This past week in the news we heard a lot about Sheryl Sherrod, the former Georgia Director of Rural Development. It was determined that she was unjustly forced to resign from her position after a segment of a speech she made at a NAACP event was placed out on the internet. The piece positioned her as a "reverse racist" in regards to a white farmer.
What's interesting is before all the details were put on the table she was asked (while driving her car) to "pull over to the side of the road and resign" and the NAACP at the time agreed with the forced resignation (they later retracted their position).
CNN and the Atlanta Constitution Journal correctly reported that the video was a misrepresentation of the full speech and that she should be judged on the entire speech. After all of these details, along wth other items that came to the surface, Ms. Sherrod was offered her job back.
The question is should she forgive those who jumped to conclusions before viewing and researching all of the details? Also should she take her job back? What's interesting is the white farmer she supposedly was racist against came out to her defense. Mrs. Eloise Spooner (the wife of the said farmer) even went as far as to say that Ms. Sherrod helped them save their farm!
In conclusion, I also found it interesting that details came out that Ms. Sherrod's father was killed in a racially motivated murder. when she was asked about this she said, "If I could move beyond race, if I could move beyond the ability to try to hate, and when you look at what happened to us, when you look at what was done, if I could move beyond that to a life of love and service, we all should be able to do it. And that's my message."
Remember...."Forgiveness is not an occasional act...it is an attitude!"
www.forgivingforliving.com
