As a
pastor I have heard a number of people, over many years, confess wrongdoing and
apologize for their sins, errors, mistakes, etc.
One of
the things I have discovered is that even when people are supposedly “coming
clean” there is often a tendency to hold back and not offer up the whole truth. It’s quite possible that a confession and
apology will involve most of the
truth but not all of the truth. The whole truth can be very uncomfortable.
I do
not have a political agenda in this piece.
Politically speaking, I do not consider myself to be for Gov. Christie
and I do not consider myself to be against Gov. Christie. But as I listened to the apology he offered
in his news conference I had the feeling that he was not offering up all of the
truth. It’s not just Gov. Christie, by
the way, I have this feeling almost every time I see a politician, who is
seeking to remain in office, give a press conference and offer an apology for
some controversy that has surfaced.
Gov.
Christie said a lot of the right words and he expressed them well. He seemed sincere. He apologized. He is humiliated. He takes responsibility. The wrong behaviors are unacceptable. The people who committed the actions have
been terminated. The people deserve
better.
I’m really
not going after Gov. Christie, specifically.
In my mind this impression that I’m expressing has more to do with
political apologies, in general. An
apology that is done properly and effectively might be able to get the person
out of hot water from a political perspective.
But the real healing that an apology is supposed to bring—to the one who
is apologizing and to those receiving the apology—occurs best when the whole
truth is humbly and sincerely spoken.
Once
again, unfortunately, I just can’t escape this sense that we’re not hearing the
whole truth.
Rev. Dan
Marler
Oak
Lawn, IL
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