Glendale News Press, CA
May 23 2009

COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:
Reserve forgiveness for those who first repent

By Harry Zavos

Published: Last Updated Friday, May 22, 2009 10:39 PM PDT
Bob Harks’ letter (`Some people should learn to forgive,’ May 1)
presents a deeply flawed view of forgiveness and remembrance of
nationally sponsored atrocities aimed at minorities.

He asserts that Armenians, as Christians, are hypocrites by failing to
forgive the Turks for the genocide and thereby not following the
teachings of Christ; and further, that that failure shows no love of
`one’s fellow man or this country.’

I would ask him, and everyone who shares his view, to read the words
of Jesus in the book of Luke: `If your brother sins, rebuke him, and
if he repents, forgive him.’ Throughout the Bible we are exhorted to
call out and stand against, to rebuke, injustice. Jesus further tells
us that forgiveness follows only after repentance.

Harks, in support of his point, says that the children of Nazi
Germany, who were taught to hate Jews, matured and grew out of that
hatred. His analogy is not apt for Nazi Germany since, unlike the
Armenians, it was the persecutor, not the persecuted.

The real lesson of that black historical episode is that the German
nation acknowledged the enormity of the evil, of the sin, it
perpetrated against the Jewish people and disavowed it. There was
repentance.

For that reason, when Jews publicly commemorate and keep alive the
memory of the Holocaust, as well they should, they do so without
rebuking the current German state whose national policy prohibits
Holocaust denial.

But for a moment, imagine a Germany that, as a matter of state policy,
denies that the Holocaust ever took place and threatens with prison
any of its citizens who say otherwise.

I would expect all Americans, not just Jews, who love their fellow man
and love their country and the ideals for which it stands, not to
embrace with arms of forgiveness such an imaginary German state, for,
far from offering love of one’s fellow man, such forgiveness would
demean the Holocaust’s untold suffering and the sacrifice of six
million Jewish lives. But that imaginary German policy is exactly the
actual policy of Turkey.

When Hark asserts that those of Armenian descent do not love this
country because they feel deeply about the brutal Armenian genocide,
and the Turkish insistent denial of it, he unjustly insults all
Armenians, including those who have proved their love of country by
joining the armed forces and putting their life on the line (in some
instances losing it) in defense of the United States.

We are a nation made up of diverse ethnic cultural traditions and a
variety of religious beliefs. They not only enrich those who share
particular traditions and beliefs, but they enrich the entire nation.

A major factor that holds our diverse people together as one people is
our devotion to a group of ideals that we believe are at the
foundation of our nation; among them is social justice.

Every time we pledge our allegiance we affirm our belief in `liberty
and justice for all.’ Our ideals are not only an inspirational beacon
to people around the world, but also the engine that forces change
when we fall short.

It is an appeal to and being confronted by our ideals that led us to
end the shameful blot of slavery, to extend basic civil rights that
were for so long denied to women and black people, to acknowledge the
shameful treatment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War
and on and on. They are a motive force that pulls us toward a more
perfect union ‘ toward a union that more perfectly reflects the ideals
which we believe should define us as Americans. So when any American,
regardless of ethnic origin or religious belief, stands against
injustice ‘ when he rebukes unrepentant inhumanity, regardless of
where in it occurs in the world ‘ he vindicates one of the basic
values we believe defines us as the American people.

Justice, like liberty, requires eternal vigilance. When Jesus taught
that repentance should be followed by forgiveness, he did not teach
that it should be followed by amnesia.

Hitler provides a lesson as to why the remembrance and even the
commemoration of large scale, unjust and inhumane events is part of
the vigilance necessary to keep justice burning bright. When he was
questioned as to how the world and history might view his final
solution to the `Jewish problem,’ he replied: `Who remembers the
Armenian genocide?’

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