{"id":5353,"date":"2009-08-24T09:38:21","date_gmt":"2009-08-24T13:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=5353"},"modified":"2009-08-24T09:38:21","modified_gmt":"2009-08-24T13:38:21","slug":"forgiving-other-peoples-enemies-is-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/forgiving-other-peoples-enemies-is-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgiving other people\u2019s enemies is easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Stephen Hough notes in the Telegraph<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The whole world is buzzing again about Lockerbie, and in particular about the early release from prison of convicted terrorist, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.<\/p>\n

I watched the BBC programme Newsnight on Thursday last week and heard the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill\u2019s statement and subsequent interview with Gavin Esler.\u00a0 Something struck me instantly which I\u2019ve not yet read in any of the other reports flooding the media at this difficult time: the profound Christian overtones of MacAskill\u2019s words – \u201ccompassion \u2026 compunction \u2026 mercy\u201d.\u00a0 I think what he did was a mistake, but perhaps for different reasons than some other commentators.\u00a0 The problem here is that, theologically speaking, we can only forgive someone who offends (sins against) us<\/em>.\u00a0 \u201cForgive your<\/em> enemies\u201d \u2026 not your neighbour\u2019s enemies: \u201cIf someone asks for your<\/em> coat give them your<\/em> tunic as well\u201d \u2026 but not Mr Jones\u2019s tunic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The same tendency is seen \u2013 ironically enough \u2013 in churches, many of whom are preoccupied with giving grovelling apologies on behalf of their forebears. Anglican Church of Canada Primate, Fred Hiltz loves to apologise<\/a> for sins he did not commit\u00a0 hoping, one assumes, that it will divert attention from those he did. The compassion he shows for Indigenous Canadians is apparently boundless. In contrast, the rapacious greed he exhibits in the various lawsuits in which the ACoC is engaged in its attempt to grab property<\/a>, is also boundless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Stephen Hough notes in the Telegraph: The whole world is buzzing again about Lockerbie, and in particular about the early release from prison of convicted terrorist, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. I watched the BBC programme Newsnight on Thursday last week … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglican-church-of-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}