He was excluded from singing at Yankee Stadium for a racial joke. The Irish tenor, Ronan Tynan, who is well known for singing "God Bless America" during the seventh inning stretch, was overheard to make an anti-Semitic remark at his Manhattan apartment building.He said it was a joke and has profusely apologized to the degree that he is donating to a health services foundation with which the woman who felt offended is associated. He has expressed his remorse on the public airwaves, clearly explaining his understanding of how inappropriate his remark sounded to the woman who overheard him. And lastly, has given a complimentary recital to atone for his lapse in judgment.
Dr. Gabrielle Gold-von Simson, the offended person, has said she has accepted his apology. So has the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. Case closed.
I expect there will be an interval of chastisement maintained by the Yankees before he sings again just to make sure they look sufficiently removed from the offense and have shown adequate disapproval. I doubt Tynan will sing for any of the World Series games.
You see, Gold-von Simson has accepted the apology, but she has told reporters, as published widely, that she is "still horrified by his conduct."
What's missing here?
This man erred. That's a fact. His offense was made known to him. That's a fact. He apologized. That's a fact. His public apology was publicly accepted. That's a fact. Isn't this the way it's supposed to be?
No, this is not the way it's supposed to be. The boomerang offense was worse than what began the whole story, but you can bet there won't be any talk about that. You see, taking offense, being racially or politically prickly has become a refined art. Indignation over the sins of others and righteous annoyance when others fail, many use as a wide open door through which they will drive a truck-load of disapproval and umbrage.
I don't approve any anti-Semitic remark. Whether Tynan meant it as a joke is beside the point. If I say something insulting or harmful, I am wrong-- flat wrong. But here is where the way of Christ radically departs from the "correctness" of the world.
The way of the Lord teaches that rebuke, correction, and restoration only take place where no further injury is given. Privacy of correction, genuineness of forgiveness, humility in both the offender and the offended, is the character of true absolution, repair, and peace between people.
What happened here was that the person insulted apparently knew nothing about God's word in Matthew 18:15 or ignored it. Objectionable as Tynan's remark may have been, it was privately expressed. Yes, it was careless and rude. But what did the good doctor do? She took her insulted self-esteem to the front offices of the New York Yankees. She doesn't intend to afford this man what he needs which is correction and restoration.
Oh, no, she intended to see him penalized. And she succeeds. It is no price to her now that he has apologized. He has eaten sufficient "crow" to make those offended now appear magnanimous in their pardon. Perhaps there is someone in the Jewish Anti-Defamation League who will have enough consideration for this woman to take her aside privately and tell her that she did a much greater disservice to Ronan Tynan than he did to her.
It is not just that he now has a stigma affixed to him. In the public eye, the worst lesson is that forgiveness has a price other than what Jesus Christ paid for all sin on the cross. With Christ, the supreme gift is sin forgiven, not just "apology accepted" after you pay down the offense.
The price is not giving a contribution to your favorite charity, but the penalty of our sin imputed to Christ. The price is not enduring a probationary period before you can get back into the good graces of the New York Yankees, but the charge laid on the head of Jesus. The price is not your own shame and embarrassment paraded about on news programs, but the shame borne by an innocent man who carried His cross to Calvary. The price is not being made to behave like a good little boy again. It is the infinite cost Jesus rendered so his righteousness could be exchanged for our guilt.
This is not the way the world operates. But this is what Jesus Christ came into the world to provide.
There will always be giving offense and taking offense. One error is not more or less than any other sin. But the only remedy which is truly the answer, treatment and solution to sin is the free, full forgiveness which Christ earned by His death on the cross. This genuine forgiveness does not come at the cost of our reputation but at the cost of Christ's. This amnesty is not paid for by our "pound of flesh" or reprimand, but by the slain body of Jesus on Calvary for the sins of the world.
What we may hope and pray is that someone can personally, in grace and love, explain to everyone involved here that long before we ever gave offense or took offense, Jesus pronounced absolution on us all by his sacrificial, substitutionary death.
No one in the history of mankind ever endured the unjust indictments and undeserved finger-pointing Jesus bore. He was insulted, abused, scorned, and finally crucified though He had done no wrong whatsoever. He was innocent, as harmless as a lamb, and utterly pure. And yet he paid the price for us all.
The news media, the Anti-Defamation League, the neighbors in Ronan Tynan's building, the American public, the New York Yankees, and every mother's son may never hear the juicy details. But what a beautiful and truly loving thing it, if someone fails, that a Christian goes to them privately to show them their fault and forgive it. Then, humbly remembering that each of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, both people believe in the Son of God through whom all forgiveness is received, and share reconciliation within minutes of the offense.
That's how Jesus dealt with the fallen and has acted for you and me. He forgives us-- and we can sing again.
