Posted on 08/31/2019 2:38:33 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
FULL TITLE: Parents of Boy Thrown Off Mall of America Balcony Decry Assailants Actions as Evil But Forgive Him During Sentencing
The parents of a 5-year-old Minnesota boy who survived being thrown from a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America decried the assailants actions as evil while saying they forgive him at a hearing Monday where a judge handed down a 19-year prison sentence.
Emmanuel Aranda showed little emotion during his hearing. When Hennepin County District Judge Jeannice Reding asked whether Aranda wanted to say anything on his own behalf, the 24-year-old Minneapolis man responded with a simple, No. Reding then sentenced him to the term he agreed to when he pleaded guilty last month to attempted premeditated first-degree murder in the April 12 attack.
Aranda told investigators he went to the mall looking for someone to kill. According to the complaint, he had tried unsuccessfully to talk to women in the mall but their rejection caused him to lash out and be aggressive. He said had planned to kill an adult before choosing the child instead.
The boy, identified in court only as Landen, plunged almost 40 feet (12 meters) and needed multiple surgeries for head trauma and broken bones. No update on his recovery was provided in court Monday, though his parents described it as miraculous.
Your act was evil and selfish, you chose to listen to the worst parts of yourself that day, the boys father said in a statement read by prosecutor Cheri Ann Townsend. You chose evil over good and chose to take your hate and hurt out on my precious boy. That is where your impact on us stops, you will take nothing more from us.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Exactly. They never requested that his sentence be commuted either.
It actually shows great faith on their part as they are saying they are trusting God to deal with it justly, as HE sees fit and believing that He will, not as they desire to have justice dealt out.
I would really struggle to do this, myself. I can forgive offenses done to me far easier than offenses done against my kids.
Mama Bear, I guess.....
OTOH, neither would I want to give the guy one more minute of my life and have him ruin the rest of our lives any more than he already had. The father said it well.
It IS liberation. For the family, not for the man.
Hey why am I not hearing the media cry about a need for malls to be single story buildings? Gravity is an Assault Weapon and people who might throw people over the rail should be Red Flagged and have a device attached to their legs that would some how prevent them from climbing stairs or using escalators and elevators. In fact I call on a national boycott on all multi-story buildings. Its time to form an anti-gravity movement on par with the man made global warming movement. Remember, dont let gravity get you down.
Forgiveness is a letting go (of hatred, feelings of revenge, bitterness, etc.). It has nothing to do with the other person.
So the parents may still hope that he goes to jail for his whole life? Would they be "ok" if he walked out of jail today, as free as a bird? I understand that forgiveness is about "me" and not the wrong-doer, otherwise, as you say, one will be eaten alive by rage and thoughts of revenge.
I am truly looking for my own practical, working definition of "forgiveness" as I have yet to find an acceptable one.
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Eschewing personal vengeance because of the hope of a Righteous Judge.
If you are a Christian, you have Christ living in you. You have one purpose, namely to show forth his presence. You cannot do that, no matter how precise the definitions you have worked out for yourself. But Christ can. It’s the second half of the good news, the part that is largely ignored in practice.
Hope you can find a definition that satisfies you and that you can practice it in a way that makes you happy.
I suppose that the best I can offer is that you are releasing them from owing any debt to you to make up for the wrong they did.
It doesn’t mean they weren’t wrong, nor that you are wrong to see the injustice or even feel angry about it. Wrong is wrong even when it happens to you. One of the best tricks of the enemy is that he tells us that if we forgive the person that we’re saying that what the other person did doesn’t matter or that we’re being overly sensitive or taking it wrong. He tries to put the blame back on us and then guilt trip us over it.
It’s getting out of the way so God can deal with them as He knows is best. Taking your hands off the matter and turning it over to Him.
Feelings will still need to be worked through and because of that, one may have to repeat many times that they were forgiven, as a reminder.
God says *Vengeance is mine, I will repay.* (Romans 12:19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.)
Much easier to say than to do. We all struggle with it and likely this family will too for a long time. These parents were right, and they didn’t sugar coat it or make excuses for what he did. It WAS evil and he did make a wrong decision.
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