What Time for Forgiveness?

Peace House Community-A Place to Belong

By MARTI MALTBY

As you probably know, a Japanese Olympic official was fired on the eve of the opening ceremonies because of comments he made in a comedy routine about 20 years earlier. The comments were determined by his superiors to be racist, and so he was relieved of his duties. (I haven”™t heard the comments so I can”™t comment one way or the other about the accuracy of that interpretation.) This is not the first time that someone has been punished for a comment or action from the distant past that resurfaced as the person took on more responsibility. There was a time when such comments and actions were often overlooked or excused, allowing perpetrators to continue to act in the same way without having any reason to change. While I am glad that society is doing a better job of proclaiming what sort of behavior will or will not be tolerated, I am concerned about how easy it would be to move too far in the other direction. I can easily image us getting to a point where any foolish, flippant or immature comment can become a weapon against the person who made it.… Read the rest “What Time for Forgiveness?”