Should we forgive Michael Jackson?

As I sit listening to people praise Michael Jackson today at his memorial service in LA, I can't avoid the lingering questions on most people's minds: "Is this ok to be celebrating the life of someone who was charged with molesting a child? Isn't he just getting this special treatment because he's a celebrity?" Well, of course he's getting special treatment because he's a celebrity--not many people are going to pack out the Staples Center for their funerals. But is this special treatment irresponsibly and immorally overlooking his failures?

From what I've sensed from a couple of people and from what I can guess with some confidence, many are ticked off or even disgusted that people would have such a celebration in honor of Michael Jackson. What really strikes me, though, is that this negative sentiment seems to come most strongly from the more conservative and/or Christian camps. On the one hand, this is understandable because such people generally hold moral behavior in a higher regard. On the other hand, though, we must not think that Christians or even serious religious people have a monopoly on ethics, or that our standards are completely different from others. Especially when it comes to children: almost everyone agrees that crimes against kids, especially sexual abuse or molestation, is black and white wrong. No relativism here. And more than that, most agree that these are among the worst crimes. So it's not the case that everyone celebrating Michael Jackson simply holds lower moral standards than we religious people. I bet almost everyone in that basketball arena today thinks that child molestation is deplorable. But they seem to be able to express their love for the king of pop despite this disapproval. Hmm, now the responses seem backwards: that is, why is it that, perhaps, Christians may be among the loudest voices continuing to denounce Jackson and refusing to memorialize him, while others seem quicker to forgive?

I don't want to overgeneralize: many of those speaking on behalf of Jackson do so as Christians or as otherwise religious people. Again, though, I feel pretty confident in my guess that many Christians, especially of the conservative type, disapprove of celebrating Michael Jackson's life because of what he was accused of doing (let's not forget that he was never convicted). And what people are celebrating, if you pay attention, is not merely his ridiculous talent as an entertainer, but his enormous humanitarian efforts before it was cool to be globally aware. Do we dismiss all of the good, loving things he has done and only retain the bad? This is definitely backwards. Our religion stands at the foot of a crucified Messiah who died to forgive the sins of the world after having been deserted by his best friends, the eventual leaders of the church. And this Jesus was clear as a bell about forgiveness: he said to love your enemies rather than hate them, pray for those who persecute you, and when Peter asked him how often we should forgive someone who has sinned against us, Jesus said either 77 or 490, and I think both readings get across the same point. Most frightening, the model prayer Jesus gives has that disturbing line, "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." (And by the way, I don't act as if Christianity has a monopoly on forgiveness among religions--others certainly emphasize its importance in different ways. So their practitioners should be troubled as well at any resistance to forgiveness, but as a Christian I know most directly that we have an unavoidable call to forgive as we have been forgiven.)

I have never been molested. I don't have children of my own, much less children who have been molested. So it's certainly easy for me to talk about forgiveness of such an ugly sin when I have never been sinned against. I have no idea how hard it would be to forgive a child molester, especially one that directly hurt me. So I'm not asking you to listen to me--I only want to point us toward Jesus. And when I look toward Jesus I see myself on the other side, that of perpetrator. Just because I've never molested or abused children doesn't mean I haven't committed heinous sins against others, especially in my heart. And I think all of those are sins against Jesus, because they are sins against God's children, who are Jesus' brothers and sisters. So I am in the same boat as Michael Jackson, and so are you: we have hurt God's children in many ways, and our only hope for restoration within and with those whom we have hurt is forgiveness. And herein lies our power to forgive others, whether it be a celebrity or (probably more importantly) someone we actually know who has wronged us deeply: the cross of Christ. There the debts are cancelled: those of Peter, who three times denied he knew Jesus to protect his reputation, and those of the whole world. May we pray that Jesus has forgiven the sins of Michael Jackson.