Thursday, February 21, 2008
Karma and the Christian faith
Daniel Ruwe's excellent blog about religion got me thinking about faith in general. Pope Benedict said once about mainly the Eastern religions, I believe this was when he was still a cardinal, that the Christian faith is naturally and far superior to these systems based on good and bad karma. You see if I'm a Christian and have wronged somebody else or they have wronged me we can simply ask for each other's forgiveness and move on with our lives, we don't have to get stuck in that karmic rut. Beth and I once had this debate, maybe it started at some forum, I forget, but it was about forgiving and forgetting. My position, simply forgive and forget, her position you can forgive someone without forgetting. I think I understand her point better, it's like if a husband strays and his wife forgives him she will always remember the fact, the original act, if she had moral "amnesia" about it all this would hardly keep him in line. At any rate no karma to deal with, ain't that a bargain?
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I don't know if the forgetting part is a good or bad thing, I just know I have a very hard time doing it. Your original premise that its not forgiving if you don't forget may be the right answer, who knows? It's not easy to forgive and forget, but Christianity isn't about doing the easy thing, is it?
ReplyDeleteNo, I think you have a point. You can forgive someone and still keep an eye on them as often happens in marriage. Other times, like in past disagreements with friends or family members, we have totally forgiven each other and forgotten about it too, furthest thing from our minds. I think alot depends on the original deed that got us in trouble in the first place, say a person scams you out of part of your bank account for instance. Too often in life we don't get the chance to resolve our conflicts with other people, they don't have the Christian part down pat but anyway it's really a good debate.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite dj Rocky Allen, always the one with interesting material, was discussing the other day married men who own vast porn collections and whose wives leave them over this, I'd have to go with the wives on this one or sometimes you work with an alcoholic, should this be a case of tough love (which I'm guessing is the conservative position), a middle road to rehab or in some places I've worked just looking the other way, even laughing about it. There's so many scenarios you can come up with it's really fascinating.
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