Question: Is the general stance that Chris Brown has not done enough penance to be forgiven for his sins, or is the general stance that he is unforgivable? One of those things seems OK, while the other does not.
Penance, being a Catholic concept, has a few parts. One is that one has to truly repent for the sin committed, and commit to not doing it again. Between proclaiming he’s a role model on Twitter, refusing to engage with the media, his fans or his detractors on the incident and acting self-congratulatory about his post-domestic violence success, it’s my general impression that he doesn’t feel bad about anything but being caught and (lightly) punished for his transgression.
Penance, too, is not something imposed by the criminal justice system. So while he received a (light) sentence from the criminal justice system, that doesn’t make up for more than the damage that system decided he did to society. Looking at the number of women offering to accept abuse in exchange for his company on Twitter last night, as BuzzFeed did, indicates that his violence against Rihanna, the limited outrage over it and the wide acceptance he’s regained in the wake of it has had far greater consequences to social acceptance of domestic violence than is reflected in his sentence. But I don’t see him running around making himself a poster child for domestic-abuser-gone-good, talking to men about how it’s not acceptable to abuse, or how to talk themselves down from that kind of anger, counseling women about how to leave abusers and why they should do so. I just see him proclaiming himself to be a role model on Twitter because… he got a Grammy, I guess? Hasn’t (to our knowledge) beat the shit out of anyone else?
Penance isn’t paid by people being mean to you or surviving public scrutiny. It’s not paid by living down a restraining order or serving out a court-ordered sentence of community service or being “forced” to miss two years of the Grammy awards. And it’s not served by making music or not shitting on your ex publicly (though — if anyone thinks those leaked Rihanna nude photos didn’t come from Chris…) or your ex surviving your abuse to get on with her own life and career successfully. Chris hasn’t paid penance. He’s served (part) of a criminal sentence — his probation doesn’t end until 2014 — and he’s done nothing, in my mind, to ask for real forgiveness or try to right the big wrong he did to Rihanna or the bigger problems that wrong created in society.
I’m all for forgiveness. It just has to be earned, and he hasn’t earned it.
Yes, exactly.
