Finding Forgiveness on Fox News

I confess that I don’t know much about Fred Barnes beyond the basics of his professional journalism resume. I know that he is firmly conservative. I know that I agree with him many times when I’ve heard him opine on a variety of issues. Beyond that, I know nothing of his personal life or faith.

However, based on one short set of comments heard tonight on Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume, I have become a huge Fred Barnes fan. I didn’t know this was something I would be writing about, so I didn’t tape it or record it in any way. So, I may not be quoting him exactly. But I will hopefully get at the core of his comments.

Everyone knows by now of the unfortunate situation with Republican VP Candidate Sarah Palin and her pregnant teenage daughter. The liberal media was quick to jump on anything negative they could find and they’ve made this a bigger headline than Hurricane Gustav.

The issue was brought up during the panel discussion segment on Special Report, and I will remember Fred Barnes’ response for a long, long time. He quoted from a Washington Post article which said that this situation would be “a hard one for the Republican family values crowd to swallow.” Barnes’ response to that inane comment was priceless.

In essence he said: Of course this won’t be hard to swallow. This is what the values crowd is all about…forgiveness. We know that we are all sinners. That’s why we’re Christians. That’s why we need Jesus Christ.

I admit that when I heard those words I jumped out of my recliner yelling and laughing. The whole family rushed to see what was “wrong” with dad. I just couldn’t believe I had heard the words “we need Jesus Christ” from a journalist on a news show, even if it was the more conservative Fox News channel.

Again, I know nothing of Mr. Barnes personal beliefs. But those few comments did my heart good. The liberal folks just don’t get it. Of course we hold to a higher standard. Of course we would be disappointed by a teenager getting pregnant outside of marriage. But that doesn’t mean that we would condemn the individual without mercy.

While it is wrong to look the other way and say as one of the other panelists did, “this is no big deal, it happens all the time;” we also congratulate the whole family for taking responsibility and “doing the right thing.” It’s refreshing to see the family standing by their daughter, pledging to raise the child with unconditional love, seeing the couple married, etc. That’s a far cry better than Obama’s comments earlier that he supports abortion because he wouldn’t want his daughter’s “punished with a child.” At least this family sees children as a blessing and is willing to protect the child’s life when the “politically expedient” thing to do would be to “make the problem go away.”

So a healthy dose of respect to the Palin family for standing up in a difficult situation. We should all pray for that girl and her child. And big time kudos to Fred Barnes for giving us a little lesson in forgiveness on the evening news. I already sent an email to Fox News thanking Mr. Barnes for his comments and I hope lots of others do as well.

We are indeed all sinners in need of Christ. Even the evening news said so!