Love the sinner?

June 15, 2:36 PMSacramento Spirituality ExaminerSteve Curless

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"Are some crimes so appalling that their perpetrators should never walk free again?" (David Frost)

Do you believe that someone who has participated in the serial sexual abuse and murder of children should ever be forgiven and can ever be reformed and redeemed or even deserves to be? These are key questions posed by the 2006 HBO film 'Longford.'

In 1966, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were put on spectacular trial in England for the grisly, sex-related murders of three children. They were convicted and given life terms. The British public hated and reviled them, but high-ranking British politician Lord Longford was a champion of prisoners' rights to humane treatment and rehabilitation, and he spent decades trying to free Hindley from prison.

'Longford' is a dramatized version of Lord Longford's efforts beginning with his initial meeting with Hindley at her request and progressing through his growing affection and regard for her as an intelligent and contrite young woman with the capacity for reform, to his skepticism about the sincerity of her contrition and religious conversion, to his great disappointment with her, to their final reconciliation.

The film portrays Lord Longford as a benevolent Christian man with abiding faith in the redemptive capacity of the human soul touched by God's forgiving grace to reform and transform human character. He faces much scorn and derison from the British public for this belief and his tireless work to help prisoners such as Mura Hindley, and he eventually even loses his seat in the House of Lords for his politically unpopular efforts. Even his wife, the rest of his family, and his friends can't understand why he cares so much about criminals such as the widely hated Lindley, and they try to discourage him. But he will not be deterred.

'Longford' is an outstanding film that raises vexing questions about forgiveness and redemption. Perhaps even more importantly, it compels the viewer to consider just how far someone should take his or her religious convictions. It seems that many if not most religious people are quite selective about which principles of their religious faith they espouse, or they espouse principles that they don't actually live up to, especially if it's not socially or otherwise expedient to do so.

But if, for example, one is Christian and believes that virtually any human being can, with God's grace, be redeemed, how far should one be willing to go to reach out to even the most detested members of society? And when does one cross the line from being admirably principled to being foolishly gullible, naiive, and vulnerable to nefarious manipulation? 'Longford' masterfully raises these and many other questions. It is a film that should not be missed by any religiously or spiritually minded person.