The Art of the Non-Apology

Pat Robertson has issued a very artful apology for his remarks calling Ariel Sharon's stroke God's retribution for withdrawing from Gaza. In a letter to Sharon's son he wrote:

"My zeal, my love of Israel, and my concern for the future safety of your nation led me to make remarks which I can now view in retrospect as inappropriate and insensitive in light of a national grief experienced because of your father's illness. I ask your forgiveness and the forgiveness of the people of Israel for saying what was clearly insensitive at the time."(emphasis mine)

This is not an apology. This is an attempt to sound apologetic while actually apologizing for nothing. Normally I wouldn't give a second thought to anything with Robertson's name tied to it, but this sort of non-apology is a common occurrence in public life. It represents a shameful lack of the willingness and ability to accept responsibility for one's actions.

The most common form is for someone to say something asinine and offensive, and then say they are sorry that people were offended. They are not sorry that they said it. Just sorry that someone was offended.

Robertson does take a slightly different tack. He says his remarks were "inappropriate and insensitive in light of a national grief." Actually his remarks were inappropriate and insensitive on their face. It does not take the grief of even one person, let alone a nation, to make that true.

Then he pleads for forgiveness form Sharon's son and the people of Israel for making comments that were "clearly insensitive at the time." I cannot think of any moment in time when statements like Robertson's would not be insensitive.

Were I on the receiving end of this apology I would find it as offensive as his original comments.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 11:16 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment