T.D. Jakes Talks Forgiveness in Trayvon Martin Case

Bishop T.D. Jakes’ new book may have come out at just the right time—a time when the nation has been rocked by the untimely death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla.

Seventeen-year-old Martin died on Feb. 26 at the hand of George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old who claimed self-defense. Martin’s death has rallied the multicultural masses to demand justice.

Jakes was on MSN’s Jansing & Co. show to discuss the Martin case and forgiveness, the topic of his new book Let it Go. On the show, Chris Jansing, the host of Jansing & Co., asked the Dallas megachurch pastor if he agrees with Sybrina Fulton, Martin’s mother, that the police and the media are trying to kill her son’s reputation by calling him a hoodlum.

“I think we’re really trying to gather all the facts. I think it’s prudent upon us that we do that. Had we not applied the pressure that we did, I’m not sure that those facts would have come out as succinctly as they are coming out now,” Jakes told Jansing.

“Every parent has teenagers who go through adolescence but you don’t want your children to be profiled. And we want to make sure that is not the case, I’m not saying that it is but we need to make sure that that is not the case and that justice is not misappropriated.”

Jakes did question, however, why Zimmerman has not been arrested.

“I think that if the shoe were on the other foot—had it been Trayvon who had killed some other child in some other situation—then he would have been arrested,” Jakes argued.

Jakes also appeared on Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien on CNN. He told O’Brien that forgiveness is connected with personal healing rather than exonerating the perpetrator.

“Forgiveness says I’m not going to allow myself, 10 years from now, to still be sitting on the side of the bed seething in anger at the individual,” Jakes said. “That I have to find a way to move forward, and that I unhitch myself from this incident and move on with my life.”