Radical Grace in Life and Leadership

People of the Second Chance

DECAPITATION AND SECOND CHANCES

Posted by Jud Wilhite:

Remember the YouTube video that showed the decapitation of an American at the hands of Al-Qaeda several years ago?

While fighting in the war in Iraq, Nicholas Berg was abducted by a group of Islamist extremists. In a video released to the public in May of 2004 on the internet, Nicholas Berg (while fully awake) was brutally decapitated with a small dull knife.

The video made shockwaves around the world. The CIA later claimed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi of Al-Qaeda personally beheaded Berg.

Later, when news broke that Zarqawi himself had been killed in June of 2006, Nicholas Berg’s father, Michael Berg, publically spoke of his forgiveness for Zarqawi. He said it took about a half a year before he could come to the point where he could honestly say he forgave him.

After his son’s death, he had opened up a catalog that came in the mail and saw a course offered at a Christian university entitled, “Forgiveness: The Way to Love in a Wounded World.” There he learned about the power of forgiveness.

He said this about revenge: “I think that when you ask for revenge you actually justify the death of your loved one. If I say revenge is okay for Zarqawi, look what he did to my son, then why can’t Zarqawi’s parents say, ‘You caused the death of my son, so we are entitled to revenge on you.’ And why can’t Zarqawi go back and say Americans caused the death, rape and torture on those prisoners at Abu Ghraib. I cannot and will not ever justify revenge because that would justify my son’s death.”

Many people expressed anger and even outrage at his forgiveness, but when Canadian musician Peter Katz heard of the second chances he extended, he was touched. He pulled over to the side of the road and immediately wrote the chorus to a future song titled Forgiveness that is about Berg.

He wrote:

You can call me a coward
Call me whatever you chose
Once you could have hurt me
But now, I’ve nothing left to lose

So I guess I’m going to have to try forgiveness
‘Cause man you know that’s all that I’ve got left
My boy did not deserve this, but neither do the rest
I guess I’m going to have to try forgiveness

Berg is a person of the second chance. Am I? Are you?

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View Comments to “DECAPITATION AND SECOND CHANCES”

Just today I was browsing through Facebook and ran across a group in support of some soldiers who they purport are being treated unfairly by the military justice system. As I was looking at photos and reading photos found on the groups page there was all kinds of revenge and justification.

I closed my browser and my heart felt literally broken.

There is so much hurt and pain already in existence in the world, why do we need to add to it?

 Posted by: kenyongerbrandt // March 9th, 2010 at 1:47 pm>

just this week i heard this statement and it's rocked me:

forgiveness is letting go of the possibility of a better past.

i want to forgive that deeply.

 Posted by: alece // March 9th, 2010 at 2:33 pm>

i remember when that happened…what a great story…there's a sermon in there,somewhere…

 Posted by: Jim Gray // March 9th, 2010 at 3:47 pm>

i love that qoute…im writing that one down…thanks for shaing that alece

 Posted by: mike foster // March 9th, 2010 at 4:07 pm>

this is such a powerful example of grace…mostly because the loss is so great and the pain is so deep…wow!

 Posted by: mike foster // March 9th, 2010 at 4:08 pm>

I'm so inspired by these stories. I've thought about forgiveness a lot this past year, and my heart has particularly been breaking for those in the world we are often conditioned to hate or judge, such as those on the opposite side of the war our country is waging or those who have been victims of torture in our prisons. I've been questioning a lot of the things we assume as Americans, mostly because my faith doesn't seem to allow similar filters. Thank you for continuing to push the envelope that asks the question, “How radical is our grace? How radical is our love, really?”

 Posted by: Christianne // March 9th, 2010 at 5:59 pm>

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jim_Gray: DECAPITATION AND SECOND CHANCES http://shar.es/mHNlb #potsc new post via @judwilhite…

 Posted by: uberVU – social comments // March 11th, 2010 at 4:36 pm>

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