It only takes a brief overview of stories in today’s media outlets to witness the vitriolic culture wars between the various factions of Western society. Groups claim injustice, racism, hatred, violation of rights, infringement upon liberty, descrimination, and more. No doubt the media foments this anger by focusing on the plight of angry people in order to create news and cultivate emotions universally in order to sell news. To be sure, an inspiring story where a kind human being lends a helping hand to another is too boring to write about. The media takes delight in bad news, violence and bigotry, to sell its information. Its really about money. Good news does not sell. From the family, to the neighbourhood, to the town or city, to the province or state and to the nation as a whole, I ask, “whatever happened to foregiveness?” In most of the world’s religions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahá’í Faith, Buddhism, Hindu Dharma and Jainism forgiveness is highly valued. In Christianity, of course, the practice of forgiveness is central to the whole Christian faith. But I do not want to discuss forgiveness here in relation to religion. I mention it merely to point out its universal application to moral character worldwide. Rather, I want to discuss the possibilities that forgiving brings if we put it into action. Within the family, I wonder if people were to put into practice the power of forgiveness, would there be as many divorces? In the neighbourhood, I am curious if there would be as many crimes committed if people regularly practiced forgiveness. In the province or state, would we find as many scandals, betrayals or abuse of power if we just practiced forgiveness more? For the nation as a whole, I wonder if we would have more peace and prosperity and if we just practiced forgiveness more often. Yes people make mistakes. Offenders need to pay the price and move on to rehabilitation. The persistence of anger in our society, if it continues to flourish, will boil over to destroy us. Right now we witness media outlets and lawyers reaping the rewards of social acrimony. In the meantime, families unite for a while then half of them break up. The gap between rich and poor widens every year, and this trend has been going on for decades. If forgiveness is not implemented as a viable option in jurisprudence, education and eventually into our social norms, anger and hatred will tear apart Western Civilization as we know it. Both Israel and the Roman Empire collapsed under barbaric invasion. But they did not have to look too far to pinpoint the origins of their destruction. One has to only look within and ask, “Am I creating peace or division today?” Lets give our Western traditions and societies a fighting chance and put into practice the power of forgiveness today.
Whatever Happened to Forgiveness?
