Wednesday March 24, 2010
Lent – the season for apologies
By Jim Taylor
Maybe it’s just the season of Lent, the period before Easter traditionally dedicated to repentance and preparation for renewal. Whatever the reason, it seems, suddenly everyone’s apologizing for something.
Golf great Tiger Woods went on television to apologize for letting his fans and his family down by a series of extra-marital affairs.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologized for the Child Migrant program that shipped children from London slums to the colonies – theoretically for a better life under adoption, but more often as something close to slave labour.
Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly apologized for the prejudice that banished black people to impoverished communities outside the city limits – like Africville — and then, when the land suddenly became valuable, forcibly evicted them.
Warren Chant, CEO of Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, Ont., apologized – twice – for surgery by Dr. Barbara Heartwell that mistakenly removed women’s breasts that did not have malignant cancer after all.
Toyota president Akio Toyoda repeatedly apologized to the U.S. Congress and millions of worried car-owners for defects in cars produced by his company, which once enjoyed an unrivalled reputation for quality.
BC Liberal MLA Jane Thornthwaite apologized for impaired driving: "My actions were inexcusable. Drinking and driving is dangerous and completely unacceptable; I know that and make no excuses for what I did," Thornthwaite told the media.
And not one but two federal cabinet ministers had to apologize for temper tantrums in airports. Helena Guergis apparently threw shoes, yelled at Air Canada attendants, and called Prince Edward Island a “hell hole.” Four days later, Veteran’s Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn quarreled publicly with security guards at the Ottawa airport over a bottle of tequila.
And finally, the Pope himself, Benedict XVI, apologized to the victims of childhood abuse by Irish Roman Catholic priests and leaders.
Only the first step
I’d like to think that my church, the United Church of Canada, might have helped to kick-start this process back in 1986 when it offered a formal apology to Canada’s native peoples for misunderstanding and mistreating them.
Its example has since been followed by the Anglican, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches of Canada. And eventually, by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on behalf of the government of Canada, in June 2008.
But what does an apology mean?
The native people gathered for the United Church apology, in 1986, said, in effect, “Let’s wait and see.”
Because an apology does not automatically generate forgiveness. An apology expresses regret, but not necessarily repentance.
Compensation – for the Japanese deported from the Pacific coast or the First Nations children incarcerated in residential schools – is only a short-term solution. It hopes to buy off an injustice with a windfall handout. But it offers no assurance that the social mindset that caused the problem in the first place has learned anything from past experience, or is prepared to change in future.
Without change, an apology by itself is merely a confession, an acknowledgement of wrongdoing. Repentance calls for something more – a commitment NOT to do the same again.
That’s when we can be sure that the apologies were sincere.
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Copyright © 2009 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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Your Turn
Not much mail this last week. Local resident Sky Sigal told me she hadn’t even known there were any Irish saints other than St. Patrick. She looked up St. Brendan, and was fascinated by the legend of his voyages.
And Joan Mistretta wrote from her home in Hammondsport, NY: “Thanks for the telling of your story, Jim. Just what I needed this morning.”
Most of the mail this past week has been requests for subscriptions to Soft Edges, and its Sunday counterpart, Sharp Edges. The requests were prompted by Ralph Milton’s decision to cease editing and publishing his e-mail newsletter Rumors. He kindly encouraged his readers to sign up for the two Edges columns.
Like those of you who signed up, I’m going to miss Rumors. I looked forward to reading it each Sunday morning. It was a lively on-line community. By some coincidence, the day Ralph told me he was planning to quit, I had listened to a radio interview with author P.D. James. The interviewer asked if her most recent murder mystery was going to be her last; “It felt like a closing,” he said.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “But I do know that I want to leave before my skills start declining. Some authors keep writing too long.”
Ralph decided not to keep writing too long.
Farewell, Rumors. Welcome, new subscribers.
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TECHNICAL STUFF
To comment on something, in these columns, send a message directly to me, at [email protected].
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send me an e-mail message at the addresses above. Or you can subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message) to [email protected]. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at [email protected].
You can access several years of archived columns at http://edges.Canadahomepage.net.
I write a second column each Sunday, called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justic issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, at the address above, or send a note to [email protected]
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PROMOTION STUFF…
If you know someone else who might like to receive this column regularly via e-mail, send a request to [email protected]. Or, if you wish, forward them a copy of this column. But please put your name on it, so they don’t think I’m sending out spam.
For a lighter look at life, faith, and the lectionary, I recommend my friend Ralph Milton’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it by sending a note to [email protected].
For other web links worth pursuing, try
- Charlene Fairchild’s United Online site,
- David Keating’s “SeemslikeGod” page
- The Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity home page
- Wayne Irwin’s “Model T Websites.” a simple (and cheap) seven-page website for congregations who want to develop a web presence
- Alva Wood’s satiric stories about small town attitudes and bumbling bureaucrats are not particularly religious, but good fun anyway; write [email protected] to get onto her mailing list.
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