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Ah, what a difference a day makes. Yesterday morning, Pat Robertson was channeling former President Clinton as he responded to allegations that he'd called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez by saying:

"I didn't say 'assassination,'" Robertson clarified during a broadcast of his "The 700 Club" Wednesday morning. "I said our special forces should go 'take him out,' and 'take him out' could be a number of things, including kidnapping." He blamed The Associated Press for making him seem to advocate the assassination of a foreign leader. "There are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him," Robertson said. "I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time." from FoxNews

By afternoon, the Right Reverend Robertson (say that 5 times fast!) decided he needed to apologize. If you want to read the whole statement he released, you can check it out on FoxNews. What I quote next is selected "highlights":

"Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him... "There are many who disagree with my comments, and I respect their opinions. There are others who think that stopping a dictator is the appropriate course of action. In any event, the incredible publicity surrounding my remarks has focused our government's attention on a growing problem which has been largely ignored."

He also managed to drag Dietrich Bonhoeffer into the mix, drawing parallels between Nazi Germany and Venezula. Huh?! Here's my "summary" of the week's events, as filtered through the mind of Pat Robertson.

1. Chavez is one bad dude... somebody ought to hire Steven Seagal to jet down to South America and go medieval on him.
2. When I said that the U.S. ought to "cap" Chavez, I meant that we needed to get him a new hat. Yeah, that's the ticket. Besides, you guys put words in my mouth.
3. OK, kids, you caught me. I really did encourage government-sponsored assassination on national TV. Who knew the MSM watched The 700 Club? Say, any of you left-wingers want to buy a case of diet shakes?
4. Actually, it's a good thing I put a shoe store worth of Nikes in my mouth over this thing, because it's all part of my secret plan to get the White House to pay attention to Venezula's godless Commie ninja strike force.

OK, a little over the top. Still, I'm enjoying myself, right?

Anyway, back to the serious: it's not really an apology when you attempt to justify your actions. Then it's just randomly using the word "sorry" like a talisman to ward off further attacks.

Which brings us to the icky part of this post... where are we "apologizing" in name only? Where do we spend inordinate amounts of time & energy struggling to justify, excuse or otherwise cover up our actions when the simpler, more authentic, more Christ-like way to deal with it would simply be to say "I'm sorry" and be done with it?

Ever thought about how much we can be like Pat? (Shudder.)