Christian Forgiveness and Snape (was Would Harry forgiving )

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 164126

Lupinlore
> Now, if Snape isn't in the wrong it's hard to say that this is a
> story about forgiveness -- rather that it's a story about truth.  
And
> certainly at that point anything specifically Christian in the 
theme
> disappears.  Recognizing that one has been wrong and correcting 
one's
> attitudes is a story that could be told from the standpoint of 
Roman
> Stoicism, Aristotelian ethics, or ancient Egyptian paganism.  There
> is nothing specifically Christian about it.
> 
> So, if Snape isn't in the wrong any forgiveness offered him would 
be
> 1) possibly not foregiveness at all, but simply recognition of an
> existing set of circumstances, which is something else entirely, 
and
> 2) not specifically Christian in any way.  If Snape IS in some 
major
> sense in the wrong (pick your theory as to how), and IS in some 
major
> sense still carrying a major load of guilt (in the sense of an
> objective stain rather than anything he might feel), then the
> Christian themes reappear.  Indeed, the more clearly in the wrong
> Snape is, and the more deeply stained and unredeemed, then the more
> powerful the themes are.
> 
> <Shrug.>  I don't know.  But there seems to be a consensus that we
> will be seeing strong reflections of JKR's Christianity in the
> finale -- and she herself has seemed to say as much -- and if that 
is
> so, then the more guilty the Snapey-poo, the more clear the 
religion.
> 
> 
> Lupinlore, who doesn't see Snapey-poo, in his "true nature," so 
much
> as a black sheep as a black dung beetle with a bat fixation

Magpie:
Well, he's already in the wrong, I think. Regardless of whether he's 
DDM!Snape now, he was a DE, and he caused the death of Harry's 
parents. The question then isn't a difference between whether he's 
right or wrong but whether he's repentent or not. It's all well and 
good for Dumbledore to "forgive" Snape--but I don't think that's 
what he's done, since it wasn't Dumbledore's family that was killed. 
Who's he to forgive him? What he's done is given Snape a second 
chance to make amends if Snape is DDM. 

It's Harry who has something to forgive Snape for, whether he killed 
Dumbledore on Dumbledore's orders or not. Not only has Snape 
objectively treated him badly, it was his intentional bad act that 
put Harry in the position he's in now and killed his parents. This 
is what Dumbledore claims Snape has remorse over.

So is it more Christian to forgive someone who has no remorse than 
one that does? I don't think so. It might be more difficult in some 
circumstances, but I don't think Snape's feeling remorse necessarily 
makes it easier for Harry. It just maybe makes his witholding 
forgiveness about something else than it would be otherwise.

-m (who really really hates the use of the name "Snapey-poo")