Child abuse and 'Christian' forgiveness. What would Jesus have done?

by ThomasCovenant 2 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  ThomasCovenant

  Allegedly ''Jesus held out hope of forgiveness even to prostitutes and tax collectors (considered among the vilest sinners in his day) who appreciated their need of him and repented of their former course of conduct. As he told his critics: "Persons in health do not need a physician, but the ailing do. . . . I came to call, not righteous people, but sinners.'' WT 15th Jan '75.

  Do you think Jesus would have forgiven and associated with child abusers/paedophiles if they were truly repentant?

  Or would he take the view that it is in their nature and therefore would have nothing to do with them?

  Would he associate with gluttons as it is possibly in their nature too?

  Prostitution and tax collecting is not normally viewed as part of a persons make up but something they choose to do (excluding forced tax collecting of course).

  ''it is evident that Jesus was not accepting people in their sins as they were. Rather, one of the most important aspects of his ministry was to cure men of their spiritual illnesses, enabling them to be accepted by God because of their changed way of life'' WT 15th Aug '74

  I'm confused as to whether, Christians believe in forgiveness of pretty well anything if the person appears to be repentant, or not.
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  Justitia Themis

  If you believe in Jesus it doesn't matter what he would do. He could read hearts; therefore, he could determine who was or was not truly repentant or would re-offend.

  As humans, we cannot do that, so I feel human organizations must err on the side of caution and refuse to allow positions of authority to pedophiles.
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  PSacramento

  Christ forgives the REPENTANT sinner.

  To repent means to accept that one has sinned, to ask forgiveness and to make amends.

  To accept that one has sinned is a VERY intense thing, that means to know and understand the horrific acts one may have done and in the case of abuse you don't get much more horrific than that.

  Of course forgiveness of sins doesn't mean one doesn't stil have to pay the price of Law that was broken ( Chirst reminds us to follow the laws of man "give to Caeser what is Caesers" as does Paul).

  It is not that a person APPEARS repentant, the person MUST BE repentant and that is why only Christ can forgive for only Christ KNOWS if one is or isn't repentant.

  For a pedophile, to repent and accept Christ means to live with the full knowledge and pain and accepteance of the horrifc act(s) they have commited, with full knowledge of the pain and suffering they have caused and the scars they have made on an innocent child.

  And with TRUE repentance the weight of those sins and acts comes crashing down in ways that we can't fathom.

  Forgiveness comes with a price, it is NOT a price that God asks of Us, but it is a price that we self-inflict and must pay.