TrueWordMinistry
No Result
View All Result
Friday, March 5, 2021
  • HOME
  • BLACK NEWS
  • BLACK STARS
  • AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • PODCAST
DONATE
Order Book
  • HOME
  • BLACK NEWS
  • BLACK STARS
  • AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • PODCAST
No Result
View All Result
TrueWordMinistry
No Result
View All Result
Home Black News

Forgiveness

Stephen Small by Stephen Small
November 16, 2019
Reading Time: 4min read
0
Forgiveness

Here’s the thing about forgiveness.

RELATED POSTS

USC students reboot NAACP chapter as energy increases around building controversy

Meet the men behind the first Black-owned sliced bread company in U.S.

American Psychiatric Association Apologizes for Support of Racism

It’s not just something you extend to someone else. It’s also a gift you give yourself, permission to lay down the heavy burden of grudges and rage. And if you’re a Christian, it’s an obligation — albeit a hard one — of faith.

One can believe all that, yet still be deeply conflicted by last week’s act of forgiveness in a Dallas courtroom: Brandt Jean, who is black, embraced and absolved Amber Guyger, the white former police officer who had just been sentenced to 10 years for killing his brother, Botham. Guyger had entered Botham’s apartment mistakenly believing it was hers.

While some people considered these acts of grace, others, many of them African American, were furious. Actress Yvette Nicole Brown retweeted a meme that said: “If somebody ever kills me, don’t you dare hug them. … Throw a chair, in my honor.” To which Brown added: “… and then dig me up and throw ME!” Others were angered that Guyger got “only” 10 years.

The view from this pew is that none of us has the right to tell Brandt Jean how to grieve his brother or process the hell he’s living through. As to Guyger’s sentence: It actually seems fair for a crime that was ultimately a tragic mistake, albeit one exacerbated by poor judgment.

What makes it seem unfair is that we’ve too often seen black defendants receive far harsher sentences for far lesser crimes. Like Marissa Alexander who, in 2012, fired a warning shot as her reputedly abusive husband advanced on her. She got 20 years for shooting a ceiling.

But if these issues are relatively clear cut, the larger one — forgiveness — is anything but. Especially since it sometimes seems that black people — not coincidentally the most religiously faithful group in America, according to a 2014 Pew survey — are forgiving to a fault.

A white supremacist massacres nine people in their church. Family members forgive him. A white cop shoots a fleeing black man in the back. The victim’s mother forgives him. In 1963, white terrorists killed Sarah Collins Rudolph’s sister Addie Mae Collins and three other girls in a bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Rudolph forgave them. And so it goes.

Forgiveness, you understand, is not the problem. But one-way forgiveness is. Because who forgives black people? Forget forgiveness for wrongdoing. How about forgiveness for simply existing and trying to live unmolested lives? This is what Botham Jean was doing — eating ice cream in his own home — when he was killed by a white woman who blundered upon that prosaic scene and perceived a threat.

In dying that way, Jean indicted cherished American myths about equality and unalienable rights. America — much of white America, at least — hates when you do that. One is reminded of what Hilde Walter, a Jewish journalist, was quoted as saying in 1968: “It seems the Germans will never forgive us Auschwitz.” Similarly, it sometimes seems much of white America will never forgive us slavery. Or Jim Crow.

By simply existing, black people remind white people of those sins of their forebears, sins many are desperate to minimize or forget. Because down that path lies white guilt. That’s why, when a black man enjoying the comfort of his own home is judged an intruder and executed by a white cop, one is less shocked to see her receive forgiveness than to see her receive punishment.

For the record, Joshua Brown, a young black man who testified against Guyger, was ambushed days later and shot dead. The obvious motive is being speculated. It seems, somehow, a fitting coda to Brandt Jean’s act of generosity, the good deed refusing to go unpunished. It’s a reminder that our racial history is shaped by co-equal forces:

We live by uncanny grace. And sins unatoned.

ShareTweetPin
Stephen Small

Stephen Small

Rev. Small realized God was present in his life as a child, and grew into an adult with a passion for knowing and understanding God, people and the difficulties of life. Rev. Small soon can to know Jesus Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit has he experienced the storms, trails, and tribulations of life as a Black man in America. Rev. Stephen C. Small survived numerous demonic assaults on his life, which gave meaning to God’s grace and mercy. Rev. Small reasoned that God’s presence in the world gives hope, meaning and purpose; it is the essence of learning, love and relationships. Rev. Small humbled himself and opened his heart and mind to listening, learning and obeying God. On sabbatical from a business career, Rev. Small earned a Biblical Studies degree, and Master of Divinity. Rev. Small’s faith and dedication to serving God is the reason he created Trueword Ministry; TWM’s website as an evangelism tool, designed to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to Africans, African Descendants and the entire human race.

Related Posts

Caley Bright
AFRICAN DIASPORA

USC students reboot NAACP chapter as energy increases around building controversy

by Stephen Small
February 25, 2021
0

Caley Bright, the President of the USC Chapter of NAACP, speaks during a press conference outside The Thomas Cooper Library...

black business men
AFRICAN DIASPORA

Meet the men behind the first Black-owned sliced bread company in U.S.

by Stephen Small
February 11, 2021
0

Mark Edmond recalls his wife sending him to the grocery shop to buy some goods. On reaching the bread shelves,...

Next Post
Simone Biles is now most decorated gymnast in history after winning her 24th world medal

Simone Biles is now most decorated gymnast in history after winning her 24th world medal

King's wife and mother

The forgotten assassination of MLK’s mother Alberta King in 1974

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Recommended Articles

Learn Your Numbers: Stroke Awareness

Learn Your Numbers: Stroke Awareness

November 16, 2019
Matthew Whitaker

The blind teen pianist whose talent is so extraordinary that he’s being studied by scientists

January 26, 2021
From slave to Georgetown financier, how Guinea’s Yarrow Mamout gained his freedom and became rich in the 1800s

From slave to Georgetown financier, how Guinea’s Yarrow Mamout gained his freedom and became rich in the 1800s

October 15, 2019

Daily Prayer

Tweets by @https://twitter.com/stephencsmall
TrueWordMinistry

Trueword Ministry’s website offers 24/7 access to bible lessons, podcasts, sermons and news that inspires. The central purpose of the website is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to Africans, Afro-descendants and friends.

LEARN MORE »

About Us

  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Service
  • Mission Statement
  • Submit A Story
  • Our Ministries

Categories

  • Africa
  • African Diaspora
  • Black News
  • Black Stars
  • Christian Awareness
  • Politics

Sign up for our news letter

Get Bible Lessons, News and Inspiring Articles in your inbox.

© 2021 All rights reserved by TrueWordMinistry.

No Result
View All Result
  • Politics
  • Podcast
  • PREACHING
  • Bible Lessons
  • Black News
  • Black Stars
  • Politics
  • Donation

© 2021 All rights reserved by TrueWordMinistry.