{"id":30984,"date":"2018-01-26T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=30984"},"modified":"2018-01-30T09:01:03","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T14:01:03","slug":"why-secularists-have-problems-with-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/01\/why-secularists-have-problems-with-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Secularists Have Problems with Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"1024px-We_Do_Not_Forgive\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The men caught in the sexual assault and harassment scandals are unlikely to find forgiveness in the\u00a0world of public opinion.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter whether or not they have apologized, felt remorse, or publicly confessed their guilt and shame.\u00a0 If they take upon themselves some act of restitution or are punished for what they did, it won\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

Even if somehow their victims forgive them, the perpetrators still will not find forgiveness from the public.\u00a0 And though they\u00a0could find forgiveness from God, it may never occur to the perpetrators, as much as they yearn for forgiveness, that this is possible.<\/p>\n

\n

This is because there is currently no\u00a0real concept for forgiveness in the secular world, no mechanism for atonement or redemption.<\/p>\n

We see this also in marriages and other relationships. When there has been a hurt or a transgression, there is often little consideration of forgiving each other. Rather, the solution is to break the relationship, to never\u00a0have anything to do with\u00a0that person ever again.<\/p>\n

My fellow Patheos blogger George Yancey has written a fascinating post entitled\u00a0\u00a0Why Have We Forgotten about Forgiveness?<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>He cites an\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0that raises this issue, which blames social media.\u00a0 He points to\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0that finds that religious individuals have a higher capacity for forgiveness than the non-religious.<\/p>\n

Yancey argues that the issue hinges on worldview.\u00a0 Christians know that they are sinners, as is everyone they will encounter.\u00a0 Christians know they need forgiveness and everyone else does too.\u00a0 Because of our fallen nature, Christians do not expect other people to behave perfectly.\u00a0 When they don\u2019t, Christians can empathize with their failure.<\/p>\n

Christians have a concept of atonement and redemption, which provides an objective foundation for forgiveness, both for themselves and others.\u00a0 This depends on the work of Christ, who bore our sins and the penalty they deserve, thereby justifying sinners.<\/p>\n

Therefore, we can repent of\u00a0our sins and receive God\u2019s forgiveness.\u00a0 And because God forgives our trespasses, we can forgive those who trespass against us.<\/p>\n

Secularists, though, have a different worldview.\u00a0 As Yancey explains it,<\/p>\n

In a secular idea of human nature, there is no supernatural help. The only help we have is from ourselves. But that is okay since humans are the highest evolved beings that we have seen to this point in our history. So over time we have evolved in ways that enable us to grow not only physically but also morally and ethically. Thus, our society has challenged all sorts of oppressions and improved itself. This improvement is due to our evolving ability to reach towards societal perfection. From a secular perspective, perfection is not only reachable, but it is also desirable.<\/p>\n

Because humans are responsible for achieving perfection, they have to be held accountable. Believing that perfectibility is achievable means that we are obligated to strive for perfection. Forgiveness may actually inhibit our achievement of perfectibility as it can be seen as providing individuals with a way out of their responsibly to achieve perfection. Someone exhibiting racism, sexism or some sort of other \u201cism\u201d makes it that much harder for us to reach the ideal society into which we are evolving. Sanction and punishment of that person can set the example to discourage other transgressions. If we are perfectable, it makes sense not to forgive those who do wrong even if they regret their wrongdoing and made amends for it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have noticed that non-Christians today often confuse religion and morality and are willing to recognize Christ as our highest moral example, but they resist the notions of atonement, redemption, and forgiveness.<\/p>\n

This may seem ironic because Christians are usually considered to be the moralistic ones.\u00a0 And yet actually the non-Christians may be far more moralistic, even as they reject Christian morality.\u00a0 In fact, it may be that their perfectionism requires<\/em> them to reject Christian morality, since they can never live up to it.\u00a0 So they make it easier, adopting moral codes that they can<\/em> fulfill, such as having the right political attitudes.<\/p>\n

Instead of forgiveness, it seems to me, secularists have tolerance.\u00a0 They can have a high threshold of toleration for moral faults, though this varies from individual to individual.\u00a0 A person might respond to a particular kind of bad behavior by saying, \u201cno problem\u201d or \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter\u201d or \u201cthat doesn\u2019t bother me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But tolerating a fault is not the same thing as forgiving a fault.<\/p>\n

Christians do not tolerate sexual immorality.\u00a0 But they show the sexually immoral where they can find forgiveness.<\/p>\n

This may make the sexually immoral person angry, because\u00a0to forgive implies that\u00a0they have done something\u00a0wrong that needs forgiveness!\u00a0 That flies in the face of their perfectionism.<\/p>\n

They do not want forgiveness.\u00a0 They want acceptance and approval.\u00a0 They demand that Christians\u2013and God\u2013accept them as they are.\u00a0 They want Christians and the Christian\u2019s God to say, you are good.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But Christians cannot say that of anyone, including themselves.<\/p>\n

And yet\u00a0when there arises a transgression, sexual or otherwise, that cannot<\/em> be tolerated, the offender cannot be tolerated either.<\/p>\n

At that point, any talk of forgiveness (ironically) sounds like toleration<\/em> for the offense.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t, though!\u00a0 Forgiveness comes at the high price of atonement and cannot be separated from revulsion against sin, whether\u00a0in\u00a0repentance or\u00a0in mercy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo, Protest by Anonymous, by Dogwearsglasses (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is currently no real concept for forgiveness in the secular world, no mechanism for atonement or redemption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":30990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,15,26,37],"tags":[6089,3934,2553,2537,1984,6090,2227],"class_list":["post-30984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christ","category-culture","category-ethics","category-law","category-psychology","tag-christian-worldview","tag-forgiveness","tag-moralism","tag-perfectionism","tag-secularism","tag-sexual-harassment-scandal","tag-tolerance"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Secularists Have Problems with Forgiveness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The secularist worldview--lacking the concepts of the fall, atonement, and redemption--has little room for forgiveness.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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