Let’s get personal for a moment.

Do you remember when you messed up? When you got drunk and went too far? What about the flirtation that went too far? What about saying stupid stuff at the job or Thanksgiving? When you lost your temper? What about your bad behavior generally?

We all have regrets.

Now let’s get historical. Remember slavery? The trail of tears? Jim Crow laws? Japanese internment camps?

A nation can have regrets.

Politics and private lives: FDR had his affair; Eisenhower had his; MLK had his too. Reagan had a failed marriage. Remember the “locker room” talk by Trump all those years ago in a private conversation that was recorded on a live mic? His marriages were not exemplary, either

On BBC Newsnight, this Saturday January 21, 2017, on PBS, KCET, the journalist brought up that recorded conversation again to British Prime Minister Theresa May and read the transcript word for word, without censoring anything. Then the journalist asked Ms. May how she can work with Mr. Trump. She replied that the remarks were unacceptable and assured the journalist that she can still work with the new president. Finally, the people leading the recent marches around the country brought it up too.

(And for what it’s worth, I also had a judgmental attitude towards the president, but now I’m willing to move forward and trust he’s getting good advice from the Christian leaders with whom he’s in regular contact.)

You apologized for your past bad behavior, but someone still throws it up in your face. Reagan (and others) apologized for slavery and other national sins, but the past is still flung at the nation. Mr. Trump apologized for his bad behavior, but there it is again. I’ve even heard a conservative radio talk show host crumple when the caller brought up slavery.

The fact is there are some accusers who will never let go of the past; they come across as bitter and angry. They will never be satisfied no matter how many times one apologizes. These unforgiving accusers are playing in the devil’s playground -- your tainted past.

From my observations, the unrelenting accusers are invariably on the left.

We have tried to be understanding of the past. We have even felt guilty, as we allow the accusers to take us on a guilt trip. But political and political reasoning can go only so far and will never convince the never-satisfied accusers. Apologies never quiet them down. Sometimes the fight is not rational.

So now it’s time to fight their endless demands with a little old fashioned theology.

Protestant Christian theology says that God forgets your past; your record has been wiped clean. That may be difficult to believe, but there is in Scripture a doctrine called Judicial Forgetfulness. It is summed up in these words in the context of the New Covenant:

For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:12; cf. Jeremiah 31:34)

God is omniscient, so he doesn’t literally forget, but judicially the past is gone. If you have repented of your past, God never throws it in your face again. If you still have regrets about it, you are not listening to Scripture. Instead, you wandered into the devil’s playground.

But what does this theology have to do with history and politics? Everything, because politics and history are abstractions. We are really talking about humans, you and me.

We need to have confidence the next time accusers bring up our nation’s past. One on one, we can tell the accuser that political leaders like Reagan have already apologized. We’ll study history, but we won’t be guilt-tripped by it anymore.

It is an historical fact that some of my ancestors owned slaves. So how do I deal with that? Though I trust they got their own hearts right with God, the gospels say I don’t need to pay for their sins. Christ did that already.

In your personal life, you can inform the accuser that you have repented of your own sins, and Scripture assures you that God has forgiven you and judicially forgets your past. In your own soul you understand that you no longer play in the devil’s playground. Now you have confidence in God’s love. Remind the accusers of the gospel of love and forgiveness.

Politicians don’t need to bring up this theology at every turn (or at all) because skeptical journalists would look at the politicians as if they were from another planet. Instead, they should have calm, quiet, inner confidence that the accusers are playing in the devil’s playground. But the politicians who are now aware of this doctrine don’t have to go there. They should simply answer that they personally have moved on, so next question.

But what if the accusers claim that the past is still impacting the present? The answer is always the same: the accusers need to move past the past and get injected with forgiveness and gratitude for a great nation today, two virtues that are the opposite of bitterness and unforgiveness. The answer is always that the good news of the gospel of Divine Judicial Forgetfulness -- or simply the gospels -- releases all of us from the past. We no longer have to feel an ill-defined guilt that hovers over our head like a dark cloud.

As the old saying goes, the next time the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future, which is doom and hell (Matthew 25:41).

Personally, leave the devil’s playground behind. Leave the past behind. Leave the regrets behind.

Politically and historically, always move forward and build a better future.

James Arlandson’s website is Live as Free People, where he has posted Slaves and Owners Attend Same Pre-Civil War Church, Wilbourn Slaves, Slaves of Wilbourn-Related Family Lines, and Slavery and Freedom in the Bible