Dennis Prager's Legitimate Concern about Christians and Automatic Forgiveness

This is a guest post from Chris Brauns, the author of Unpacking Forgiveness. If you would like to think more about forgiveness, take the "forgiveness quiz."

Tragically, we in the West continue to see mass murder such as the recent killings in Norway. How should Christians respond?

Many believers insist that while there may be times when God does not forgive, people must always forgive. They insist that whenever a wrong is committed, regardless of whether or not the offender is repentant, Christians should “automatically” forgive the offender. But, this teaching is too simplistic. It encourages forgiveness so broadly that it diminishes the justice of God and compromises the integrity of true forgiveness. This is what Dennis Prager pointed out in a 1997 Wall Street Journal article:

The bodies of the three teen-age girls shot dead last December by a fellow student at Heath High School in West Paducah, Ky., were not yet cold before some of their schoolmates hung a sign announcing, "We forgive you, Mike!" They were referring to Michael Carneal, 14, the killer.

This immediate and automatic forgiveness is not surprising. Over the past generation, many Christians have adopted the idea that they should forgive everyone who commits evil against anyone, no matter how great and cruel and whether or not the evildoer repents.

The number of examples is almost as large as the number of heinous crimes. Last August, for instance, the preacher at a Martha's Vineyard church service attended by the vacationing President Clinton announced that the duty of all Christians was to forgive Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who murdered 168 Americans. "Can each of you look at a picture of Timothy McVeigh and forgive him?" the Rev. John Miller asked. "I have, and I invite you to do the same." Though I am a Jew, I believe that a vibrant Christianity is essential if America's moral decline is to be reversed. And despite theological differences, Christianity and Judaism have served as the bedrock of American civilization. And I am appalled and frightened by this feel-good doctrine of automatic forgiveness. This book will interact with Prager’s legitimate concern. It will present the beauty of God’s grace and the necessity of forgiveness. But it will also teach the reader that forgiveness must take place in a way that is consistent with justice. We must move beyond a “feel-good doctrine of automatic forgiveness.” Christians must always have a willingness to forgive or an attitude of forgiveness. But, this does not mean that forgiveness always takes place.

While Prager is not a Christian, he certainly has a point. Irresponsible statements of blanket forgiveness by those not directly involved do nothing to point people to the love and justice of Christ which meet perfectly at the Cross.

See also What I Would Say to the Parents of a Child Murdered at Virginia Tech.