Responsibility and repentance

I like this blogger's take on the BP oil spill and all the public acts of contrition by BP officials in its wake. Rich Harwood writes: "I often fear that we have conflated contrition and responsibility. We enable people, organizations and, yes, corporations, to proclaim how sorry they are, only for them to return to business as usual."

Agreed. And along the same lines, I think the Christian notion of repentance also gets conflated with psychological shame or despair - all emotion and piety, but nothing to repair the damage that's been done. But the Christian meaning of repentance, as I've come to understand it, is not just sorrow for the error but also a turning around, a change of heart and a renewed commitment to doing what's right.

Given the horrific problems this oil spill is creating, it seems there's plenty of contrition, responsibility and repentance to go around.