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Murder in Lebanon: Are Falwell and Robertson to blame?
More details are emerging about the death of the American missionary killed in Lebanon yesterday, although such key facts as her actual name are still disputed (some, such as Reuters, say Weatherall; others, like the Associated Press, say Penner. The Oregonian—probably the best source so far—says her name is Bonnie Penner Witherall).

Witherall and her husband, Gary, had been in Lebanon for two years with Operation Mobilization and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. "They were there to help people," OM president Rick Hicks told the Oregonian. "I don't know what the situation was, but it's tragic."

So far, her widower's most extensive interview appears in The Times of London. "God led us to Lebanon and we knew that we might die," Gary Witherall told the paper. "I forgive anyone who did that. It doesn't take the pain. It's a costly forgiveness … it cost my wife. I believe that … Jesus died for us, for our sins, and it was the blood of Bonnie poured over the clinic for the Palestinian women of southern Lebanon. Her brains were blown out, you know. She loved those women."

He says the two of them had a "really lovely marriage," and that his wife "absolutely, absolutely" would have forgiven her killer. "We don't care about the politics,' he said. We just wanted to put our arms around people and say 'Hey, you know what? There's hope'. The people of southern Lebanon are poor and suffering."

Meanwhile, other friends and family members are sharing recent e-mail messages sent from Witherall. "Every morning I take a walk along the boardwalk here in Saida," she wrote Sunday to Bill Perkins, a Portland-area pastor who married the couple. "I was listening to music and walking and singing along to the music. I felt this overwhelming joy in being here in this place. I have such a heart for the women in this camp and I can touch their lives through the clinic."

Portland Police Chief Mark Kroeker, a longtime friend of Witherall's father, Al Penner, also read from a recent letter. Living in the Islamic world was a mental challenge, she wrote. "It is about being prepared to be a living sacrifice daily."

Without exception, people remember her as a giver. "Bonnie always was helping people," Cheryl Newell, Bonnie's 32-year-old sister, told the Oregonian. "She worked with the homeless in Portland when she was in junior high and worked with AIDS patients in Chicago when she was going to college. She always was a compassionate person who believed in what she was doing because she felt that her life was directed by God. Bonnie was selfless."

Newell also told Portland television station KGW that her sister started a prayer group when working as a manager at the local McDonald's. "She believed that in her heart that God wanted her in that place, doing whatever He called her to do and that was basically to share her life with people," she said. "It was hard for her to walk by people who were suffering."

Bonnie's former roommate at Moody Bible Institite, 28-year-old Lori Ross, agrees. Her friend "wouldn't have been any other place," she told the Chicago Tribune. "She was very committed to Christ and wanted to share her love."

But Witheralls had also recently faced tragedy together, as Bonnie miscarried only a few months ago. "It had been a very difficult time for them, but they turned to God to get them through that period," Randy Richards, a member of the missionary board at New Song Community Church, said. "Bonnie said she had been healed of the grief by turning to God."

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November (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46