Repentance and Reconciliation

President Barack Obama, Cambridge police officer James Crowley and Harvard professor Henry Gates will presumably resolve their verbal and legal tangle over a beer at the White House. The facts are well known as the media has had a field day analyzing the mix of police action, the professor’s reaction and the President’s denunciation of the Cambridge police department as "acting stupidly."

The old expression "shooting from the hip" aptly covers the President’s inept rush to judgment when he prematurely denounced the result of the policemen’s meticulous routine. In Solomon’s proverbial wisdom, the Bible has an even better caution against such prejudicial verbiage. "He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him" (Proverbs 18:13). Valuable respect can be lost in a few unguarded seconds of intemperate talk, as President Obama sadly found out.

Further, an appropriate apology for obvious error is always painful, especially when the offense is worldwide news. That is likely why proud people resist repentance when offered salvation. Christ declared, "…unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). The Apostle Paul added, "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30).

The Prodigal Son returned to sanity while he was a pig pen attendant and headed home when he could say, "I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee…" (Luke 15:18 – emphasis mine).

It appears that Sgt. Crowley is least needing to repent or apologize as he carefully followed regulations. If the President and Professor Gates can bring themselves to sincerely apologize, it would speed resolution of the problem and even improve race relations, which could use improvement right now.

Personally, I could have hoped for a better reconciliation venue than "over a beer," which if liberally ingested could becloud one’s judgement. But let’s hope for the best that the meeting can be a genuine teaching moment to avoid such needless tensions in the future.

Dave Virkler