Ollie Robison’s tweets, forgiveness, and the church
Ollie Robinson made his debut for England in the recently concluded 1st Test against New Zealand. He had an excellent outing, with a match haul of 7/101 and having scored 42 runs in the first innings. However, during the test, several racist and sexist tweets he had made in the past surfaced, and overshadowed his performance. He made a public apology after Day 1 of the Test, and has been suspended by the English Cricket Board (ECB) until a decision is taken on his conduct. The tweets concerned were posted in 2012 and 2013, when Robinson was a teenager. That does not make the tweets any more acceptable; they would have contributed to the discrimination faced by minorities in the UK. Cricket as a whole is reviewing its inclusivity (prior to the commencement of Day 1, the two teams had a ‘Moment of Unity’, in which they stood together sporting t-shirts which denounced racism, religious intolerance, gender discrimination, homophobia). The ECB’s decision to suspend Robinson and review the matter is therefore appropriate. One commentor has said the key issue is to examine whether Robinson has continued to display this kind of behaviour, or whether he has apologized for it and has since matured. Another commentor has suggested that this kind of conduct cannot be rehabilitated. As Christians, we believe that we can be forgiven by God for any and all sin, due to his grace expressed through the gift of salvation in Christ Jesus’ death on the cross. However, this grace is not cheap, and forgiveness does not mean the consequences of our sins are wiped clean. In the story of Zacchaeus, we have a picture of what genuine repentance looks like - not only remorse for past wrongdoing, but also a commitment to make restitution to those who have been wronged (Luke 19:1-10). As forgiven Christians, our sinful past can be a source of great shame, and we must struggle (perhaps all our lives) to grasp the wonderful truth that in Jesus, we are set free from this shame. I wonder how many of our churches really demonstrate this grace in the way we treat new-comers, or even fellow parishioners. I have personally witnessed that with some kinds of sin, the congregation refuses to move on and embrace the person concerned as a fellow sinner forgiven by God. Such people are therefore too ashamed to come to church, or if they do, feel completely unwelcome. If Jesus were to walk Zacchaeus into our churches today, would we let Zacchaeus in past the last pew? Would we be able to embrace him and make him feel God’s love? Or would we continue to mutter that he is a sinner? (Luke 19:7) I think the answer is for us to draw on our own shame about our secret sinful pasts, to empathise with those whose sins have simply become public knowledge. The church must be a place that encourages and supports people to make restitution for their wrongdoing, while helping to free one another from the shame of sin. Ollie Robinson’s path ahead will hopefully involve some meaningful steps to make restitution to the groups of people who would have been hurt by his tweets. If he undertakes this with genuine remorse and a willingness to model better behaviour on and off the field, there is no reason why he should not be embraced by the English public and the cricketing world, and be given a chance to continue to shine for sport and country.