Has America Lost its Capacity for Forgiveness?

 In the last five to ten years, America has developed a ruthless insensitivity to the human condition--people making bad choices sometimes. To be fair, America has had this insensitivity for a lot longer, but it's manifested itself in some vicious ways in recent years. 

Of course, America's obsession with handing out longer and longer sentences for crimes is an easy example to cite. Crimes that used to result in two or three years in prison now earn sometimes decades-long sentences. Mandatory minimums, three-strikes rules, and America's growing dependency on the prison industrial complex have all contributed to these growing sentence lengths. 

For all of America's reputation as "the land of opportunity" and the "land of second chances," in practice the American people would rather create a permanently ostracized class of people than provide second chances. Yes, there's been a movement lately to promote second chances for returning citizens, but this movement has grown side-by-side with a counter movement--the cancel culture. 

During the recent Golden Globes, which I'm surprised anyone watches anymore, Will Smith, arguably one of the best actors of his generation, finally received his long-overdue Golden Globe award. But before he could receive his award, he did something stupid. In response to presenter Chris Rock's "joke" making fun of Jada Smith's medical condition, Will walked up on the stage and slapped Chris. 

A lot of people initially felt compassion for Will because he defended his wife's honor, even if they disagreed with his methods. (This is my position, incidentally.) However, the tide seems to have turned against Smith. Now, he is at great risk of being cancelled by a culture that has lost its capacity for forgiveness. 

If Smith is ostracized by the film industry, he will join a long list of people who have acted badly, and been quickly relegated to a second-class status by society. Sure, it's not the same as joining a permanently ostracized "criminal class" because of committing a crime (though technically his was a crime). Still, it illustrates America's lack of capacity for forgiveness. 

What ever happened to second chances? What ever happened to giving someone a chance to make things right? What ever happened to forgiveness? Must everyone in America be defined by their worst (or most public) offenses? Yes, we need to hold people accountable, and Smith should be held accountable for his actions. But if America really is a land of second chances, why don't we actually give people a chance to make things right? 

Whether it's for Smith or the millions of Americans who are now permanently labeled as criminals, America needs to find its compassion again. We need to find a balance between accountability and forgiveness. When people seek to make right their wrongs, we ought to let them, and even help them! And then, we ought to forgive them and invite them back into fellowship with the rest of society, not push them to the outer edges where we can conveniently forget about them. 

Let's stop treating people like dirty little secrets, instead remembering that we all have the capacity to do wrong. Let's find our capacity to forgive again and begin to be a nation that truly offers second chances. Otherwise, let's stop claiming to be what we aren't.