our souls and release that emotional injury.  In so doing we can begin our own healing process which otherwise would not be possible.

Today, I must admit that I am struggling with an issue which should call me to forgive, but I am having a very difficult time with it.  Now, I have taught ethics, logic, and epistemology (the study of knowledge) all in a philosophical framework.  Philosophy is, after all, my chosen field of study, much to the dismay and shock to many who know me.  In the application of forgiveness, I am challenged to apply the ethical, logical and epistemological foundations I have long taught.

Yet, in this instance, that or those to whom I should extend forgiveness have stretched the boundaries of belief, credibility, and honor to such extremes that I am having great difficulty and am suffering intense consternation in facing or rendering it.

You see, I have tried to understand and to appreciate the motives and intentions of those Members of Congress in the Democratic Party who are obsessed with trying to remove President Donald Trump from office.  But I am struggling with just how to find forgiveness in my soul for this cabal of highly focused, even if misdirected, confederates.

Listening to the recantations by the Impeachment Managers from the House of Representatives, it seemed to me to be a monotonous and redundant recitation of their assumptions.  There was not much fact – but there was a great deal of surmising, presuming, and second-hand testimony.

But is this what they were elected to do? They certainly believe so.

As a thinker and believer in the principles upon which our founders established this Nation, I am called upon to listen and to try to understand their position.  Decorum, common sense and civility compels me to at least attempt to do so.  Still, their obfuscation of facts, contradictions of position from their stances in President Clinton’s impeachment and their blatant prevarication are not only difficult to accept, they are near impossible to understand.

However, those sad practices can be understood in the context of their fundamental position, which is this: they refuse to accept the results of the Presidential election of 2016.  It is the over-riding motivation and force which impels them to ignore their duties as representatives, as lawmakers according to the Constitution.

On a local level, I feel great compassion for our U.S. Congresswoman, the Honorable Terri Sewell of Selma.  Representative Sewell is an intelligent, articulate Ivy League graduate who seems to take her responsibilities as our Member in Congress very seriously.

So, I stand at the precipice of decision to try to forgive the actions of those whose motivations are specious at best and devious at worst.  As part of the process, I know that we accept as “evidence” that which we wish to accept, what we choose to accept.

I do understand that the progenitors of this impeachment have purely political motives.  They have not satisfied the Constitutional limits of impeachment, but, rather, have sought to expand them in purely esoteric and vengeful measures.

Ultimately, history will judge them and their actions with what I can only assume will be far a less conciliatory degree than my mere attempts to forgive them. They, like Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin in the 1950s, will have to answer for their blind, hate-filled fervor, and will be grouped with McCarthy in their rancorous zeal.

Still, I have the Christian obligation to extend forgiveness for their horrendous actions.  And after I confess my anger and frustration with them in Reconciliation with my priest, I will have no alternative but to forgive.

It will be a personal step towards civility which our Nation, particularly in D. C., so desperately cries out for.  Perhaps they, too, will see that forgiveness can be a powerful and cleansing process.