HAVE YOU BEEN LIED TO?™
THE LIE:
Forgiveness can be done without God.
WRONG!
Since Good Friday fell this year on April 21, 2000, the day after the
one year anniversary of the Columbine massacre, it is important that we
look at forgiveness.
In an ABCNEWS.com article on April 20, 2000 entitled Should We Forgive
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold? there was great discussion in the article
about whether the two boys should be forgiven.
The Vice President and President also have weighed in on the subject
in statements released from the Whitehouse on April 21, 2000.
Vice President Al Gore said: "On this day of hope and happiness, let us
reflect upon the countless sacrifices made by Americans across this
great nation to build a peaceful, beloved national community. In that
same spirit, let us use this holy day to rededicate ourselves to the
message of love, fellowship, and peace first preached almost 2,000 years
ago."
I am a little bit confused with the Vice President's statement. The
Clinton / Gore's Administration has been against American students being
able to pray on school grounds or to talk about their Christian faith.
President Bill Clinton said:
In this holy season, Christians across America and around the world
relive the events of Jesus' life, death, and Resurrection, rejoice in
His fulfillment of the promise of salvation, and give prayerful thanks
for the assurance of God's forgiving love.
As Christians, we have been called to share that forgiveness with
others. Across the globe, in places large and small, we have witnessed
the tragic consequences of humanity's refusal to forgive. Ancient
feuds, ethnic tensions, old hatreds and prejudices -- these have torn
apart families, communities, and nations for decades and continue to
bring suffering to our world. On this, the first Easter of the new
millennium and in the Jubilee Year of Christ's birth, the challenge to
each of us is to reflect God's love and forgiveness in all our actions.
Let us strive to see beyond the surface differences that may divide
us from one another by discovering the values we share. Let us work
together to lift the yoke of poverty and oppression that crushes so many
lives around the world. Let us recognize that, in Jesus' Resurrection,
we see both the promise and the proof of love's capacity to triumph over
the forces of misunderstanding, fear, and hatred.
Again, I am a little bit confused with the President's statement. First
of all President Clinton talks about forgiveness in a global context.
When he says: "Across the globe,..." Yet forgiveness is sadly a Judeo
Christian ethic. In many countries around the world like the one that I
was born in Iraq, Islam, the national religion does not really believe
nor practice forgiveness. It is why we as Americans do not understand
the thousands of years of feuds that has been going on in the Middle
East. Yet this President did not want to support the Religious Freedom
Amendment to allow voluntary school prayer in public schools when it
came up for a vote on June 04, 1998. (You can review more information
about this on Congressman Istook's Internet Website at:
http://religiousfreedom.house.gov/)
The President goes on to say in his statement:
Let us recognize that, in Jesus' Resurrection,
we see both the promise and the proof of love's capacity to triumph over
the forces of misunderstanding, fear, and hatred.
Frankly, the President is again confused. Since he used Jesus' name, he
needs to not make the same mistake that all of us are capable of making
of creating God and Jesus Christ in our image and how we want to have
relationship with Him. It was such an act that brought about the second
recorded sin in human history and the first murder. It is the story of
Cain and Abel. In the first book of the Holy Bible in Genesis Chapter 4
and verses one through fifteen we see how because Cain did not want to
bring the offering God wanted.
In that article that I mentioned earlier, "Should We Forgive Eric Harris
and Dylan Klebold?" The stepfather of one of the boys killed said:
"'According to the Bible, you need to repent before you can be forgiven,'"
Petrone says, his voice rising with anger."
My heart goes out to Mr. Petrone and the pain he is feeling. But, with
all due respect to Mr. Petrone he is wrong, that is not what the Bible
says. In one of the places in the Bible that Jesus Christ does talk
about forgiveness and teaches the disciples how to pray he says in
Matthew 6:9-15:
"In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your
will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread. And forgive our debt, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Amen. 'For if you forgive men their
tresspasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do
not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses." New King James Version
Ultimately, your motivation for forgiving is that you yourself have been forgiven by God.
For more information on the subject see what I said about the issue
of redemption during my statement at my
father's funeral service by clicking on:
04/22/2000 Published- Personal Remarks of: Robert Colaco at the funeral service of his father..
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This has been authorized, paid for and published by Citizens For A Better America ®. This is not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.
© copyright 2000 Citizens For A Better America ® (CFABA.org)
Publisher of the Have You Been Lied To? ™ Flyer
Robert Colaco, National Chairman, Founder.
F.E.C. ID #C00278333
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