Paula Deen, Nelson Mandela and God's Justice

The past few weeks two names in the news have been Paula Deen and Nelson Mandela, both who are  contrasting examples on racial justice, one in how justice has been sought and denied with no forgiveness, and the other with how justice was offered through actions of unspoken forgiveness.

Ms. Deen's open admission to using a racial slur many years ago in her past landed her in the hot seat with the racial justice activist who seek restitution in the form of destroying lives, with no mercy, of anyone of notoriety with indiscretions in their past.  Now let me say that No !! I do not know the truth or the extent of Ms. Deen's failures and short comings when it comes to her attitudes and actions towards persons of other races. There have been endless articles regarding additional claims of raciest comments or actions. However, this is not my point to prove or disprove, which I never could, but to say that these attacks on Ms. Deen have been in my opinion over zealous and to point out this underlying reason is in stark contrast to Mr. Mandela's example.

The attack on Ms. Deen by the racial justice purist calling her a bigoted racist because of her past use of the "N" word was quickly followed by many companies pulling their contacts and relationships with Ms. Deen thus hurting her income sources. No less, these private companies who cut their business relationship with Ms Deen are within their full right to choose who they do business.

The problem with these responses and actions by those who call for such is that those who thirst for justice seek it in way absolutely void of any forgiveness.  At the core of this justice seeking is a deeply rooted inability for those who are offended by Ms. Deen's omission's to find any justice acceptable short of inflicting pain and suffering on her to the point of destroying her livelihood. There has even been claims that she has made her fortune off the heritage of African-american cooking for which she has supposedly given little to no recognition to this fact. This type justice is not appeased by any heartfelt apologize but requires utter and total personal destruction.

The problem here is the type of justice that's sought will never satisfy these justice seekers, because the entire point here is that this type of justice is not for man to apply, but it is for God, where all ultimate justice resides. While bigotry and racism can be crimes of civil and criminal law, however in this case its a question regarding the heart and soul of a person. I'm not saying that we should be a society without justice as part of our civil society, we should apply justice when anyone breaks a criminal and civil law. However, this is not the nature of this case. No one knows the true heart of Ms. Deen as to what her heartfelt intentions were or if her admission and apologizes were genuine. The truth is we'll most likely never know, this is why justice seeking in this case is a troubled road and one that will leave the justice seekers unsatisfied by anything Ms. Deen says or does.

The connection with Nelson Mandela, who has been hospitalized in failing health, to Ms. Deen's story is that when Mr. Mandela came to power after the apartheid was dismantled he did not seek to destroy the former ruling white minority, he sought to incorporated them into the nation as they were. The world justice says that we must destroy our enemy, pay back what they paid us, but Mr. Mandela knew what the world does not know today, that this justice is a losing proposition.

The power of Mr. Mandela's type of justice in the early days of the new South African nation is portrayed in the 2009 movie Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Invictus is about the South African national rugby team and its competition in the 1995 rugby world cup which were held in South Africa.  Mr. Mandela infused black players with the traditional all-white team, called the Springboks, together into a unified team, as well as his security detail which was a secondary story to the rugby team. In the movie there were those who wanted the white minority to have nothing to do with the new government and nation including fielding a mixed race rugby team. Mr. Mandela knew that the only way to move the nation forward was to allow through forgiveness, even when not asked for or spoken, to prevail. The nation would not come together and survive if justice and restitution required destroying the white minority while trying to establish a truly democratic nation. Mr. Mandela was a wise man, while I do not know every story regarding Mr. Mandela and South Africa I'm sure it has not been without its issues nor has it melded together as a nation without racial strife, but the man that was portrayed in this movie was someone who understood that nothing but forgiveness could fix the injustices of the past. Mr. Mandela did not have to speak it or ask for it, he just acted on it.

As to God, Jesus said the 2nd most important commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself, even the neighbor (and who is your neighbor?)  who hates you and to pray for your enemy. I think that Nelson Mandela is more like Jesus than the justice seekers on Ms. Deen. He treated those who wanted to destroy him in the past as his neighbor in the present despite what the world said was just.

What we need today are the Nelson Mandela's, Martin Luther King's and Abraham Lincoln's of the world who understand that destroying one for their past indiscretion is a losing proposition, unconditional forgiveness is the only path to real justice.