Forgiveness

So, I’ve been listening and watching the comments and blogs about Michael Vick’s release from prison and re-emergence back into the NFL.  The opinions vary pretty widely, but whatever their stance on it, they’re very passionate about it.  On the one hand, people are still angry about what he got caught doing.  And these folks think he should be banned from the NFL.  On the other hand, people are crying out that he has served his time, just let him get back to his life, which includes the NFL.

I’ve been trying to sort out my feelings on the subject.  Here’s what I’ve concluded:

His apology in his blog is pretty well written.  He sounds very sincere and seems to be taking steps towards ending further abuse of animals.  And I tend to be a little naive and I’ll be the first to admit that I want to believe him.  But, as someone commented, there are people out there who are well paid to tell you just what to say to make people believe you.  And his blog may have been  a little too well written.  So I don’t believe he is really sorry, but I do think he won’t do it any more because people are paying attention.  And I believe he really is contributing to the efforts of stamping out dogfighting, but only because his highly paid PR people are telling him to.  His decision to engage in such activities is a mind-set that he has.  His actions are simply symptoms of this mind-set.

But, do I believe his re-entry into the NFL should be banned?  Of course not!  That’s really stupid!  He has served his sentence.  He has done what our justice system called for him to do.  It’s done.  So now, he should return to his life.  If they ban him because of his actions off the field, they’ve got a lot of other players to investigate.  It would be a band-aid on a broken bone–and they would be allowing a small percentage of the public opinion to dictate their policies.  There’s too much of that in DC, we don’t need it in the NFL!!

Furthermore, what about forgiveness?  The Bible teaches us to forgive.  Plain and simple.  Whether or not they deserve it is irrelevant.  We certainly don’t deserve the grace we are shown on a daily basis, but it is given regardless.  So, at least to those of you who profess Christ, get over yourself and forgive.  Those of you who do not profess Christ should at least begin to look at your own life first and try to correct your own flaws.  That just makes sense.

Michael Vick has served his time.  The legitimacy of his remorse remains to be seen.  But he’s served his sentence.  There are too many other issues in life that demand our attention (like Brette Favre’s return to the NFL–now that’s worthy of some serious attention…).

What do you think?  Should we forgive and forget?  Should a civil suit against Vick be pursued?  Should we even care?