I’ve mentioned before that I don’t have a problem with questioning whether people who advocate doing unChristian things are really questions at all. It isn’t enough just to be baptized and to say your a Christian. You’ve got to live your faith as well. Here’s the real deal:
Bishop Angaelos, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, was in Washington on Friday for the swearing-in of the United States’ new ambassador-at-large for religious freedom, David Saperstein. Angaelos spoke to CNN about why ISIS targets Coptic Christians, and why he forgives them, even as he rejects their horrific acts.
Q: Not long after the video released, you tweeted about the killings, using the hashtag #FatherForgive. Did you mean that you forgive ISIS?
A: Yes. It may seem unbelievable to some of your readers, but as a Christian and a Christian minister I have a responsibility to myself and to others to guide them down this path of forgiveness. We don’t forgive the act because the act is heinous. But we do forgive the killers from the depths of our hearts. Otherwise, we would become consumed by anger and hatred. It becomes a spiral of violence that has no place in this world.
As it says in Matthew “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?”
Seems a bit odd that he forgives trespasses done to others not assigned to his care (He serves in the United Kingdom). I think forgiveness is a personal obligation to victims, and while victims may be indirect, such as families and friend, at some point the notion becomes tenuous and risks the appearance of trivializing the suffering of others.