When I reflect on the recent passing of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I recall one incident in particular which, for me, testifies to the consistency with which Tutu expressed his moral convictions.  It was during a rather dark period in the history of South Africa, a time when tensions were very high, a time when significant segments of the newly freed Black populace disagreed over the right way forward.

    Part of this conflict involved the killing of those deemed traitors to the cause.  It was a particularly ghastly form of killing, too:  being burned alive.  When various mobs identified a person, always Black, whom they considered to be a traitor, they cornered him, trapping him in a tire, dousing him and the tire with gasoline, and setting him alight.

    When Tutu once came upon a crowd doing this very thing, he immediately pushed his way into the center of the mob and singlehandedly halted the procedure, allowing the "condemned" to live.  It was a singular act of courage.  Yet it expressed who Tutu really was.  He did the same in his leadership of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, granting amnesty and forgiveness to people who confessed their complicity in the atrocities of apartheid.  Above all, he encouraged love, forgiveness, and reconciliation.  Not retribution.

    Tutu understood the deepest heart of God.