Great to hear that the Express and Star have published front page apologies today to Gerry & Kate McCann for a series of scandalous and malicious articles over the last year. The public crucifixion of the McCanns by sections of the media is hopefully over.
The temptation is to gloat, that they had it coming, that this humiliation is a suitable punishment for a couple of the nastier feral beasts. I would love to.
But Jesus prays for those who crucify him that God would forgive them. The Romans offered no front page apology, but Jesus wanted them forgiven anyway, and given the chance to repent and find new life. Whether the Express and Star are sincere or not, Jesus would not gloat over their climbdown, he would forgive. Hard though it is, I have to try to be like him.
Question - and I'm not asking this to annoy, as I am occasionally known to do elsewhere in the blogosphere - do you feel that the McCanns bear no culpability for what happened (whatever did happen) in they left a four-year-old and two two year olds completely unsupervised while they and their friends dined at a nearby restaurant - something one gathers they did on a regular basis? In South Carolina, where I live - a State which is not, to put it mildly, famous for social activist legislation - this would be child abuse and would almost certainly be acted upon accordingly. I imagine that had the incident occurred in the UK rather than Portugal, similar rules would apply.
ReplyDeleteI certainly wouldn't have done what they did - we have a couple of young kids too, and would make sure that there was at least an audible baby monitor. It sounds like they were checked on regularly, and that the apartment wasn't too far from the restaurant, but they are probably in a minority of parents who'd be happy to do that.
ReplyDeleteHowever, to have a national newspaper suggesting you murdered your own daughter, disposed of the body and then sent everyone else on a wild goose chase is of a completely different order.
I don't imagine a day goes by when the McCanns don't ask themselves your question.
I'm not too sure about the 'child abuse' label - I'd rather that was kept for cases of actual bodily harm, sexual abuse, really severe stuff, rather than borderline babysitting arrangements and the occasional smack. However, our whole society has lost the plot as far as parenting is concerned (just ask any teacher), so we're probably still in the process of working out what is abuse, and what is just stupidity or bad parenting.