Sorry

Sorry
I admit it, I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics. I love watching any questions, where I pay particular attention to the words and phrases chosen by the panelists.
Classical word play is often used to avoid the difficult or hard question. How often have you heard the following responses?  “That’s a good question, but let me say this first” Or “That’s an excellent question, I’ll come back to it later”
It’s all a bit of a game really, and is one in which the rules are well understood by all partakers – including the moderator.  However well equipped they are for the engagement, even the best of interviewer gives up in in the end. I well recall Jeremy Paxmans attempts – 12 in all - to get Michael Howard to answer one simple question back in 2007.
Why is it, that we find it hard to state the truth, particularly when it might be an uncomfortable one. We make truth telling difficult from an early age – as children quickly learn not to own up when they do something wrong for fear of the consequences.  
In this place I call home, many find it impossible to say that they have made a mistake and are sorry. We have had so many examples of so called apologies being made for “any hurt I cause by my actions” Or someone expressing their sorrow that people were upset or offended by something they did or said  By sleight of hand this response shifts the blame from the perpetrator of the deed to the one on the receiving end.
Occasionally we hear a fulsome apology such as that made by David Cameron when we said that the actions which took place on Bloody Sunday were “Unjustified and unjustifiable” he added “which means we will not go on arguing about this, what happened was wrong, full stop, end of and let's make a proper apology.”
This week a religious leader apologised for things that happened under his watch, without, in my opinion, accepting any responsibility for those actions.  Was this an apology?
Our national political landscape is full of debate on the nature of truth – mostly opportunistic and focused on finger pointing and blaming those who failed the test.

For me at least, when Jesus referred to himself as “The way the truth and the life” he moved Truth from a purely forensic thing into the realm of relationships and reconciliation. In such encounters we learn the truth as understood by “the other” by listening to their story and in that engagement we might even have the opportunity to say we are sorry for the things we did that diminished the life experience of that person. That is a real apology