Pastor and writer Kevin DeYoung caught my attention this morning with his blog post on false apologies–more specifically, apologies for the sins of others. He cites a 1940 article by C.S. Lewis that criticized the younger English generation of that time for its so-called apologies over the nation's past conduct.

Says Lewis:

When a man over forty tries to repent the sins of England and to love her enemies, he is attempting something costly; for he was brought up to certain patriotic sentiments which cannot be mortified without a struggle. But an educated man who is now in his twenties usually has no such sentiment to mortify.

Lewis thought that the twenty-somethings had their own mistakes to repent of, but instead they were opting to express, in the form of a national apology, their disdain for certain attitudes that they had never shared. That's not a "costly" thing to do, and not much of an apology.

DeYoung sees a similar temptation for today's younger Christians, a lure to confess every ...