Jill Dando's killer must be forgiven, says Sir Cliff

Telegraph
By John Crowley
(Filed: 03/01/2005)

Sir Cliff Richard said yesterday that Jill Dando's murderer was exercising "freedom of choice" when he killed her, and he will be forgiven by God.

The singer, a committed Christian who was a close friend of the Crimewatch presenter, made the comments on ITV1.

Speaking on My Favourite Hymns, Sir Cliff said he would be "obliged" to forgive Barry George, 44, who is serving a life sentence for shooting Miss Dando, 37, on her doorstep in Fulham, south-west London, in April 1999. "That's because He is an all-forgiving God. That's tough to accept," he said......................

Sir Cliff added: "Part of the perfection of being human is that we have freedom of choice and Jill's killer had the freedom to choose to kill or not to kill. Unfortunately, he exercised his freedom and he killed her."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/03/ncliff03.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/01/03/ixhome.html

As a Christian, I believe that we have an obligation to forgive, if forgiveness is sincerely asked for. But that's personal forgiveness. The state is obligated to protect the innocent and punish murderers.

God gives us free choice, but the right to make the choice doesn't mean that all choices are right, or that there are not consequences, both here and hereafter.

I really hate a distortion like that of the Gospel.

WTF happened to him?

lovehut for free summer holidays.

A recent story in the UK on BBC said the best way to clear a London bar at 2am was to play his "Mistletoe and Wine" Xmas hit single.....this apparently worked better than calling in the cops.