Casey Anthony: What Now?

I find myself growing tired of all the venom and hatefulness being poured out on Casey Anthony. We have a court system in this country that concludes a person to be “innocent until proven guilty.” The operational term here is “proven” and a jury of twelve of Casey Anthony’s peers decided that the prosecution did not prove that “beyond reasonable doubt,” which is the factor which we demand prosecutors to achieve. They did not. Case closed. The matter is over.

But, to many people, people who have been whipped into a “mob frenzy” by a media seeking to achieve a level of excitement that increases ratings, this is not the case. Casey’s prosecution is far from over. The case is being tried and retried in the court of public opinion, an opinion shaped by biased media commentators, and an opinion which has no room for grace.

Unfortunately, the most vicious attacks against Casey have come from Christians, many of them my friends. Of course, that might not apply after I publish this article. It seems ironic that the ones who should understand grace the most are the ones that are the least willing to administer grace to Casey. Did she kill her daughter? I have no idea. I wasn’t there. Neither, by the way, were you, the ones most vocal about what Casey’s fate in eternity should be.

Shouldn’t we be leaving that decision up to God? Shouldn’t we, the ones who needed grace the most, be administering grace to Casey and praying for her to embrace God and the Savior? Jesus admonished us that we would not receive forgiveness if we could not administer forgiveness. In fact, he gave us an example of a man who was forgiven much, then refused to forgive another for the pittance owed him. Funny, it was the steward that was cast down, not the one who owed the debt…he had asked for forgiveness and none was given…not by man, anyway.

Jesus also told us that as long as we had any…ANY…unforgiveness in our hearts, not to even bring an offering of any kind to God. It would not be blessed. That bothers me enough to remember to forgive…unconditionally…so I will continue to be blessed. Forgiveness begins restoration, and restoration is the purpose of the Gospel. Hatefulness and condemnation is not. It doesn’t matter what Casey Anthony did or did not do…it’s not our place to judge…nor hate. Jesus said that what we mete out to others, the same shall be mete to us. I’d think about that before I spent any more breath excoriating Casey Anthony.