re national repentance mcovingt aisun ai uga edu michael covington writes i heard on the radio today about a christian student conference where christians were called to repent of america s national sins such as sexual promiscuity how can i repent of someone else s sin i can t and when i claim to repent of someone else s sin am i not in fact judging him jesus equipped us to judge activities but warned us not to judge people judge not that ye be not judged strictly speaking you re right we can t repent for somebody else for what they ve done i guess i don t think it s out of line to talk about a generalized repentence for our contribution to or participation in the sins of society or for our tacit approval by our silence of sinful attitudes or practices it may be that we re also just plain begging for mercy hoping god will withhold his hand of judgement on our whole country for the sake of a few much as abraham sought to do for the sake of lot hmmm the results there were pretty cautionary a few times lately when i ve observed some either out and out sinful activity or just some self destructive activity i ve gotten a strong impression that many folks really don t know any better christ s pity on the crowds as being like sheep without a shepherd rings true to me if these folks don t have a clue do i bear any responsibility for my not having communicated a better way worse still have i expressed judgement and disgust at their doings and thus alienated them from any positive relationship whereby i might pass along anything positive i know i ve got something to repent about on that score anyway it s a real interesting question paul marxhausen university of nebraska lincoln grace happens
