Thursday 10/23/14

On Tuesday, Oscar Pistorius was given a five year sentence for fatally shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. He will spend a minimum of ten months in custody, after which he is eligible to be transferred to house arrest. He will not spend any time in a standard jail, however. Despite being a healthy Olympic Athlete, Pistorius is expected to spend his ten months of “hard” time in the hospital section of the prison, away from other inmates. That is because Oscar Pistorius, or the “Blade Runner” as he has sometimes been called, is missing his legs below the knees.

But I don’t want to write about any of that. I want to write about June and Barry Steenkamp.

June and Barry Steenkamp lost their daughter in the shooting, which Pistorius maintains was “a terrible accident.” June and Barry do not believe him. They insist that there is more to the story, and only Oscar knows what happened on that fateful Valentine’s Day night. Despite all of that, they say they have forgiven him.

They have forgiven him.

The day after sentencing, June and Barry Steenkamp appeared on Good Morning Britain to talk about the sentencing. During the interview June said that they do believe the punishment fits the crime and that “it’s not that we want vengeance or anything or him to suffer with his disabilities [in standard prison] but at the same time we feel satisfied that he will realize now that you can’t go around doing things like that.” The interviewer, obviously dissatisfied with June’s response, baited her, reminding her that “This is the man who killed your daughter, and by some accounts could be out of jail in as little as ten months.” But June refused to budge. She went on to say that revenge is not desired, but only fair punishment under the complicated circumstances. The Steenkamps had previously stated, "The hatred a lot of people feel towards him [Pistorius] as a person, you can't carry that along with you...it will just make you ill."

The strength of their decision to forgive has left many baffled, including at least one UK newspaper, The Daily Mail. Completely unable to comprehend what was actually said by the parents of Reeva Steenkamp, their headline read: “'Justice has NOT been done - only Oscar knows the truth': Reeva Steenkamp's parents hit out as athlete faces just 10 months in jail for killing their daughter.” Except that they did not “hit out.” Their use of quotation marks around “Justice has NOT been done” is also troubling, since anyone who takes the time to listen to the video that they have posted will realize that the Steenkamps actually said the exact opposite.

Forgiveness is not one of our strong suits as a society. Neither is mercy. Our movies, music, and television shows glorify revenge. Our idea of justice is dangerously warped. Thank God for this brave family who refuses to be part of the problem. May God truly bless them and their lives until they are reunited with their daughter.