I suspect such is the price to be paid in an internet-linked global village. Mr. Imus, who fits into the role of an example, was insulting women and racial groups early and often in his career. He could have and did in fact question why his past sins did not excuse his current offense. The difference, as some astute observers have noted, is the existence of an internet that can replay time and time again on demand the actual moment. What might have been greeted as little as five years ago with, “Did he really say that?” and no verification -- is now a computer key click away to continual rehearsal of culpability.

I would argue that because Mr. Imus had enriched himself by utilizing shock schlock, he got what he deserved. I do feel some compassion for people like Pope Benedict XVI, who are nailed for words taken out of context. The pontiff quoted an anti-Muslim statement from a person with whom he disagreed. Anyone who has been a teacher knows that evaluation of an issue requires exploration of contrasting views, and what former theology professor Ratzinger did was understandable in context. However, the internet can isolate remarks out of context. So Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, found out the hard way that there are new rules for today's public personages.

As other commentators have noted, current public apologies emphasize feelings. It wasn’t always that way. There was a time when apology was linked to one’s good name. Without a signed contract or lawyerly gobbledygook, most people in human history had been accustomed to commit themselves on their spoken word. The reputation of their name was guarantee. Oaths calling on the Deity as witness abounded, linking public actions with religion under a concept of honor. When offense was given to another, it was treated as the theft of another’s good name and reputation. The attack required apology as an act of restitution for the injury done. Religious authority often mediated the public apology.

Christianity, as the religion I know best, required restitution as the seal upon forgiveness. For instance, the Christian sacrament of reconciliation is not completed and forgiveness is not imparted until restitution takes place. The clearest application is to robbery: repentance is not sincere unless the robber given back the money stolen. This principle has been applied to public discourse. Good name and public reputation were once valued so highly that there were stiff penalties for loose talk.

Forgiveness in most religions, I would say, is not just a unilateral act, but a mutual responsibility. The offender has to retract falsehood and make restitution to the party offended: the victim then imparts forgiveness to close the affair. This balance is in the Babylonian commandment of “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” a formula that has passed into the bloodstream of many world religions.

Ironically, this is one of the relatively few places that Christ parted company with the religion of Israel. Jesus instructed his followers to forgive others, even when they don’t repent or provide restitution. In his lifetime, Christ indicated that such forgiveness ought to be infinite, using the hyperbolic mathematical formula, “70 times 7” (Mt. 18:22). His last words while being nailed on the cross imparted forgiveness even to those who “did not know what they were doing” (Lk. 23:34). I am not claiming that Christianity is the only religion with such strictures, nor should I be understood to have suggested that the Christian conception is “superior” to other faiths, much less to assert that all Christians practice what they preach. But it is a reminder that many religious people are bound to a standard that is higher than even what reasonable people employ.

From personal experience, I know that both apology-with-restitution and forgiveness-of-the-unrepentant are difficult. Moreover, abandoning the “eye for eye” rule makes no sense in a modern court of law. But as a Catholic bishop once told his charges: “Live your life so that nothing makes sense, except if God exists.” I try.