Posted on 07/30/2014 5:55:07 PM PDT by equalator
Kelsey Grammer forgave the man who raped and murdered his sister but said that he should not be released, during an emotional testimony at the killer's parole hearing on Tuesday.
The 59-year-old Frasier star testified against 57-year-old Freddie Glenn who kidnapped and murdered his 18-year-old sister, Karen Elisa Grammer, in 1975 when she was leaving her job at a Red Lobster in Colorado Springs.
'I accept that you live with remorse, but I live with tragedy every day,' the Cheers star said via satellite link at a Colorado parole hearing.
'I accept your apology. I forgive you. However, I cannot give your release my endorsement.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I’ll be completely honest...I’m a Christian, I love my God, I love Jesus, but I fall far short. When it comes to forgiveness for something like this, I balk. It may not be what God commands, but I am human and there would be no way to do it without divine assistance. I’m having a hard enough time with everything going on in the country and the world these days...I’m marinating in anger, and it isn’t Christian, but there it is.
If such an unthinkable and terrible thing happened, God forbid, to my sister-in-law, I cannot imagine my husband and his older brother telling the perp he was forgiven. They would be more likely to want justice at the end of a firearm for their baby sister.
Yesterday, not far from here, some animal broke into a house, found a woman in the shower, shoved a gun into her face, and pulled her by her hair to the front yard, naked. I can imagine the plans he had for her, but I’d rather not. He got chased off and the police are looking for him. The woman’s husband, when interviewed, didn’t mention forgiveness, but he did say the criminal would have been shot dead if he’d been in the vicinity at the time.
Condolences on the loss of your sister.
No, it doesn't. The Bible says that only those who accept Christ are children of God.
The man who committed those crimes is an animal, a piece of refuse.
Which, by accounts I have read, he has done, and repented for his sin.
I'm not saying that he should be let out of prison. I think he should stay right where he is. But whether or not he has accepted Christ and repented, he's neither an animal nor a piece of refuse. He's a man, loved by God, and for whom Christ died, whom God wants to bring to heaven some day.
Calling him anything less than a man is not true. He may or may not be an evil man, but he's a man. To deny that fact about him is to deny the truth, and thus, to deny Christ.
Don't forget that St. Paul himself was a murderer before his conversion, having stood by and approved of the murder of St. Stephen. And God loved him even before his conversion. Even murderers can become great saints.
ALL sins are forgivable if the person repents. And I haven't read any comments on this thread saying that he should be released. Forgiveness isn't the same thing as releasing him back into society.
If you think that the idea of forgiving a repentant sinner is how we "lost our culture and society", then you must not think that this country was built on a Christian foundation, because that is precisely what Christianity requires us to do. Again, forgiving the criminal is not the same thing as releasing him.
Thanks.
You’re under the illusion prison is tough stuff for rapist murderer.
Its not.
Its his briar patch.
Sorry....pollyanna kumbaya Christianity based on good works is indeed indicative of our lapse into lack of strength etc
You mention the Christian foundations of our founders
Good point.
They would have hanged this animal within hours publicly as a warning to any other animal.
Forgive the man who brutally raped and murdered your sister because his repented?
Nuts.
That’s Gods job.
Good point.
They would have hanged this animal within hours publicly as a warning to any other animal."
That's exactly right.
The only reason I myself would even think twice about calling this guy an animal is because of the unfairness and insult to the beasts God made.
Nuts.
That’s Gods job.
Then what's your interpretation of "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" and "Love your enemy, do good to those who persecute you"?
You call it "pollyanna kumbaya Christianity". I call it basic Christianity. It's not Pollyanna at all. It's one of the hardest things about being a Christian. In a case like this it requires heroic virtue. I'm not talking about "Can't we all just get along?". I'm talking about a genuine desire for the sinner's good. If you don't understand that basic fact of Christianity, then you don't understand Christianity at all.
I used to think that the most common sins were sins of the flesh. I'm coming to believe that they're a refusal to forgive someone who has repented for doing us harm.
True forgiveness and true justice are quite compatible. In fact, they require each other. Forgiving a criminal for the wrong he has done does not mean letting him off the hook. That's a gross misunderstanding of both justice and forgiveness. Rather, forgiving a sinner means to genuinely desire and work for the repentant sinner's ultimate good, which is union with God in heaven. And that requires justice. It is unjust to refuse to punish the sinner. It is unjust both to society and to the sinner himself. He needs to pay for his crime. So no, I'm not being Pollyanna-ish about this at all. Much less kumbaya.
And by the way... I do support the death penalty. Read my previous comments about forgiveness and justice. I believe the death penalty has a way of concentrating the criminal’s focus on his ultimate destiny, and makes him more likely to repent than spending years in prison, which is more likely to harden him in his sinfulness than it is to make him repent.
Good Lord, the poor girl was still alive after he slit her throat, she crawled to a house and tried to ring the doorbell for help before dying on the front stoop. I cannot imagine the horror she endured. Those four hours of being raped must have seemed like four years to her.
She wasn’t even my sister, and I don’t know if *I* can forgive the POS.
I’d prefer he stops stealing oxygen.
That’s not my call nor is it Grammer’s call to make.
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