Monday, May 24, 2010

Overuse of the passive:

"I'm sorry this happened."

It is the most recent in a stream of confessions from that flows from the glitterati of our culture, almost as impressively as the oil spewing into Gulf. I can't totally condemn these confessions. If I knew for sure that they are what they appear to be--public relations damage control, and attempts to save or recover the flow of money--I'd be more categorical and forceful. I'll leave the matter of sincerity for another day. My point, or beef, today is that it didn't just happen. It almost never does, and if it did just happen, no confession would be in order. She did it!

Compare the typically lame celebrity confession with the words of the utterly broken King of Israel
in Psalm 51.

I'm not promoting a new order of flagellants. I am reminding all of us--few of whom will ever confess sin on network TV--that honesty, even brutal honesty is appropriate when it comes to dealing with sin. The word "confess" in 1 John literally means to say the same thing. When we confess in the Biblical sense we agree with God about our sin, and the last time I checked, He doesn't excuse it.

It's STTA

No comments:

Post a Comment