For What it’s Worth…

Once upon a time I subscribed to the New York Times.  I don’t any more.  I decided I couldn’t justify the getting the Paper of Record posted to me every day!  I still use the website a lot and noticed that Ross Douthat has now joined the NY Times team as a contributor.  Douthat is the film critic for the National Review and joined The Gray Lady only last month.

It will be interesting to see how his view on American Life is received by the Times’ readership. Douthat’s latest opinion piece Dan Brown’s America pokes some holes in the current fascination with Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons (along with the slew of copy cat pseudo-historical-religious-conspiracy-revisionist-thrillers those works have inspired).

His sharp assessment of Dan Brown’s approach to novel writing is clear:

Pastor and author Kent Hughes tells the following story: A number of years ago, a church in Dallas, Texas suffered a terrible split. Each of the two factions into which the members had drawn filed a lawsuit to claim the church property. A church court assembled to hear the case.
During the hearing, it was revealed that the conflict had begun at a church dinner when one of the church elders had received a smaller slice of ham than a child seated next to him. Sadly, this slight was reported in the city’s newspapers. Imagine how all the people of Dallas laughed about that situation! Such a display of disunity brought great discredit not only to what was left of that church, but also to Jesus Christ.

At the end of Luke’s gospel, Jesus explains to his disciples that it is written in the Scriptures that, “The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:46). That’s the same message that John the Baptist preached as he prepared people for Jesus’ ministry before it even began, “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3).

These twin ideas stand as bookends to Jesus’ ministry. Repentance and forgiveness were central elements in Jesus’ message and ministry and they lie at the heart of Christian experience. Forgiveness is unquestionably called for from all Christians. Jesus warns his followers, “If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:15). The same command is expressed in positive terms in Luke 6:37, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Forgiveness from God is not an automatic right that we have inherited as part of creation. Forgiveness flows from the sovereign will of God and the Christian community is a reflection of God. It’s a community of forgiven people who forgive. Those who refuse to forgive exclude themselves from this community.