BlogSpotting: Kevin DeYoung on False Apologies
When we repent for others and not ourselves.
Pastor and writer Kevin DeYoung caught my attention this morning with his blog post on false apologies—more specifically, apologies for the sins of others. He cites a 1940 article by C.S. Lewis that criticized the younger English generation of that time for its so-called apologies over the nation's past conduct.
Says Lewis:
When a man over forty tries to repent the sins of England and to love her enemies, he is attempting something costly; for he was brought up to certain patriotic sentiments which cannot be mortified without a struggle. But an educated man who is now in his twenties usually has no such sentiment to mortify.
Lewis thought that the twenty-somethings had their own mistakes to repent of, but instead they were opting to express, in the form of a national apology, their disdain for certain attitudes that they had never shared. That's not a "costly" thing to do, and not much of an apology.
DeYoung sees a similar temptation for today's younger Christians, a lure to confess every sin committed by the church. "This isn't to suggest that the church hasn't gotten things dreadfully wrong," he says, "but it is to suggest that slavery and the crusades are not the things thirty-something Americans are likely to get wrong today."
This post of DeYoung's is an excerpt from his upcoming book Why We Love the Church, so I think he's especially concerned with people that are taking easy shots at the church to gain a gratifying "moral high ground" and, in the process, are learning to despise the body of Christ. I know that I've felt myself reaching for that high ground—not in false apologies but in bandwagon mockery of Jesus-is-my-boyfriend worship or gospel-distorting televangelists.
Sure, I believe these things are real problems, but why do I really want to criticize them? For the good of the church? Or for my own ego? As Lewis and DeYoung suggest, it probably depends on whether I am already repenting of the plank in my own eye.
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Comments
I agree with the premise about people trying to remedy sins committed by past generations. However, it seems to me that we Protestants have missed the mark when it comes to this discussion. The article and C.S. Lewis seem to confuse Confession and repentance.
To confess the past sins and ask God to forgive, release our nation of True Moral Guilt is appropriate if we are implicated in the long term consequences of that Guilt. To repent means we have a personal change of heart and behavior. We can't change past behavior of leaders but we can change our current behavior. So, confess? Yes. Repent of the past? No.
Posted by: Gary Sweeten | May 21, 2009 7:37 AM
I'm not so sure. As with all things, a lot depends on motive and orientation of the heart. Some apologies for other Christians' or the church's collective actual wrongs can help pave the way for healing of relationships and communication of the gospel in word and deed.
Posted by: John | May 22, 2009 2:10 PM