Forgiving Others

In her book Speaking of Sin (Cowley, 2000), Barbara Brown Taylor writes:

"It is easy for me to think of churches that operate like clinics, where sin-sick patients receive sympathetic care for the disease they all share. It is palliative care, for the most part. Nobody expects to be fully cured, which is why there is not much emphasis on individual sin. Such churches subscribe to a kind of no-fault theology in which no one is responsible because everyone is.

"It is also easy for me to think of churches that operate like courts, where both sins and sinners are named out loud, along with punishments appropriate to their crimes." (p.76)

Where's the middle ground here? Does my ability to forgive others fall onto that middle ground? And, how can I be sure I mean it when I say to another, "I forgive you?"

-- Amy Spagna+