Unraveling Secrets: Benjamin Hale on the Mysterious Disappearance That Haunts the Ozarks
One of the dominant cultural currents of these recent horrible years has been a childish, nasty obsession with vengeance and punishment for supposed moral transgressions great and small. I am not a Christian, but the Christian value I most admire is mercy. Many years ago, I read a story about some idiot teenage boys who were chucking cinderblocks off a highway overpass for no fucking reason, and one of them happened to hit a Catholic priest, who was severely injured, suffered major brain damage and had to have many surgeries; and he forgave them. I don’t know if I would do that, but I admire it immensely; the story stuck with me, moved me profoundly, perhaps came closer than anything else to making me want to be a Christian. Have mercy.
