Is Forgiveness Overrated?

Well, the verdict was made. The evil Duncan has been sentenced to death and now we will sit on our hands waiting for the outcome of the automatic appeal and hope that he will waive his rights.

I have just finished reading William Young's The Shack and the theme throughout is forgiveness and being filled with God's love. The main character, Mack, is asked by God (Papa) to forgive the man who kidnapped and murdered his daughter. Mack could do this, with 100% help from God.

On this side of reality, can Dylan's dad forgive Duncan, who not only kidnapped him (and his sister) but sexually tortured him for more than 37 DAYS, and then shot him twice, in front of his sister, and then burned his body to the point that investigators were only able to retrieve a hatful of pieces of bone and hair?

Could you, as a parent, FORGIVE this man?????

I could not. As much as I walk with God, talk with Him, try to give everything to Him - asking me to forgive my child's murderer and the methods of the murder is too much. I hope I never have to walk down this path.

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Evil Incarnate

These are my humble thoughts on the Duncan Trial. Taken from Community Comment. To those not from this area (Washington and Idaho), this is from a case where a predator, who has spent most of his life in prison for rape of children, stalked for children to kidnap, who he referred to as "flowers", and premeditated down to the bitterest detail, their kidnapping, torture, and murder. On May 16, 2005, he found two "flowers" in northern Idaho, by watching them from the freeway past their home. He brutally bludgeoned and hacked their mother, brother, and mother's fiancé to death, then kidnapped them and went on a 46-day rampage with them, torturing them, molesting them, raping them, threatening them, and eventually killing one of them before returning the survivor to safety. The jury today found unanimously that he is qualified for the death penalty, and will now convene on Monday to decide whether he indeed will get death or life.

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This is giving me nightmares. Honest. Every night I lay in bed and I rehash all the "twitter" news I learned during the day. When this first got to jury selection, I was remarking even then that our justice system is way too lenient and nice for the likes of Duncan. And THEN the trial started..... Every day there was something more cruel or more gruesome. When I got to the day of the video and learned that Duncan shouted to DG that he was himself (Duncan) the devil; the devil has come; meet the devil. And suddenly DG was MY little 9-year-old boy. He was MY little sprite that loved to discover bugs in every curled leaf; who made friends with every dog he ever saw; who would take an hour to walk the one block home from school because of all the things he had to take time to discover! He was MY little boy who shouted Mummy, I'm home! and curled up in my lap to share his latest adventure. He was MY little boy who never knew a stranger; never knew evil; never knew anything but unconditional endless love. I weep for DG and his little boy days; for his sister who witnessed and watched; for his Dad who was helpless to do anything at all to save his son.

Maybe the jury will believe as we do, that a death penalty would be too understated. It is NOT an eye for an eye.

I know - maybe we can call for the death penalty anyway - and every day he walks death row, gets buckled onto the gurney, gets poked with a needle and when the curtain opens, nobody is there to watch. The guards decide to send him back to his cell until they get some people to watch his ending. The next day they start the whole ordeal over again, over and over and over. I hope, in that case, he lives to be 100.

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