So I totally get the disgust. Vick raised dogs to fight and encouraged others to do the same by running a dog fighting ring. That's horrible.
That was kind of a big deal. TWELVE YEARS AGO. In TWO THOUSAND AND SEVEN.
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| I just don't understand! |
Yet for some reason the latter is granted forgiveness (and a hug, no less) before the former. Even though Vick has served time, done multiple speaking tours about the evils of dog fighting, and donated money to every animal charity under the sun. And, frankly, even though I love me some dogs and think dog fighting is horrific, I kind of think the latter is WAY worse than the former. Just my humble yet accurate opinion.
But certain folk will jump all over a bandwagon to forgive, or at least give a pass to, certain people for just about anything while at the same time holding certain others hostage to their past foibles. Never mind that they have paid for their crime, were very young, didn't know what they were doing, blah blah blah.
Now don't get me wrong. I do actually know the reason why. It's the same thing that causes folk, after a black person has been shot or assaulted by a white policeman or had the cops called on them for living theor lives, to say things like:
- what were they doing to make them shoot/call the police
- why didn't they just do as they were told/not do that
- why were they wearing that/living their life
- why were they black in a public space
It's maddening.
As the article says, no one is owed forgiveness. That is not a thing. It's the partiality I question. The blatant favoritism. Good Lord don't black men deserve the same consideration of others to rectify the situation, pay their dues, and go on? I'm not sure, but I think St. Paul said something about that and in the words of the article,
"So think of forgiveness this way-you’re able to do it with your uncle that says homophobic and racist things every Thanksgiving. You’re able to do it with the boyfriend who holds your head under the sheets and farts. You’re able to do it when a girl buries a baby alive or a woman comes into the home of a man and shoots him dead. Figure out what internally is causing you to hold back on allowing Black men to grow from their mistakes, not be caught up in their past, and live their lives."Lord have mercy on me a sinner.
#bloginstead #3daysinthewilds
Relevant Reading
It’s Time We Talk About America’s Inability To Forgive Black Men
2 Corinthians 2:5-11
Michael Vick Petition
Bad Newz Kennels dog fighting investigation
1 comment:
Prejudice never survives getting to know an individual human being of the "Other" group.
It began for me when, against the wishes of my parents and her's, I dated a Japanese girl in my Dad's church. My mother, whose seven brothers all fought in the South Pacific during WWII, talked about separate but equal, birds of a feather, all that nonsense.
Her parents, especially her mother, talked about almonds and oranges. It ended, for lack of 15-year-old courage. In my anger, I sought out people of otherness -- a Jewish girl, a Latino classmate, a Pakistani transfer student, a Chinese history professor, and Native Americans, upon learning my own family tree contained Cherokee and Choctah ancestry.
My son married a wonderful Mexican girl, my daughter an African man from Cameroon. My grandchildren various shades of brown.
I attend Liturgy with brothers and sisters who speak the Western slang of Utah converts, and the Arabic, Russian, Serbian, Romanian and Greek of refugees.
We are One, in our worship of the One.
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