Forgiveness in Action

Years ago a young Korean exchange student left his flat and went to the corner to post a letter to his parents. Eleven leather-jacketed teenage boys attacked him. When the police found him in the gutter, he was dead. The district attorney of the city secured legal authority to try the boys as adults so that they could be given the death penalty. Then a letter arrived from Korea from the murdered boy's parents that made everyone stop and think.


It read in part:

"Our family has met together and we have decided to petition that the most generous treatment possible be given to those who have committed this criminal action. We have decided to start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational, and social guidance of the boys when they are released. We have dared to express our hope with a spirit received from the gospel of God’s Son who died for our sins.”

Forgiveness is always the basis of horizontal forgiveness.