The best and worst of humanity all at once.

The New York Times has a good article about the American chaplains to the Nazi war criminals being tried at Nuremberg.

It reminds me of the discussion I was having with a friend recently. She's in the process of reading my book, and wondering if fallen angels really would have the ability to repent. She asked me if it said it anywhere in the Bible. As a matter of fact, the Bible is silent on the issue, and the semicanonical-in-Orthodoxy book of 1 Enoch debatably says no. But I can't imagine that a loving God would deny honest repentance to any sentient creature, no matter how evil it became.

That's not to say that such repentance would be a license to act like nobody should find fault with you, or ignore the grief of your victims, the way that a lot of people I know have acted. "Well yeah I cheated on you, but God forgave me, so why can't you?" is never an acceptable line of argument. But the strongest love should always find a way to forgive even the worst evils. We humans are probably not capable of such perfect love, but it's inspiring when we try, like the chaplains in the article I linked.