Let’s be honest. Apologies aren’t intended to make amends (only actual action can do that); instead, they are intended to pacify, to soothe the conscience of the perpetrator. In no way is the offended actually benefited by mere words, however sincerely spoken.

That certainty is true as well in John Hagee’s latest ‘apology‘ to the Catholic Church for his outrageous and moronic slander. Hagee couldn’t give a tinker’s tit about how Catholics feel; he only wishes to assuage public opinion.

The truth is, if Hagee hadn’t meant it- he wouldn’t have said it. He may have said it in the heat of the moment- but ‘out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.’

People who feel sorrowful for what they have done do something to compensate for it. If I say something hurtful to an old woman, I don’t get off Scot free by saying those two empty words ‘I’m sorry’. Instead, I make amends by running an errand for her or mowing her yard. Genuine sorrow leads to an act of penance and not mere verbal posturing.

In other words, true sorrow works repentance. Apologies are evasion from repentance as they require nothing at all but smug self satisfaction that empty words have been spewed-forth.