I was particularly moved by two articles in Saturday’s Globe and Mail. They both caught my attention as examples of what faith can do to and for people. One was, for me, a wonderful example of what it means to walk with Jesus as a model in your life. The other was, in my view, an example of how people can be led astray by misplaced faith and what happens when you ignore the teachings of Jesus.
The first article was an obituary for Clifford Raymond Derksen. Mr. Derksen was a man whose actions stood out to redeem a tragedy and turned it into an example of what it means to be Christ-like. Mr. Dirksen’s daughter, Candace, was murdered by an unknown person in 1984. Two days after Candace’s body was found, Clifford Derksen, with his wife, Wilma at his side, held a press conference in which he expressed forgiveness and compassion for the unknown person who had murdered their daughter.
Unfortunately, this action, based on their understanding of the example of Jesus Christ who forgave those who crucified him, was not met with approval and support. It was met with suspicion and disbelief. Clifford Derksen did not fit the model of the grieving father and he was subjected to other people’s suspicion of his actions, which lingered despite proof that he could not be the perpetrator of the horrible crime.
This example of forgiveness is, unfortunately, unimaginable for most people. I have serious doubts that I could follow the example of Clifford Derksen. However, as the article notes quoting writer Malcolm Gladwell:
It's inconceivable that you could forgive in that circumstance until you meet someone who’s done it. So, when you meet someone like that, and you understand that these kinds of inconceivable things can be done by ordinary people, that expands your universe.
Clifford Derksen’s ability to forgive was no easy thing. It was founded in a life which drew on his religious faith as a Mennonite, developing strategies for dealing with his challenges that included memorizing large portions of the Bible. As Dirksen noted,” The thing about forgiveness is you have to go to hard places. You have to be ready to be courageous… I didn’t do this overnight.”
The second article, by Ian Brown, was a follow-up with people involved with the Trucker Convoy, which occupied Ottawa for three weeks earlier this year. One of the people interviewed had a firm belief that, as the article stated, “the convoy wasn’t just organized, it was ordained. An Almighty presence was there all along.”
The Trucker Convoy, in my view, seemed to be a conglomerate of many different groups and individuals protesting many things which included anti-government action and inaction, conspiracy theorists, and libertarian beliefs. However, it came down to two basic things as the article points out: first, the end to all pandemic restrictions and second, the dissolution of the Federal Government.
However, I believe that the majority of people were there to protest mask and vaccine mandates as an infringement on their freedoms, not to dissolve the government.
Luke Kendze, one of the subjects of the article, said that the Convoy was ordained by God. I disagree with this assertion. He based this on the facts that all their needs were almost miraculously supplied and everything appeared like manna from heaven (my categorization). In addition, there were no fatalities during the trip to Ottawa. As Kendze stated, “We should have had a fatality along the way…Bit it was unbelievable, a divine movement, by design, not by accident.”
This conclusion is flawed in my assessment. Kendze, a Christian, cannot base his anti-mask and vaccine position, on a divine foundation. Jesus’s great commandment was to love one another. If you believe that your actions are Christian when they put yourself and others at risk in the middle of a pandemic, which killed may millions of people world-wide, that is not following Jesus Christ. It is mistaken that he concluded that what happened was proof that God had ordained his actions and those of the thousands of people who descended on Ottawa and deprived its residents of their freedoms.
There was support for the actions of the Trucker’s Convoy, but it was support based on populism and not from a divine source. I realize that my attitude towards the people in the Convoy is unforgiving and I do wish I was able to be more like that of Jesus and Clifford Derksen in this but I am not there yet.
I hope and pray that we may find forgiveness for ourselves and others on our journey.