Rare Repentance: An Attacker Apologizes

I love a good reconciliation story. Humility is a good thing. Repentance is a good thing. Forgiveness is a good thing. The Lord requireth all.

"Godly sorrow leads to repentance."
"Forgive one another..."
"Confess your faults to one another, pray for one another, so that you may be healed"


While I didn't live through the world-shaking sixties decade, I admire the many stories of courage and sacrifice that marked the era. What also moves me is the courage of people who perpetrated atrocities, but have sought to redress their behavior. It takes guts to admit wrong and apologize. It takes guts to accept an apology and forgive. Can't do any of that without humility. May God bless both of these men. May we all learn something.

http://blog.sojo.net/2009/02/17/john-lewis-receives-apology-from-attacker

In case you can't access the link, here's a summary of the story:

The year: 1961. The place: Rock Hills, South Carolina. A group of Freedom Riders associated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) rides into town and attempts to enter a "whites only" waiting room at the bus station. Seeing them enter, Ku Klux Klansman Elwin Wilson launches an attack. The man he pummels is John Lewis. At the time, Lewis is but a young civil rights worker. He responds with nonviolence. Lewis would suffer many more beatings throughout the sixties. However, according to Lewis, none of the men who beat and abused him have ever apologized -- until now.

The year: 2009. Decades later, Elwin Wilson contacts John Lewis (now an elected official to the U.S. House of Representatives) to apologize for the beating. Wilson also apologizes to citizens in his hometown for his numerous acts of racial hatred. He has the guts to say, "I'm sorry." Representative Lewis responds to his former abuser with mercy, grace, forgiveness, and now refers to Wilson as a friend.

"The power of forgiveness and healing found in their recent encounter is the Gospel at work in a broken and fallen world. ... If we are to continue to come to terms with our tragic racial history, Wilson cannot be the last to have the courage to say "I'm sorry." I pray we will be encouraged and challenged by Wilson's repentance and Lewis's forgiveness in all areas of our lives... As Jesus is fond of saying, "Go and do likewise." "

(quoted commentary by Troy Jackson, Sr. Pastor of University Christian Church in Cincinnati)