Grace Personified on American Idol

Acerbic Simon Cowell was humbled tonight by a beautiful act of forgiveness offered by Mandisa Hundley, a woman he had denigrated as obese (telling her that "we need a bigger stage" when she appeared). This lovely gospel singer admitted tonight that he had hurt her, and then boldly told America that if Jesus could die on the cross for the bad things she had done, she could certainly forgive Cowell. Fox left the soundbyte about Jesus in the show, possibly because Mandisa is another numinous black woman, and her lovely smile and act of grace communicated more across the airwaves about the power of the Cross than many a sermon preached by a smooth televangelist.

As USA Today reports, "of the 166 six-network programs so far this season, Idol draws 135% more teens than any other show and 134% more teen girls." This episode gives us a great chance to talk about forgiveness with the teens in our lives: "Why was Mandisa able to forgive Simon? Could you have done the same?"