My concern with trying to judge whether someone is truly repentant or not, is that it sucks you all back into the mind games that were already played with you as a child. Do you know what I mean? Manipulation, self-doubt, fear of doing something "wrong", having responsbility that isn't really yours on your shoulders ("Is he repentant or isn't he? Does he deserve the same punishment as the rest or doesn't he?).
Plus, in my humble opinion, this is what got NTM in big trouble (one of the things, anyway) in the first place- playing judge and jury and extending "grace" in situations that don't call for grace, but rather, call for society's laws and judgments to be put in place.
I don't want to minimize the difficulty of these things. It IS difficult to feel someone is truly repentant and sorrowful for what they've dong wrong and then have to extend punishment anyway. But if we look at it this way, maybe it will help: There are a lot of people who have committed horrendous crimes that are now in prison. They are very sorrowful, truly repentant... but they still are required by law to be punished.
I would say, take the burden off your shoulders and allow the (hopefully by GRACE) investigations to bring forth the facts and act accordingly. *You* all are only responsible to report what happened to you or what you saw, nothing else.
|