Christianity, from the perspective of the Episcopal Church, recognizes that acts of depravity, like the Virginia Tech shootings, are part of the human condition. A sign of humanity’s brokenness is precisely that people are capable of such acts of unspeakable cruelty. The word of promise that Christianity offers is God’s assurance that such brokenness is not life’s final word. We can be healed both of the causes and the consequences of such depravity. Death is evil, but evil is finally not triumphant. God’s love, God’s life defeats death.

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I think that there are some violent people who profess the Muslim faith, but that does not mean that Islam is itself a violent religion any more than Christianity is a violent religion simply because violence has been perpetrated in its name.

Tempting as it may be, it is naïve to attempt to capture any great religious tradition in a few simple categories; such an approach inevitably leads not to simple statements but to simplistic ones.

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I want to begin by challenging the assumption that there is any equivalence between apology and repentance. That linkage may exist – but it may not.

More than a few folks have been known to offer an abject apology motivated by nothing more than that they got caught. An “apology” is, by itself, no more than a formal expression of regret – the motivation behind that regret may or may not be articulated. It may not even, necessarily, entail an acceptance of responsibility. (“I’m sorry if you misunderstood me.”) Such an apology may, or may not, result in different future action.

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