A Need for Grace

As someone who watches football and reads the news I have been following the scandal surrounding Michael Vick for the last few months. I have found responses of people to be fascinating as well as Vick's own response yesterday after he plead guilty to the charges before him. In his statement Vick expressed remorse, contrition and spoke of a serious intent to become a better person, as contrasted with becoming a better football player. He made it clear that at 27 years old it was finally time for him to do some growing up. I cannot remember where I saw it, but I thought I had even seen this experience had given him a relationship with Christ, or improved on his existing one.

On the other side of the coin I have read passionate comments left on CNN's site by people who claim they will boycott games with Vick in them, and that he deserves a far worse sentence then the one he is facing. They feel he is guilty of something quite horrific and his crimes are such that he no longer can be trusted to be the leader and role-model that an NFL player of his caliber is expected to be.

The dilemma I am pondering right now is where grace fits into this picture. Let us start with the assumption that Michael Vick truly is speaking from the heart. I want to believe him, and I think that for the sake of argument we can really only start from there. How does grace work in such a situation. I think there are three levels of grace needed in such a situation, the primary, personal grace of the individuals who are directly hurt by his actions, in this case it would be the dogs, and arguably the Falcon's organization, though it is also more of a secondary level, those people who are hurt indirectly by his actions, the community as whole, the society. The final level of grace is that which comes from God.

The first level: Since there is not much to say about the grace coming from the dogs I will look at the Falcons and how they are affected. what does their forgiveness and grace look like? Should they forgive him for his mistakes but ask for his signing bonus back? If the NFL lets him play should they keep his contract or should they break ties with him? What damage has been done to their relationship that cannot be repaired? I think the same questions are asked of each of us in the community. Certainly we have a far less direct interaction with this case than the Falcons do, but even so if the Falcons and the government gave Vick a full pardon and acted as though nothing would have happened, I think we could agree that damage had been done to the community would have taken place. Our trust in a system to be blind to prestige would have been shaken. We do have something at stake in this. We need to see that Vick receives the same sort of treatment as anyone else. So how should we forgive him. Should we forgive his actions but still say he no longer deserves the privelage of playing in the NFL? Should our grace be effected by grace Vick receives from God? If we assume by Vick's comments that Vick has asked God for forgiveness, then our faith would say his sins in this matter are truly forgiven, should this effect the level we forgive him, or rather the way we forgive him. Forgiveness in my mind does not mean a lack of consequences and can require reparations. The more extreme the crime and the harm caused by it the more need there is for grace and that grace to not simply try and ignore what has happened but to seek healing for all sides in the matter.

As I considered this matter, based on Vick's actions I think there is a need for the community as a whole to forgive and move on, if we are willing to trust his word, which I believe we should. If we do not trust him, then we need to work to a point we can, because to simply not trust him ever is more of a failing on our point than on his. To not give him forgiveness is to say that the repentance on his part does not have value for us. It belittles his actions and his words. At the same time I think this issue continues to stir the pot, at least in my head, about what does forgiveness look like. How do we forgive people in a way that is healing for everyone involved and helps the community move on? What does the grace that God look like in people's lives and how are we meant to reflect it here on earth? But these are questions to muse upon at a later time.