"Unforgivable"
With all the outcry over Nirmala Bonat's case (the case of the abused 19-year-old Indonesian maid), I wonder...
I wonder whether there is a place for forgiveness. Everybody is saying that what the employer's wife did to Nirmala is unforgivable. Inexcusable I agree, but unforgivable? I want to say it is unforgivable, but then I remember Jesus saying, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"; and, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins".
Forgive someone like her? Surely not. Forgive someone like the convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer? Never!
But... but... apparently God forgave him. Because Dahmer repented and became a Christian while he was in prison. How could God forgive someone like that? He could and did. Can we?
And so...
I wonder whether there is a place for a second chance. Will this lady, this 36-year-old housewife who abused her maid so horrifically, ever be given a second chance? Or will she always walk under that stigma, be reviled by others, despised and detested and remembered as the woman who tortured her maid?
Even the Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister has been quoted as saying, "This is one case, I believe, where the adage of law 'one is not guilty until found so by the court of law' is not suitable for this category (of crime)." The crowd is calling out for blood.
She pleaded not guilty, much to public outrage. Had she pleaded guilty, what would we have said? "Oh, probably just trying to get a reduced sentence." So easy to be contemptuous. To brand her as a cruel woman, a monster. To say that she ought to get the maximum sentence when (not even 'if') convicted.
Will anyone give her a second chance? Or will we insist that she doesn't deserve one? I think back over all the second (and even third, fourth and fifth chances) that others have given me. I think back over the gazillion chances that God has given me. I never deserved any of those. Granted, I've never committed such a horrific crime. But still, is there a place for a second chance?