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Forgiveness, Terrorism and Christianity

I was just thinking about forgiveness.

According to the Christian teachings, forgiveness is a very noble virtue. Jesus was quoted as saying that if someone hurts us we are supposed to forgive him "seven times seven times".

I wonder how the world would be different now if the leaders in the USA had shown forgiveness after September 11th.

To do this though, they would have to know who to forgive.

So it makes sense they would be interested in who organized the delivery of the message. I say the "delivery of the message" because I think it is a much more productive way of describing what happened than calling it an "attack" or an "act of war." Sadly, most Americans, especially not the political and military leaders (though I hate to even call them "leaders") did not understand that someone was trying to send a message. Nor did they try to understand the message. As a result, they did not learn much from the experience. So they could not lead the country, and the world, in a healthy direction.

Perhaps it is more accurate to say that what happened was an attempt to deliver a message. The method used was not particulary effective or successful, so I feel more comfortable saying that it was an "attempt to deliver" rather than a "delivery."

So, after this attempt to deliver a message was made, I myself was curious about who was behind it and why they felt so strongly. In my curiousity to know who was behind it I shared some feelings in common with many other people. But I wanted to know who was responsible for much different reasons. I didn't want to kill them or punish them. I wanted to hear what they had to say. I wanted to learn from them.

I can't really say that I wanted to forgive them, but if I were a "good Christian", maybe I would have also wanted to forgive them. Still, to forgive them, it would help to know who it was that I was forgiving.

I can't say that I totally agree with Professor Christ about how many times we should forgive someone. (I prefer to call him "Professor" since to me he was basically a forward-thinking teacher of advanced knowledge.) And I am not sure exactly what he would propose that we do with or to a person once we have forgiven them. Do we forgive them and then let them kill more people 48 more times? I don't think that would be in the best interest of humanity. But in principle I do like the idea of forgiveness. I have been thinking about it on a personal level recently. There are people who I would like to forgive in my heart and there are also things that I would like to, and in fact need to, forgive myself for. I think I can forgive myself easier than I can forgive others. This is a bit ironic because I used to be so hard on myself and very un-self-forgiving (a new word for my list!). Now though, I can forgive myself much more quickly because I understand why I do things and what my needs are, and why they are as yet unmet. At least I am much closer to this understanding.

To me, understanding is extremely important. If we understand someone, whether ourselves or others, it is easier to forgive them. And it is easier to help them identify their needs and help them find healthier, less hurtful, violent or destructive ways of trying to meet them. I just did a little writing about this idea on a page where I was jotting down some notes about the "ideal school".

If we would start looking at things this way, we might stop calling people terrorists and trying to kill them and punish them in other ways. We might try to understand them, learn from them, forgive them and then help them find other ways to meet their needs.

Related to forgiving is the idea that we might also apologize. We might look for ways in which we contributed to the feelings which lead to the acts which we are tempted to call "acts of terrorism." If we looked for these ways, I am sure we could find some. I am sure we could see some ways that we were responsible. I am sure that we could find some ways that we caused these "terrorists" some type of pain, either physical or psychological. If we took some responsibility for this, it might humble us and help us see that we are not perfect and we have no right to be self-righteous or try so hard to "bring the terrorists to justice."

Justice in this sense means punishment, of course. Interestingly, no where in the "justice" system, is there any allowance for either forgiveness, apolgies or for the "prosecutiors" taking any responsibility for contributing to the "crime" which the "defendants" are accused of.

I think Professor Christ was on the right track when he talked about forgiveness. I think he was on the right track when he tried to bring a message of love and a reduction of fear to the world. But I believe we need to take this further. Unfortunately it seems we are, instead, moving backwards to the kind of thinking which was prevalent when the "Old Testament" was taught as the "divine" word of a supernatual being called "God." It is hard for me not to criticize the authors of this very old book. When I look at the death and destruction that it has brought to the world and continues to bring in the area where its primary followers have gathered, I have to think that we could find a much better book with which to raise the future generations.

Yes, I believe Professor Christ was on the right track. I would like to see more of those people who call themselves "Christians" practice what he was preaching, and even take it to a higher level. This higher level, I believe, is looking for ways you are responsible for contributing to the very thing which you are forgiving the other person for. Then once those are found, offering apologies yourself. In my experience, when one person apologizes, the other often follows. I wonder now if it might be possible that when the more powerful person apologizes first, the less powerful person is even more likely to apologize, rather than vice versa. There is something about power and responsibility and influence that I haven't quite worked out yet. But it seems that if someone is more powerful, then they are also more responsible and more influential. Therefore if they want to see more forgiveness and more understanding in the world, they have more power to bring this change about if they are the ones who intiate acts of forgiveness and demonstrations of understanding.

Just a word about "new age" religion. In "new age" religion, there is often no mention of "Hell". To me, this is another step forward. I have felt both encouraged and discouraged by my experiences in Malaysia and Indonesia with regard to the concept of punishment and reward after death. I have felt discouraged that so many people tell me they believe in heaven and hell, (probably around 98% of those I have questioned) yet I have felt encouraged that there are still a few who either believe in neither or only believe in heaven. Interestingly, I have never met anyone who only believes in hell!

As I think about it now, one of the many things which doesn't make sense to me about the Christian belief system is that if Professor Christ really wanted us to forgive people, then why would there still be a major punishment threat ("Hell") as a basic part of the whole system?

Maybe Professor Christ didn't really believe it would be possible to educate people enough so they would stop hurting themselves and others. Maybe he thought we had to try to frighten them into behaving in "humane" ways. Maybe he was correct in this belief. Or maybe we just haven't tried hard enough.

Or, maybe we are teaching the wrong things. That is my best guess -- because I still believe in people. I still believe in children.

In fact, when people ask me if I believe in "God," I sometimes say, "I believe in children." Speaking of children, they are very quick to forgive. So maybe the long-haired professor was right on track again when he urged us to become more like children.

S. Hein
Perth, Australia
Nov. 2003

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