Following the last presidential election, tensions were high in many parts of our country (and are still there today). St. David's Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom, IN was the target of vandalism in the days follwoing the election. With words such as "Heil Trump" and "Fag Church" spray painted on the side of their building. The painful realization was that it was one of their own who committed this act.
In the three years that have followed, we are now given a much deeper picture of the events that led up to that night as well as surveillance video with the former organist. There is some strong language in some of the video clips with the police officers, but what I found most powerful is the redemptive steps that the people of St. David's and those in the IU and Bloomington communities have shown to this man. It reminds us all that we are all human, we make mistakes, we are sinners, and yet God still searches after us and God still wants to be in relationship with us.
Reconciliation and forgiveness is the restoration of the moral order that invites us to be transformed and into a new way of life. This article powerfully states that it was the people of St. David's who recognized their own failures within themselves on the "type of person" who would do this that led them to reconciliation. It may come as a surprise to many, but reconciliation and forgiveness actually begins with the victims when they are inspired to reclaim their humanity as the Body of Christ and then move towards forgiveness and invites the oppressor into a new relationship. We see that carried out in the ways that Nathan is invited into many Episcopal contexts in our diocese after his sentencing. For it is in community, that the incubation of reconciliation is made possible.
The people of St. David's believe these words - that the first place they had to look was within themselves -as their testimony is featured in the article. The Vestry of St. David's approved this article before it was released. I invite your thoughts/leanings/wonderings.
Hate Crime Hoax
The power of Forgiveness