TGHusker
New member
and your comments are directed at... :dunno I think you protest a bit too much on this.I'm already beyond exhausted with the "reconciliation porn" of this story.
Bonhoefer called forgiveness without repentance cheap grace, and when white people keep praising black forgiveness but still refuse to validate black anger or to be outraged by unjust and non-equitable punishments, that just feels like relatively empty tone policing to me.
Bonhoefer is talking about cheap grace if I presume forgiveness but never repent. However, on the personal level - person to person, forgiveness as an act can have 2 results 1. It frees the forgiver of the bitterness of heart that can come from an offense. Bitterness is the 'is the poison we wish on someone else but drinking it ourself'. 2. Can be the spark in the soul for the forgiven to repent. In this case, Amber has to decide what to do with it - repent or keep her heart hard.
Forgiveness does not dismiss or minimize injustice or non-equitable punishments. I look at this story and see Christian people, in spite of the injustice, doing the Christ like thing - forgiving. I don't see a AA man forgiving a white woman. I see a man forgiving someone who sinned against him and his family .... deeply. Which only magnifies the grace given. The injustice and non-equitable punishment issues aren't to be minimized or over looked but those are separate actions - separate discussions.