#3 - Forgiveness: Turning Genocide into Unity
“If you really knew me and knew yourself, then you wouldn’t have killed me.”
As I walked through the Rwandan Genocide Museum near Kigali, this quote shook me. In just 100 days in 1994, extremist Hutus orchestrated the mass killing of around 800,000 Tutsis. These weren’t just soldiers doing the killing—these were neighbors, classmates, doctors, and friends turning on one another with machetes, rocks, and anything they could find. It was unthinkable.
But the horror didn’t happen overnight—it grew slowly, through decades of division, false narratives, and the subtle belief that someone different was someone dangerous. The media planted lies that the enemy was their neighbor. Over time, people stopped seeing what united them and focused only on their differences—ethnicity, wealth, beliefs, appearance. As one genocide survivor said, “We all have love and hatred in our hearts. The one that you cultivate is the one that grows.” Walking through those halls, I couldn’t help but shiver at the uncomfortable familiarity of how it all began. It made me reflect: How often do we let political or social differences define the way we treat others? How often do we seek to win an argument rather than to understand?
What struck me most though wasn’t just the violence—it was the forgiveness that followed. President Kagame, though not perfect, chose to seek forgiveness instead of revenge. Even though it was his tribe that was massacred, when he gained power, warned his soldiers that any acts of retaliation would be severely punished. In the face of unimaginable hate, Rwanda responded with love, forgiveness, justice, and reconciliation. And only through the grace of God—Rwanda has become a symbol of unity and hope. The Apostle Paul writes, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Jesus didn’t wait for us to love him back; he loved us first. It was this love that Rwanda knew and that Rwanda displayed. It was this love that ended the killing and led to healing.
Ask a Rwandan today if they’re Hutu or Tutsi, and they’ll say, “I am Rwandan.” They are proud—not of erasing the past, but of choosing healing over hatred.
My fellow Christians, my fellow Americans—if Rwanda can forgive after that, can’t we learn to love through our differences? Can’t we choose to listen instead of label, to forgive instead of tear down? Our enemies are not each other. We are not Democrats or Republicans first—we are image-bearers of God, we are Americans, and we are called to something higher. Remember these words: “If you really knew me and knew yourself, then you wouldn’t have killed me.”
“Above all, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect unity.” (Colossians 3:14)
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