Bob Jones’ Apology

How do I feel about it?

I’m afraid I can’t really get too worked up. The heated tirades, righteous indignation, jeremiads and denunciations all get rather tiresome and predictable, and in the end who takes notice?

Only those people like this fellow Patheos blogger who has his own rage issues.

What good does it do to get all worked up about it? They have freedom of religion and freedom of speech like anyone else. If they behaved like Westboro Baptist bigots–it was their own feet they were shooting.

What does interest me is that Bob Jones III, has publicly apologized.

He’s shown an uncharacteristic  vulnerability and willingness to accept his public wrongdoing in a public way.

Good for him. He’s a better man than he seemed to be, and this reveals the human heart that has always been there beneath the tough fundamentalist street fighter.

Whatever his unpleasant past, Bob Jones III softened, and I believe he sincerely does regret his words.

Why the softer view on the issue?  I suspect he and his family,  like many Christian families, have faced the issue of same sex attraction within their own circle. I suspect he has agonized over the issue and come through the other side with a more merciful and compassionate heart.

Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt, hope for the best, and say a prayer for him because he too is a fellow sinner and pilgrim here–and he’d be the first to admit it.

I live here in Greenville, and I know that Dr Bob is friends with some terrific Catholic folks.

Maybe those friendships will help him see that Catholicism is not, after all, the demonic cult he and his father once said it was, but a religion of mercy and a fellowship of sinners forgiven.