Forgiveness News
President Obama’s Apology Accepted by Afghan President
Alaskadispatch.com. An excellent article in the Alaska Dispatch discusses not only President Obama’s recent apology over the burnings of the Koran at a NATO base in Afghanistan but also reviews some of the incidents of apology by other recent American presidents. It is worthy of note that when two Americans were killed in the recent violence in Afghanistan, “the Afghan defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, called up Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and apologized. It was heartily accepted.”
Asking for Forgiveness: Will Self-Forgiveness Follow?
LivingstonDaily.com. A tearful Corrine Baker asked the judge, who sentenced her to 13-30 years in prison for the second-degree murder of her young son, for forgiveness “for the horrible choices” she made. She lives with the death of her son “every single day.” Full story is here.
German Chancellor Begs Forgiveness
The Telegraph in London reported on Friday, February 24, 2012 that the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, asked forgiveness of families who lost loved ones at the hands of a neo-Nazi group that operated between 2000 and 2007. Merkel asked forgiveness because of police errors, which included false accusations toward family members who lost loved ones to the murders.
Is Government Apology Appropriate?
Irish Central. A prominent BBC presenter, Jeremy Paxman, blasts Tony Blair 15 years after he apologized (in 1997) to the Irish people for the mid-19th century “Potato Famine.” Paxman called the apology, issued about 150 years after the tragedy, “moral vacuousness” because no one presently alive was involved in the massive loss of life in 1847.
The Healing Power of Forgiveness
Rev. Michael Barry, the director of pastoral care at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Philadelphia, says unforgiveness is considered a disease which can affect your health, especially if you’re fighting a long term illness. Once you forgive, Barry adds, you release your burden of hatred and only then can your healing begin. Watch the video.
