Comments on: A Tribute to Nelson Mandela

By: MJ

MJ — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 13:44:11 +0000

Nelson Mandela accomplished great and unimanginable things for his country, but the price was so expensive and he paid it. He did not start out perfectly and his record is not clean, but he stood up and relentlessly worked to see his dream fulfilled. Reading this article and the Mohler article really reminds me of the political situation in Kyiv. People are labelled as terrorists, when what they really are trying to do is make a differenc and future for their country. Uprooting an apartheid seemed impossible, uprooting the deception and injustice leftover from a totalitarian states also seems impossible now. It seems as though the corrumption will never stop. I’m sure that’s how Mandela’s contermpories felt, but a difference was made. It is so true that these great leaders Mendela, Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington, Ataturk, etc. had their faults which are not absoluted by their sucess, but maybe balanced out. It really shows that “no man’s life is herois in every respect, and no human hero can save.” It points us back to JC. I pray for a Ukrainian Mendela, though.

By: Ben Toh

Ben Toh — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 12:45:33 +0000

“In the United States, we speak about the efforts that led to the overthrow of the British colonization as our national revolution, the birth of a nation. The British called it treason. Had the American Revolution turned out differently, George Washington would in all likelihood have been hung as a traitor. He would also have been accused of being what we now call a terrorist. … in the process of politics in a fallen world, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

That honest assessment recognizes that when you look at the process of political change, the kind of change on a scale necessary to overthrow something as powerful as apartheid, it looks in a fallen world as if force, more often than not, becomes necessary. That is lamentable; but we ought to note it honestly. This is a crucial moral factor in our consideration of the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela.

Reinhold Niebuhr’s great theological contribution was to remind us that history reveals the inescapable irony of the human condition. Everything we do is tainted by human sin, and the huge characters who change world events often demonstrate grave moral faults, even as they achieve great moral change. Nelson Mandela was one of those men. He was essential—even indispensable—to his nation and to the eradication of apartheid. But no man’s life is heroic in every respect, and no human hero can save.”

http://www.albertmohler.com/2013/12/07/nelson-mandela-and-the-ironies-of-history/

By: Ben Toh

Ben Toh — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 22:49:33 +0000

Tribute to Mandela: http://vimeo.com/81177062

By: Ben Toh

Ben Toh — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 20:14:39 +0000

That’s nice Brian. I’ve really not been called terrorist…yet. I’ve been called a whole bunch of other things (all of them CUTE!), but not terrorist. I guess I’m still not yet worthy of being called “terrorist”!

By: Brian Karcher

Brian Karcher — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 20:05:21 +0000

Ben, as soon as I read that quote from Mandela, I thought of you and so I added it.

By: Ben Toh

Ben Toh — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 18:57:07 +0000

I guess some UBFers might regard UBFriends as though some people who critique UBF are like terrorists! (rebels, renegades, reprobates, etc): “I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists. I tell them that I was also a terrorist yesterday, but, today, I am admired by the very people who said I was one.”