My prayer is that Jonathan Bowling and Ashley Foster will come to understand and experience the love and kindness of the God who made them in his own image and that God’s great mercy will inspire both of them to true repentance.
So came the courageous words of Mrs Maureen Greaves on the day her husband's killers were found guilty of murder.
An act of undeserved compassion. A sentence brimming with grace and hope. A sentiment silenced by the British media.
It's true that all reports in the press be they articles or TV interviews have to be edited. There simply isn't time to include every word uttered by every witness, relative or investigating officer. But in recent years - maybe recent decades - there has been a distinct tendency for the editor's knife to fall too easily on any sentence that contains the word, "God". It's almost a default position - the Lord has to go!
As far as I'm aware, no-one has ever officially articulated why. Is it fear of causing offense to non-Christians? Is it because references to a deity are seen as irrelevant in the 21st century? Is it a concerted attempt to progress an atheistic agenda? Is it just un-thought-through habit ... tradition that no-one actually tries to defend? Possibly!
But more than anything it is an outworking of the darkened human heart which loves to suppress the knowledge of God and avoid glorifying him or giving him thanks (Romans 1:18-23). And as such, these omissions in the secular press should never surprise us.
Our response as Christians? Mrs Greaves has it right. Prayer is the key. We should be praying alongside her that the people who so cruelly took her husband's life will indeed come to understand and experience the love and kindness of the God who made them in his image and that God's great mercy will inspire them to repentance. And we should be praying the same for the journalists too...
