What Makes a Hero?

The other day I was sorting through boxes of my things we finally removed from my parents' house and found a picture of me and my first boyfriend. I was surprised, as I thought I only had one picture of us. Now I have two. I'm not making a statement about my former boyfriend here (he was a good guy and I wish him well wherever he is today), but I am making a comment about the fact that not having taken a lot of pictures is pretty much the norm for my life. I just want you to know that at least I'm consistent in one thing.

And don't expect pics in this blog post, either, which is going to be somewhat controversial.

I was thinking about what makes a hero and why we choose to nearly worship some people. That line of thought was triggered by Nelson Mandela's death this week, and as I read the tributes to him from many of my Facebook friends, I was struck by how we can attribute to simple humans so many amazing and nearly godlike qualities of goodness.

The truth is that Nelson Mandela was an avowed Communist terrorist before he was jailed, and he was ready to come out of jail and strike with terror once again until he realized the world had changed in his favor. His 1960s group, the ANC, was one of several groups seeking change in South Africa--and rightly so! But the MK, of which Mandela was an enthusiastic member, and which was the guerrilla force of the Communist-based African National Congress (ANC), was the most ruthless of all the groups seeking change, and they had no compunction about taking the lives of as many of their fellow countrymen, black or white, as was necessary. They killed dozens of men and women (and wounded many more), including black leaders who refused to acquiesce to the ANC's particular brand of change. They would tie the offending black leader to a post, hang a tire around his neck, fill the tire with gasoline, and then light it on fire. It was called "necklacing," and Mandela's wife, Winnie, was right there, involved in the action. These are not the actions of peaceful, peace-loving men and women.

Mandela was offered release from jail in 1985 (he was jailed in 1963 after a raid of an MK farm, where he was posing as a farmhand) if he repudiated terrorism. He refused. He was finally released in 1990, much to his surprise, and he vowed to continue the fight MK had started 30 years before. Except now the government was ready to change, and suddenly Mandela was a hero. He even managed to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 and get lauded by Queen Elizabeth in 1996 for being a hero.

So did he do good in his life? Probably. Did he do nasty things as well? Absolutely. Are all heroes a mixture of good and bad? There is no question about it.

I'm not saying we shouldn't honor and respect people for the good choices they make. Indeed, Christlike behavior should always be vaunted as the ideal, as there will never be peace in this world until we all, collectively, submit ourselves to the will of our Heavenly Father, who would teach us to love one another. But I am always suspicious when one particular person or other is raised on the pedestal, who to popular sentiment and the applauding fans has no faults, and who seems to have been born from another, better universe.

So the question is this: is it necessary to remember the evil and darkness in a person while honoring the good? Is it harmless to gloss over acts of terrorism and murder in order to believe in something good, in something better than the ordinary stew of humanity? Is it bad to worship a hero who is not perfect?

I guess the answer depends on each person's personal definition of "worship." I cannot worship or even greatly admire Nelson Mandela. He is complicit to many murders and much pain. By his own mouth, he vowed to be complicit in future murders if it was necessary to forward his cause. I cannot honor those who feel that murder is an acceptable political statement. I do honor peace, love, and voluntary unity between people.

I believe it is dangerous to forget the true nature of our human heroes, to re-write history in order to satisfy our love of a happy ending and a prince riding grandly on his noble steed into the beautiful sunset. We must endure the pain of accepting a hero's faults and sins as a reminder that none of us is without blemish and that all of us desperately need the atonement of Jesus Christ. I expect many things will be named after Mandela--streets and buildings and parks and newborn children--and hopefully the thing that will be remembered and respected is the good (whether imaginary or real) that he did. Hopefully, the world will be a better place even if the story of a hero is based on a deliberate erasing of his horrible actions in the past, a fairytale. I think most people genuinely do want to be good and to lighten the burden of all humanity in some small way.

The only person I worship who ever lived on this earth is Jesus Christ. He is beyond reproach. He is perfect. I can set him as my example and never be disappointed. I pray that I can use the atonement to erase my own sins and flaws while I continuously try to be better and more loving. I do love and respect ordinary humans in this world who try to do good, and I also accept that none of us is without flaws. But my only real hero is my Savior.