Author Archive: directorifi
“Professor Enright, can you help me save my country?”
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dept. of Educational Psychology – It’s not a question university professors typically get asked during office hours: “Can you help me save my country?”
Of course, Robert Enright isn’t exactly typical, himself.
It’s closing in on three decades now that the UW–Madison professor of educational psychology has been pioneering the study of forgiveness by researching how people forgive and examining the benefits this action can have on emotional health.
Over the years, Enright has tested his program on a range of groups — including incest survivors, adult children of alcoholics, and children in classrooms in Milwaukee and Belfast, Northern Ireland — helping them work through the process of how to forgive. And the results have consistently shown improvement in themes such as anger, anxiety, depression and self-esteem.
Aware of Enright’s work, Josiah Cheapoo dropped in on the professor last year during office hours. Rev. Cheapoo, a Madison resident who fled his native homeland of Liberia amid the African nation’s bloody tribal wars a decade ago, sat down and looked Enright in the eye.
“I asked him to help me bring freedom to my country,” says Rev. Cheapoo, who runs Grace Network International, a small non-profit based in Madison. “I asked him to reunite the people to become one so we can rebuild the country and have a lasting peace. I asked him to help save my country.”
Thanks to that conversation, a forgiveness education initiative is launching in Monrovia, Liberia, which still is emerging from horrendous civil war conflicts in which it is estimated more than 200,000 people were killed between 1989 and 2003. The highest levels of the Liberian government and education systems have agreed to Rev. Cheapoo’s pitch for making forgiveness education for children part of the reconstruction effort, with the hopes of breaking the cycle of violence.
“I believe we have the knowledge, curricula and experience to help the Liberian people learn about forgiveness and to help put a stop to further unrest,” says Enright.
Read more: Could power of forgiveness hold key to snapping cycle of violence in Liberia?
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Enright’s Forgiveness Intervention: “The Results Were Glowing”
Here is a brief excerpt from yet another article that features the forgiveness research and philosophy of Dr. Robert Enright, founder of the International Forgiveness Institute. “The Power of Forgiveness” was written by Steven Pomeroy, assistant editor for Real Clear Science, a science news aggregator. This article appeared on August 27, 2013 on BIG THINK–a New York City-based website that bills itself as “a knowledge forum.” The website was voted Time Magazine’s #1 Website for News and Info in 2011.
For most Americans, the Amish way of forgiveness is difficult to comprehend. It’s sourced deeply within their way of life, which is grounded in compassionate, unyielding faith.
“Rather than using religion to bless and legitimize revenge, the Amish believe that God smiles on acts of grace that open doors for reconciliation,” Donald B. Kraybill, a distinguished professor at Elizabethtown College explained in 2007.
But forgiveness is not only grounded in faith, but also in science. In 1996, University of Wisconsin educational psychologist Dr. Robert Enright developed a process model of forgiveness. It can be broken down into four phases: uncovering anger, deciding to forgive, working on forgiveness, and discovery and release from emotional pain.
Dr. Enright tried out his forgiveness training on 12 female incest survivors. Six of the women served as an experimental group, and immediately received Enright’s intervention, which was delivered in a set number of sessions spread over 14 months. The remaining women — serving as controls — were wait-listed and received the intervention only when their counterparts finished.
The results were glowing. Members of the experimental group became significantly more hopeful, and their levels of anxiety and depression decreased dramatically. Fifteen years later, the benefits remained.
A popular view in American society is that forgiveness is weakness. But the conducted science clearly contradicts that pervasive view. Forgiveness makes you stronger.
“[Forgiveness] does not make you weak,” Dr. Enright affirmed to OnWisconsin. “The love you cultivate and develop in your heart is stronger than any injustices anyone can ever throw against you. And once you live that, you realize how very, very strong you can be, because that’s a buffer against all of the poison that unfortunately visits us just by being alive.”
Juveniles Arrested. . . and Forgiven
The Record, Stockton, CA – Jaime Ramirez, a 28-year-old mentally-ill man, was shot to death on Aug.16 when he interrupted a burglary at the home he shared with his parents and other relatives. Police have arrested a 13-year-old boy and two 14-year-old boys on suspicion of homicide in connection with the killing and for allegedly stealing electronic items worth less than $300.
“We don’t have much, and what they stole wasn’t worth my brother’s life,” Beatrice Ramirez said. “But we can’t have hate toward them, because our religion teaches us to forgive. We forgive them. We’ve been praying a lot, and we know a lot of people in the community have been praying for us.”
The victim’s brother, Victor Ramirez, also expressed forgiveness for the killers. He described his brother as “very friendly” but said he suffered from mental illness.
“It’s been difficult, but we’ll get through this,” Beatrice Ramirez said. “We’ll remember the good times and the memories. God decided to take him now, and now he’s somewhere where there’s peace.”
Read the full story: Three young teens arrested in killing; relatives grieve.
Trayvon Martin’s Mother: “God is healing my heart”
Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA – After more than a year on the front page of newspapers and journals with cameras continually in their faces as the murder/manslaughter prosecution wended its way towards an eventual acquittal, Trayvon Martin’s parents are amazing the world with their public grace and forbearance.
“I wouldn’t have applied for this position, but I gracefully accept,” says Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton. “I am going to do the best job I can and try to help other families.
Are there any circumstances under which she could forgive George Zimmerman? “Yes,” she says.
“The spiritual side of me knows that eventually I will have to forgive him so that I don’t block my blessings. I know that. Am I ready to do that now? I am not. That’s something I pray for. I pray for my forgiveness. Because just like I want God to forgive me, I want to forgive others. But, I’m just not at that point right now where I can say that I want to forgive him. God is healing my heart,” she says.
In the meantime, Sybrina says she wants all of us to “remain peaceful.”
Read the full story: “Sybrina Fulton’s Forgiveness”
Minneapolis Mom Forgives Her Son’s Murderer
CBS News/Blueprint for Life website – Mary Johnson, a 59-year-old teacher’s aide was justifiably distraught when her only son, 20-year-old Laramiun Byrd, was shot to death at a party in 1993. The killer was 16-year-old O’Shay Israel.
“I wanted Justice,” Johnson said. “He was an animal. He deserved to be caged.”
And he was. Israel was sentenced to 25 1/2 years in prison. He served 17 years before being released earlier this year. In a strange twist of fate that demonstrates the power of forgiveness, Israel now lives next door to Johnson in a North Minneapolis apartment building–an arrangement set up by Johnson’s appeal to her landlord.
“Unforgiveness is like cancer. It will eat you from the inside out,” says Johnson. “Me forgiving him does not diminish what he has done. Yes, he murdered my son. But the forgiveness is for me. It’s for me.”
Johnson met with Israel several times before he was released from Minnesota’s Stillwater State Prison and eventually forgave him. Now??Israel and Johnson together sing the praises of forgiveness at prisons, churches and before large audiences throughout the Midwest.
Watch the CBS News video: The Power of Forgiveness
