Repentance by Christians

Re John Dart’s “Joining the Rush to Repent” (June 19), about Christians who are seeking forgiveness for historical sins: What good is accomplished when the descendants of wrongdoers apologize to the descendants of the victims? The only people who feel better are those apologizing. It is an exercise in self-gratification.

Worse, it ignores the root of the evil which still exists. The crimes of white Christians against non-Christian people of color are based on the conviction that other faiths are false and their adherents therefore members of inferior cultures. All of these apologies--whether they come from the Pope, Southern Baptists or John Dawson’s International Reconciliation Coalition--are only made within a Christian context. Indeed, Dawson admits to an evangelistic motive. Committed to converting nonbelievers, he is unable to overcome Christianity’s fundamental flaw: the inability to leave non-Christians alone.

If these self-righteous apologists were really sincere about forgiveness, they would be working to restore that which Christianity destroyed--the traditional cultures and ancestral religions of the victims’ descendants. Don’t hold your breath!

FORREST G. WOOD

Bakersfield

Wood is the author of “The Arrogance of Faith: Christianity and Race in America from the Colonial Era to the Twentieth Century.”

I want to congratulate you for front-page recognition of John Dawson’s efforts. Dawson is a modern-day prophet whose texts reflect the biblical truths embraced by true followers of Christ. My ministry and my personal walk with the Lord have been greatly blessed through Dawson’s teaching. In simple terms, that means that I have been able to serve others more effectively. Dawson’s call for “identificational repentance” is a move of the Holy Spirit in a time of great division and brokenness throughout this world, and the fact that people are responding should be the clue that it is “not of men, but of God,” and certainly not to be scoffed at or taken lightly.

MARK HAINES

Los Angeles

Christians, if you’re going to clean house clean out your closets, too. Nowhere in the article did I see mention of any apology to lesbians, gay men or women. They have been tortured, murdered and made to suffer since the beginning of Christianity. But an apology to homosexuals and women would leave Christians with no one to blame for their church’s and the world’s problems. Mea culpa, indeed!

J. T. ANDERSON

West Hollywood

The Southern Baptist vote (June 21) to issue apologies for past racism, while commendable, is just another indication of the kind of pervasive ignorance that is possessed by so many who are governed by religious and questionable philosophical beliefs about what a human being must be. It is sad to realize that there are still individuals who will be deprived of opportunities to be creative because of their race or ethnicity.

History will be made not by apologies but by having a better understanding of our humanity, eliminating our personal sexism, racism, age-ism, etc. Thanks to the Southern Baptists for the reminder that we still have a long way to go.

RONALDO R. TOMAS

Laguna Niguel