By now I’m sure that most of you have heard about Mel Gibson’s drunken, anti-Semitic tirade. For certain his apology is necessary and should be noted by those around him who were offended. He has a serious up hill battle on his hands in terms of repairing his public image. In light of this story I would like to ask a few questions and would welcome your response.
Who among us if we were drunk enough would not say some pretty crazy things? If we were chemically enabled would any of us think that some pretty wild stuff would not come out of our mouths?
If we all were honest with ourselves wouldn’t we have to admit that we all probably embrace some sort of racial biases? Not that this is right, but at least can we confess that they are there and need to be battled and corrected?
Who among us has not said things that we don’t mean? Or do we mean it? How do you know the difference?
Married people, I ask you, haven’t all of us said things in anger or frustration to our spouse that later have to be recanted by saying “Honey, I didn’t mean that.” Do our spouses believe us?
Should things that are said in a state that is emotionally heightened or chemically altered define our essential nature as a human? Is this who we “really” are?
Mel Gibson is human like all of us. Does he have issues like all of us that need to be repented of and forgiven? Certainly. Before we turn to all our friends and say, “Can you believe what Mel Gibson did?” maybe we could think though some of these questions and perhaps it would guide us to a more informed Christian response.
Thoughts?
**Here is an interesting update to this post.**
1 comment:
I think an argument could be made that those spur-of-the-moment words or actions actually define us more than our well thought out words & actions. I don't necessarily believe that, but I think the case could be made.
Am I the only one that thinks the media is insane? They are drooling over Gibson's arrest & subsequent comments, all the while in essence ignoring recent comments made by Hugo Chavez and Al Qaeda #2 man Ayman al-Zawahri, both of whom were "sober" at the time of their "Anti-Semitic" statements and both of whom have a lot more power and desire to exercise that power in destroying the Jews than Mel would ever have, no matter how blitzed he may be.
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