UN4GIVN

A post from this blog's past: https://saintsontheloose.blogspot.com/2015/06/car-tags.html  was about licensed "vanity"car tags with unusual readings which the driver may use for an extra fee above the required standard registration fee.

In the parking deck where I work, I recently saw a new tag which intrigued me: UN4GIVN. Using the English language letters and numbers this would transliterate as "unforgiven." What in the world could this mean?

After considering multiple possibilities, including a reference to a movie title or that the driver was a defiantly unrepentant philanderer, I decided that the most likely meaning was as a sarcastic insult to Christians, who often describe themselves as forgiven sinners.

The Confederate Flag

During the memorials for the members of the Bible study class in Charleston, South Carolina who were murdered by a white supremacist, the media's attention suddenly shifted to the flag of the Confederate States of America. The killer was seen in several photos with a Confederate flag and suddenly the national discussion shifted to the removal of that flag from all public places. Why suddenly now? Why not ten years earlier? Why not fifty years earlier? The flag was surely just as offensive then. The effect of the focus on the flag was to shove the Bible study class to the side.

Some say the Confederate flag represents racial hatred. Some say the Confederate flag represents a remembrance of the Southern heritage and history. It probably represents both. The Confederate flag belongs in a museum. We must acknowledge our history, learn from it, and never forget any of it.

Having said that, I believe that the Confederate flag discussion is an intentional distraction from what was and is happening in Charleston. One by one, the family members of the murdered people publicly announced that they forgave the killer. Thousands of Christians gathered daily at the church to pay their respects to the victims and to publicly declare their allegiance to Jesus. The woman who noticed the killer in a town several hundred miles away said that she believed that God placed her there to see the man and to aid in his capture. She publicly praised Jesus and declared her testimony. The public gatherings began to happen in other cities as well.

I believe that this phenomenon made non-believers extremely uncomfortable because they absolutely could not understand it. When someone hurts you, you are supposed to hurt them back! Isn't that what our culture teaches us? How can you forgive someone who has killed one of your family members?
I say, "Good for them! Obey the Lord!" We Christians should make the world uncomfortable.

Child in a Hot Car

It happens several times every year.  A screaming mother or guardian, a dead child in a hot automobile.  Never intending to harm the child, the adult has become distracted, rushing around, and has forgotten that the child is locked in the automobile, windows up, in the hot sun.

In the closed system of the locked car, the internal temperature in the passenger cabin can rapidly soar to 120 - 130 F ( ).  The child dies of a heat stroke.  The adult, of course, feels massive guilt and may, in some jurisdictions, face criminal charges.

People are incredulous that anyone could forget that they had left their child in a hot car.  Some make very harsh and unkind statements and a few predictably, become “holy” and "forgiving." They may say that no one knows what pressures the mother was feeling, no one knows what was on her mind, no one was “walking in her shoes.”  Then they misapply Scripture.  “Judge not that you be not judged.”

The admonition against judging others applies to hypocrisy and also to a tendency among some to pride themselves in their own holiness.  It does not mean that we are not to have opinions and it does not mean that people should not be held responsible for the consequences of their actions, even their unintentional actions.  The legal systems in the areas in which these incidents occur should be followed.  The judgements of the legal systems should be accepted.

The people who call for "understanding" do have a point.  No normal person would intentionally harm their own child.  There are extenuating circumstances and pressures on people which can cause them to exhibit "tunnel vision," seeing only the thing directly in front of them and forgetting other, more important, responsibilities.  The thing we must remember, however, is that we still bear individual personal responsibility for our actions.

Just as it is imperative for Christians to keep their eyes on God, it is also crucial for us to keep our eyes on our children (and also our elderly and others who may not be able to care for themselves).  We have been told that if anything distracts us from God, we should cut it out of our lives.  This is also a good principle for us to follow concerning those under our care. 

Unforgiveness is Toxic

"We don't know what could be holding us down, but if someone needs to be forgiven that would be a start."  What an insight!  Forgiveness can have just as much an effect on the forgiver as on the forgiven.  Carrying hatred, or even just an attitude of unforgiveness, is toxic.

This is one of the points of October Baby, a film I recently reviewed.

A Toast

The new Pope Francis apparently has a sense of humor.  New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan has related that Francis' post-election toast to his fellow electors was, "May God forgive you."

When We Stumble

When Christians stumble, when we fall short, and we all do, even the Apostle Paul, God is right there, waiting to comfort us and set us on the right path again.  He knows what we have done, but He expects us to tell Him.  Once we do, He tells us to not do it again and then He “remembers it not” as if it never happened.  “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34, also Hebrews 10:17)

Christians are covered by the Blood of Christ.  When God sees His people, He sees the Blood.  “… when I see the blood I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13)

The Blood of Christ must be there and it is only there when we accept it as the gift that it is.

Film Comment: October Baby

Really powerful movies are rarely about what they seem to be on the surface.  October Baby (2012) is one of those films.  You absolutely MUST see this film if you possibly can.

A distressingly large number of “Christian” films suffer from weak writing, amateurish acting, poor pacing, and an obvious dependence on one primary set.  You will find none of that in October Baby.

Hannah Lawson (actress Rachel Hendrix) is a freshman in college who suddenly discovers that her entire life is “a lie.”  She learns that she was adopted and that her birth was as the result of a failed abortion.  As the film progresses, Hannah learns even more secrets about her parents, a nurse, a male friend, and her birth mother.

Abortion is the catalyst for the events in the film, but, while the film is clearly pro-life (The tagline is “Every life is beautiful.”), what the film is actually about is the redeeming power of forgiveness.   Hannah, a Baptist, learns from a Roman Catholic priest that because God has forgiven us, we have the power to forgive.

Watch during the credits for a shocking revelation about the actress, Shari Rigby, who portrayed the birth mother.  God works in individual lives in ways we could never have anticipated.

Again, as a Christian, you absolutely MUST see this film.  If you read the film chat rooms you will find equal numbers of people who were absolutely amazed by the film and others, who clearly do not understand, and who post snarky sarcastic comments.  The New York Times film critic, Jeannette Catsoulis, says that the film has "ugliness at its core," while Penny Young Nance, the Chief Executive Officer of Concerned Women for America says that it should be called "Hallelujah Baby."

Forgiveness

"Forgiveness is a strange thing.  It can sometimes be easier to forgive enemies than our friends.  It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love.  Like all of life's important coping skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentments most likely take root very early in our lives."  Fred Roger ("Mr. Rogers")

The Sins of the Fathers

Yesterday in the post on The Road to Perdition, I said that the film's story is based on the idea of the"sins of the fathers."  Here are the biblical references.

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” Exodus 20:5

“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,” Deuteronomy 5:9

And the Christian promise:

“In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:29-34

A Gravestone Inscription in Atlanta, Georgia

On a gravestone in Atlanta, Georgia: "Gone, but not forgiven."

Worldwide Forgiveness Day

Today is Worldwide Forgiveness Day, sponsored by the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance, a 501 (c)3 non-profit tax exempt charity. Their mission is "to evoke the healing spirit of Forgiveness worldwide," and to teach and certify thousands of Forgiveness Life Skill Teachers. They quote Dr. Gerald Jampolsky, "Forgiveness is the greatest healer of them all." That's a whole lot of forgiveness.

http://www.forgivenessday.org

This is an interfaith organization and they seem to go out of their way to not mention Jesus or Christianity though they do mention other faiths. The whole thing seems to be "feel-goodism," based on the idea that if we would all just be good and forgive one another, everything would be all right. This is thin and filmy with no underlying power to sustain it, based only on good intentions.

Christians are commanded to forgive without limits (Luke 17:4). Unforgiveness is one of the most horrible of sins (Matthew 18:34-35; Luke 15:28-30). Christians are to forgive because God has forgiven us. We are to be like God who sought out the offender (us) to redeem him.