The F Word
Amy Biehl would have been forty years old at the end of August. In the early 1990’s she was a student of Stanford University doing Fulbright Scholar work at University of Western Cape Town in South Africa, and as an anti-apartheid activist she met an untimely and grisly death. On August 25, 1993, a mob of angry blacks pelted her car with rocks, someone hit her in the head with a brick and dragged her from the car. She was beaten and stoned and stabbed to death by her attackers as they hurled racial slurs at her.
Her death was common in those dark ages of apartheid, but this story has an incredibly uncommon ending. You see, four men were convicted and condemned to life in prison for their crime. But remarkably, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended their pardon after serving only five years. Even more astounding is that Amy’s parents supported the pardon. Peter, her father, took the stand as a witness at the hearing and said this:
Amy Biehl would have been forty years old at the end of August. In the early 1990’s she was a student of Stanford University doing Fulbright Scholar work at University of Western Cape Town in South Africa, and as an anti-apartheid activist she met an untimely and grisly death. On August 25, 1993, a mob of angry blacks pelted her car with rocks, someone hit her in the head with a brick and dragged her from the car. She was beaten and stoned and stabbed to death by her attackers as they hurled racial slurs at her.
Her death was common in those dark ages of apartheid, but this story has an incredibly uncommon ending. You see, four men were convicted and condemned to life in prison for their crime. But remarkably, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended their pardon after serving only five years. Even more astounding is that Amy’s parents supported the pardon. Peter, her father, took the stand as a witness at the hearing and said this:
“The most important vehicle of reconciliation is open and honest dialogue...we are here to reconcile a human life which was taken without an opportunity for dialogue. When we are finished with this process we must move forward with linked arms. ”
The courts granted the pardon for all four men. The story doesn’t end there.
Two of the four men are now working for the Amy Biehl Foundation. Easy Nofemela and Ntobeko Peni have dedicated their lives to the work of the foundation – to prevent violence among youth in South Africa. Linda, Amy’s mother, says,
Two of the four men are now working for the Amy Biehl Foundation. Easy Nofemela and Ntobeko Peni have dedicated their lives to the work of the foundation – to prevent violence among youth in South Africa. Linda, Amy’s mother, says,
“I have come to believe passionately in restorative justice. It’s what Desmond Tutu calls u-buntu: to choose to forgive rather than demand retribution, a belief that ‘my humanity is inextricably caught up in yours’…I can’t look at myself as a victim – it diminishes me as a person. And Easy and Ntobeko don’t see themselves as killers. They didn’t set out to kill Amy Biehl. But Easy has told me that it’s one thing to reconcile what happened as a political activist, quite another to reconcile it in your heart.”
This is the same hard truth that Jesus taught about forgiveness. He hinted at the wideness of God’s mercy for humans when he said we should be generous in forgiving one another “seven times seventy.” He illustrated uncommon determination to forgive rather than demand retribution when he stood silently before his accusers and later died an innocent death. And in the story of Peter – the disciple who thrice denied Jesus only to be later forgiven and restored – we marvel at how the gospel of grace forever changes the course of a life.
The amazing power of the gospel of grace lies in this one truth: That the reconciliation of all three of these men – Easy, Ntobeko, and Peter – led to them change from within and become champions for the vision of the one they’d betrayed.
The amazing power of the gospel of grace lies in this one truth: That the reconciliation of all three of these men – Easy, Ntobeko, and Peter – led to them change from within and become champions for the vision of the one they’d betrayed.
So what about you and me? Do we champion the cause of the Christ who has forgiven us much? Are we as quick to forgive others as we should be? Do we see how failing to forgive others diminishes us as a person? And having been reconciled with another, how do we then “move forward with linked arms?”
I think we need to "Drop the F bomb" more often.
