Is there a Dean Cage within You?

Has forgiveness been done to death as a virtue? Is the elephant in the room the fact that nobody forgives anyone despite biblical admonishments to the contrary? Nobody is a hackneyed term so it has to be used with caution. Perhaps most people don’t know the real meaning of forgiveness nor do they possess the courage and perspective to champion such a characteristic. And can you blame the bulk of humanity for the unwillingness to forgive what with the deception, emotional abuse and blatant treachery that rampantly afflicts. But imagine you lost 14 years of your life because of a mistake and were exonerated when someone who fingered you as “The one who dunnit” realized you didn’t?

One of my main “bruhs” forwarded me an article about one such instance where a man named Dean Cage was mistakenly identified as a rapist of all things. He was identified by a rape victim as the vicious assailant and ultimately sentenced to 40 years in prison. Thanks to the advent of DNA technological advancements in forensic science and multiple appeals, Cage was exonerated and released from prison. Here’s a good stopping point to ask another question. Now What? If I’m asking myself, the answer goes something like, “Make the best of what’s left of my life.” Cage went in at 26 and got out at 40 years of age I believe. A lot happens during those years especially if you had fiancee on the outside which Cage did. So the To Do list on the other side of incarceration follows in numeric order: 1. Find a place to bunk 2. Find a job 3. See if my fiancee is married to someone else 4. Oh…and stew in the venomous cauldron of resentment because I, an innocent man, had my life ruined by a traumatically scarred young woman.

Forgiveness wasn’t on the list and not because of omission. But that’s me talking and not Dean Cage. Cage and Loretta Zilinger who mistakenly identified him have made voluntary contact thanks in part to Dr. Phil (Surprise!). Reluctant at first, the two developed a partnership rooted in forgiveness. Cage wants to help Zilinger find the real guilty party and Zilinger wants to help Cage assist other exonerated men realize forgiveness.

At day’s end, aren’t you curious about the intersection of atrocity and forgiveness? It’s not to say that all heinous obstructions of justice end with reconciliation. But like my dude Alex said on the phone last night, “What would the world be like without forgiveness?” No one moving on, no one not faulting entire ethnic groups for the mistakes of a few individuals, no one doing business with a company because it refused to serve African Americans two generations earlier, etc.  Forgiveness is as much about functional interdependence as it is a symbol of gratefulness to a forgiving God. So here’s a question for those of us unable to let go of past wounds. And it is merely a question. Would the world cease to work without forgiveness?

The Story: “Exonerated man, accuser forge rare bond.”