Since I began my practice of Forgiveness Therapy, it’s now instinctual for me to choose to eat like I love myself – instead of eating like I wanted to punish myself. Plus I’ve not only lost weight, I’ve lost the anger and anxiety I was feeling, and so I feel happier and calmer within.
Eid is here! On the first day, it is a custom for all Malaysian Muslims to ask for forgiveness from our parents. We kiss their hands and wish them ‘Selamat Hari Raya’ or ‘Eid Mubarak.’ ‘Maaf Zahir dan Batin’ means ‘to apologize in spirit and actions.’
Forgiveness became a big part of the civil rights movement, juxtaposed against the violence of protesters and law enforcement. King described forgiveness in one of his early sermons as a pardon, a process of life, and the Christian weapon of social redemption.
I would say that playing this character has caused me to think about a lot of things. He’s always questioning himself and trying to get back to something he lost touch with and trying to find forgiveness. Everybody struggles with these things to some extent in their life.
Christians – whether as a priest, a nun, a minister, whatever – have just been stereotyped to death. You try to be a model of kindness and love and forgiveness to all those around you, because you have received kindness and love and forgiveness from God through Christ. That’s what Christianity is.
I’m not trying to convert the entire nation of Israel and the entire nation of Palestine to Christianity. But at least if you can educate them about the ideology of love, the ideology of forgiveness, the ideology of grace. Those principles are great regardless, but we can’t deny they came from Christianity as well.
The gospel of Jesus Christ encompasses much more than avoiding, overcoming, and being cleansed from sin and the bad influences in our lives; it also essentially entails doing good, being good, and becoming better. Repenting of our sins and seeking forgiveness are spiritually necessary, and we must always do so.
One of the things that Dostoevsky talks about is that no character is too high to fall and no character is too low to be redeemed. ‘Crime and Punishment’ began with a person going out and consciously becoming a cold-blooded murderer, and it took 800 pages and an epilogue before the person finally asked for forgiveness.
Not only were the Jewish people beloved, but God himself had taken pains to let them know it. Could there be any clearer sign that he continued to believe in their potential, even without the Temple, to achieve forgiveness and ultimately merit the Temple’s rebuilding?
9/11 revealed that those about to die do not seem afraid or plead for forgiveness for their sins, if they think about them at all. They all have one thing in mind – those they love – and they all do the same thing: They call them up – spouses, family or friends – to tell them they love them.
As a practicing Catholic all my life, my faith and the church are never far from my mind. The lessons I learned in the church have structured the way I’ve approached my life and my career. They were lessons of grace, kindness, forgiveness, and compassion.
If you look at everything I do – even in ‘Boo!’ there’s a message, and it’s always ‘faith, family, forgiveness.’ That’s the greatest gift that I’ve been given. I can get a message to the very people I grew up with, the millions who love what I do.
As forces of hate in this country and worldwide try to pull Muslims and Christians apart, we are in desperate need of a unifying force that can bridge the widening gap of interfaith misunderstanding and mistrust. That force could be the message of love, peace, and forgiveness taught by Jesus and accepted by followers of both faiths.
Historically, narratives of forgiveness were part of both the anti-slavery movement and the civil rights movement in America. ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ for instance, was based loosely on the life of the Rev. Josiah Henson, who forgave his master that wanted to sell him and beat him after Henson begged him not to.
The mere acknowledgment that ‘God is watching’ can act as a trap, fueling bad behavior, corruption, and guilt, all remedied by God’s forgiveness. No personal responsibility is needed – someone on the outside sees whatever we’re doing and makes it all OK.
If I get to the end of my life, if I die, and I find out religion is one big lie, I still won’t regret it because it’s helped me to live a better life, to be a better person, to care about people, to believe in forgiveness, to believe in hope.
For the support and help from the people of Indonesia that I received during my leadership, I ask for forgiveness if there have been any mistakes or shortcomings. Hopefully the people of Indonesia will remain victorious based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution.
I’m a believer in forgiveness. I have worked with people who have been in gangs and now dedicate their lives to helping inner city kids. I’ve run offender services with teachings of responsibility, empathy and understanding of the victims at their heart. I’ve seen people change.
I’ve learned powerful lessons about the nature of forgiveness from human rights defenders. For example, for the greater good of his country, Kofi Woods emerged from a torture chamber in Liberia to later defend the very men who had brutalized him.
All I could do was try to build a new life and find a way somehow to repair some of the damage. People had every reason to doubt my sincerity, but most of them didn’t. And – given my history, it was more than I could’ve hoped for – forgiveness and the benefit of the doubt. It still amazes me.
I do not shy away from accepting that I had a troubled past, but in the journey of coming out of that dark phase, I understand humans better. I am less judgmental and more compassionate. I learned empathy and forgiveness, and that gives me confidence as a person.
In reality, student loan forgiveness is welfare for the rich: a federal mandate that people who will make less money on average over the course of their lives bail out people who will make more money on average over the course of their lives.
