Loading ...“Sorry seems to be the hardest word…”
flockwoodAnother empty apology, this time from The Collegiate Church in Manhattan. The Collegiate Church is apologizing for the misdeeds committed by long-deceased Dutch-speaking church founders.
Why do I call it an “empty” apology? Because it’s really, really easy to apologize for someone else’s misconduct, especially if the person or persons who behaved badly are 1.) dead and 2.) unrelated to the apologizer and 3.) all but forgotten by history. The apology is even emptier if the people who deserved tha apology are dead and if the apology is unaccompanied by action. In America’s litigious society, nothing says “I’m sorry” like greenbacks. If the people who are apologizing are coughing up cash, that, perhaps, gives the apology a little more ooomph. Otherwise, it just looks like cheap, empty, Baby Boomer group-hug mumbo jumbo.
It’s tougher, of course, to apologize for our own misdeeds and to communicate our own guilt directly to those we have offended. Thus the Lord’s Prayer says “Forgive us oursins (or debts or trespasses) as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
This principle is reflected in the Psalm 51:
“1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest…..”
Again and again, the Psalmist apologizes. Not for his ancestors’ sins, but for his own. “My sin, my transgressions, my sin, my iniquities.” My, my, my.
This is reflected in the old Catholic Mass with its penitential prayer: Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
If you’d like to read the AP account of the latest empty apology, it’s below…
By VERENA DOBNIK
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Members of America’s oldest Protestant church have
apologized — for the first time — for the massacre and displacement of
Native Americans 400 years ago.
The Collegiate Church, formerly the First Dutch Reform Church, and
representatives of the Lenape (Leh-NAH’-pee) tribe held a ceremony of
reconciliation Friday in New York City.
The ceremony took place on the spot where the First Dutch Reform Church
once stood. It was known as the “company church” of the Dutch
merchants, whose trading post helped develop the city’s economic power.
The ceremony was held where Broadway begins. Four hundred years ago,
Broadway was an American Indian trail.
The Rev. Robert Chase told the Lenape: “We consumed your resources,
dehumanized your people and disregarded your culture.”
———
November 27th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
True, the original parties are long gone, both the ones who sinned and also those who suffered. When restoration or repayment is impossible or impractical, what alternative is there, other than just ignoring the past? Yes, this type of symbolic apology is cheap. It might also be insincere. But if not this, then what?
November 27th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I have mixed feelings. When Governor Kit Bond issued a public apology from the state of Missouri and rescinded the Mormon “extermination order” issued by Governor Boggs from back in the 1830s, members of our church were grateful of course. (Yes, from 1838 to 1976 it was legal to kill a Mormon in the state of Missouri.) However we (the church) had never asked for it to be done, at least to my knowledge.
I guess that is what would make the difference to me. If a group wants to apologize it might be only symbolic, but it’s a nice gesture. For a group to demand an apology that for something that has done nothing to affect their lives in any meaningful way? I say get over it. You’ll be better off than brooding over something that happened so long ago.
Thought I’d include this:
WHEREAS, on October 27, 1838, the Governor of the State of Missouri, Lilburn W. Boggs, signed an order calling for the extermination or expulsion of Mormons from the State of Missouri; and
WHEREAS, Governor Boggs’ order clearly contravened the rights to life, liberty, property and religious freedom as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, as well as the Constitution of the State of Missouri; and
WHEREAS, in this bicentennial year as we reflect on our nation’s heritage, the exercise of religious freedom is without question one of the basic tenets of our free democratic republic;
Now, THEREFORE, I, CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Governor of the State of Missouri, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the State of Missouri, do hereby order as follows:
Expressing on behalf of all Missourians our deep regret for the injustice and undue suffering which was caused by the 1838 order, I hereby rescind Executive Order Number 44, dated October 27, 1838, issued by Governor W. Boggs.
In witness I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the great seal of the State of Missouri, in the city of Jefferson, on this 25 day of June, 1976.
(Signed) Christopher S. Bond, Governor.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:16 am
David, let us not forget, though, that the Mormon church had to do the same thing with the Mountain Meadows Massacre victims’ families. Along with the apology, they built a huge expensive memorial to the victims and invited all the decedents to the ceremonies. They also did all the research to find and memorialize the names of each victim. The also gave all their research and access to documents to the descendants of the victims. Of course, no amount of money or other recompense can atone for the violent death of an ancestor, but I think the Mormon church did the best it reasonably could, considering the belatedness of the apology, to make things right.
Not so with the Haun’s Mill Massacre. I’ve yet to see any official apology for the slaughter of innocent Mormon children there. I’ve been there and, as far as I could see, there was not even a plaque by the Missouri Historical Society, or whatever, acknowledging what was allowed to happen there–just a wide spot in a stream. There is value to at least acknowledging a wrong, even if it is “cheap.” How much would an 12″ by 12″ bronze plaque cost nowadays, anyway?
November 30th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Since when is the Dutch Reformed church America’s oldest Protestant denomination? They were holding Anglican services at Jamestown long before New York was founded. Wikipedia, of all places, gets it right when it refers to the Dutch Reformed, the predecessor of the Reformed Church in America, as “the oldest non-Anglican Protestant church with a continuous ministry” in the US.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Two good examples, Jose. Although it’s never been proven that those LDS who committed those despicable acts did so on orders from Brigham Young or any other general church leaders (no matter what some attest) it was the right thing for the church to do, in my mind. It can never pay back what happened of course and I’m sure those Mormons who committed those horrendous acts have/will receive a just “reward.”
As for Haun’s Mill, we use it in classes of church history to show what can happen when one does not follow who you supposedly believe to be God’s mouthpiece. Jacob Haun, the founder of the settlement, had been told directly by Joseph Smith to move his people in with the larger body of the church and refused to do so. Less than two weeks later, the massacre happened. Obviously, that doesn’t excuse those who murdered innocent children and I’m sure Jacob Haun did what he thought best at the time. There were some very miraculous things happen after the massacre, which shows us that God can take awful situations and allow them, at some point, to show us His power.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Sorry, John. I read “Jose” simply because I had responded to his post.