2025: The 30th Anniversary of the First-Ever National Conference on Person-to-Person Forgiveness Ever Held at a University
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My, how time flies. It now has been 30 years since the National Conference on Forgiveness, held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, March/April, 1995. This was the first conference on the topic of person-to-person forgiveness held on a university campus. This shows you how rare the discussion of forgiveness has been within humanity ever since its clear emergence as vital in Genesis, Chapters 37-45, in which Joseph forgave his 10 half-brothers for attempted murder and then selling him into slavery in Egypt. There are debates regarding the date of Genesis’s composition, but it appears to have been written approximately 3,000 years ago.
Think about that for a moment. History has shown us how important it is to forgive each other, and yet it took until 1995 for the first national conference on person-to-person forgiveness to emerge (unless I somehow missed such a newsworthy event from the past). That conference was filled with pioneers on the theme of people forgiving each other. For example, Desmond Tutu gave the opening remarks through an audio-recorded talk. Marietta Jaeger, a hero who forgave the murderer of her daughter, Suzy, showed us that it is possible to forgive what some might consider unforgivable. Paul Coleman and Richard Fitzgibbons, both therapists who introduced the idea of forgiveness therapy within the helping professions, offered their insights. Joanna North and Keith Yandell, both first-class philosophers, reflected on the meaning of interpersonal forgiveness. Suzanne Freedman and Julio Rique Neto, both early social scientific researchers on forgiveness, shared their views.
The conference was video-recorded, and the presentations were turned into 12 chapters for the edited book, Exploring Forgiveness, published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 1998. Some quotations from that book are as follows:
“Without forgiveness there is no future.”
(Rev. Desmond Tutu, Foreword, Exploring Forgiveness, p. xiii)
“Hatred eats away at our well-being.”
(Rev. Desmond Tutu, Foreword, Exploring Forgiveness, p. xiii)
“Forgiveness is hard work. It demands diligent self-discipline, constant corralling of our basest instincts, custody of the tongue, and a steadfast refusal not to get caught up in the mean-spiritedness of our times.”
(Marietta Jaeger, Exploring Forgiveness, p. 12)
“However justified, our unforgiveness undoes us.”
(Marietta Jaeger, Exploring Forgiveness, p. 14)
“. . . anger can be displaced for many years and erupt decades later in loving relationships with significant others. It will not be fully resolved until a conscious decision is made to let go of the desire for revenge and to forgive.”
(Richard Fitzgibbons, Exploring Forgiveness, p. 64)
“Restoring affection and regard, overcoming estrangements and alienation, accepting and welcoming others: these are the values which we should endeavor to realize in our dealings with one another.”
(Joanna North, Exploring Forgiveness, p. 34)
“So people learn to forgive, or they wither as persons . .”
(Keith Yandell, Exploring Forgiveness, p. 45)
“Forgiveness is a gift to others, not just to self.”
(Robert Enright, Suzanne Freedman, and Julio Rique, Exploring Forgiveness, p. 48)
“To forgive means to begin seeing the other in a new way, as a member of the human community rather than as evil incarnate.”
(Robert Enright, Suzanne Freedman, and Julio Rique, Exploring Forgiveness, p. 50)
It seems to me that it is well past the time to intensify the importance and practice of forgiving in our families, local communities, schools, and between communities in conflict. Do you think the peace movement would have a deeper impact if forgiveness, properly understood and practiced, became a characteristic part of peace-building? We have waited too long. Let us redeem the time by putting forgiveness right in the center of interpersonal interactions so that it can be applied forthrightly whenever conflicts seem to be heating up to such a degree as to be harmful. Forgiveness, then, practiced in such contexts could lower the interpersonal temperature and protect individuals, relationships, and communities.
