Grace Presbyterian Church, Montclair, New Jersey

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Pastor's Pulse

by Paul Leggett, Pastor

Extraordinary Christian Witness

May 2007

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret …” – II Corinthians 7:10

As I write this the whole state of New Jersey, not to mention the nation, has been focused on the controversy surrounding Don Imus and the Rutgers women’s basketball team.  This unfortunate incident has, I believe, the potential for creating a climate of healing, not to mention Christian witness, in our country.  To summarize the situation (now all too familiar to most of us), the morning after the Rutgers women’s basketball team played for the national championship, radio talk show host Don Imus, on the CBS owned sports station WFAN, referred to the members of the team laughingly using sexual and racial slurs.  After a day of expressed outrage Don Imus made an apology on the radio.  Over the course of the next several days during which the Rutgers team, represented by their coach and her pastor, indicated how hurtful Imus’ comments had been.  Imus was fired from both NBC which had televised his show and, a day later, by CBS who broadcast the show on radio.  Imus eventually met with the team at the Governor’s mansion in Princeton.  A day following this meeting the coach, C. Vivian Springer, said the team had accepted his apology and forgave him.  Her pastor, the Rev. DeForest “Buster” Soaries, speaking of Imus’ firing said, “I think this is an appropriate response.  I think NBC and CBS have helped remove a major obstacle that was hindering meaningful discussion of race and gender.”

In the fallout of an incident with multiple parts it is perhaps helpful to get some clarity on the moral and spiritual issues involved.  Much of the discussion has been heated and often confused.  A number of people including Christians have said, shouldn’t Imus have been forgiven right away?  He apologized.  Did he really have to be fired?  What about the whole issue of free speech?  Rev. Soaries, a Montclair native whom I had the privilege of working with when he was a pastor in Montclair, defined the Biblical issue of forgiveness quite well.  According to Scripture the person offended is called upon to forgive unconditionally.  Several passages make this clear, the most obvious being Jesus’ statement from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”  This is said apart from any repentance or request for forgiveness from the offending party (Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60; Ex. 23:5-6; Prov. 24:17-18; Matt. 5:44; Mark 11:25; Eph. 4:32).  However the person seeking to be forgiven is called upon to repent (Lev. 26:40-42; II Chron. 7:14; Neh. 1:8-9; Matt. 4:17; Acts 8:18-24; James 4:8-10; Rev. 2:5).  Confession of sin includes the request for “a clean heart” and “right spirit” (Ps. 51:10).  It involves examining our ways and returning to the Lord (Lam. 3:40; I John 1:8-2:2).  This clearly involves more than an admittance of guilt or saying you’re sorry.  Don Imus’ initial apology, the day after his comments had ignited a wave of protest, defined his choice of words as “stupid’ and “idiotic.”  More than that they were vicious and degrading.  Up until the day of his firing Imus was defensive and expressed bitterness when dropped by MSNBC TV.  His colleagues at WFAN, whether out of loyalty or whatever else, defended him strongly at the same time that they said his comments were indefensible.  As these events unfolded, C. Vivian Stringer, the Rutgers women’s coach and a member of First Baptist Church of Somerset where Rev. Soaries is pastor, made no comment on Imus’ repeated apologies nor did members of her team.  They did state that free speech does not include denigrating racial and sexual terms.

Others pointed out Imus’ charity work including a radio fund raiser that he was scheduled to direct as these issues were being played out in the news.  The question was raised, didn’t Imus’ charity efforts over the years cancel out, at least partially, his negative comments on the air?  This is a familiar confusion.  It’s essentially the argument that outstanding faithfulness in one part of the law can substitute for failings in other parts.  It’s like saying that if I’m especially honoring of my parents then my telling a lie is not as serious.  This goes back to the Medieval confusion over indulgences.  If there’s a treasury of spiritual merit can’t I transfer some of that merit over to an area where it’s needed, like transferring bank funds from one account to another?  The Bible has no patience with such a view.  “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (James 2:10).

The real lesson to be learned here is that of an extraordinary Christian witness, the witness particularly of Coach Stringer.  While deploring Imus’ comments she said little about him personally.  She and her team finally met with Imus after which she said they accepted his apology and forgave him.  She was careful not to say that meeting with him was essential to his being forgiven.  Yet meeting with him allowed her and her team the chance to address the Biblical standard of both forgiveness and repentance.  This gave them the opportunity of showing a kindness that could lead to repentance (Rom. 2:4).  Repentance also includes accepting the consequences of one’s actions.  The final goal is reconciliation not only with one’s neighbor but with God.

There is much that needs to be done to begin to call America and American culture back to a Biblical foundation.  The lessons learned from the Rutgers women’s basketball team and Don Imus must be applied in other areas.  All of us bear some responsibility for the world in which we live.  The great encouragement that we cannot lose here is the fact that Vivian Stringer was hardly known before the Rutgers basketball team made its sensational appearance in the NCAA tournament.  Don Imus was a nationally known celebrity with all the power of the media behind him.  Vivian Stringer took a stand for Biblical values.  Don Imus represented the debased values of a culture that shocks and denigrates.  Today Don Imus is off the air.  Everyone speaks of Vivian Stringer with respect and admiration.  Let us pray that Don Imus is learning the lessons of forgiveness and repentance.  Let us also pray that other Christians will follow the example of Vivian Stringer.