News
I Forgive My Son’s Killer
NYDailyNews.com. “I forgive my son’s killer,” says Phyllis Ferguson after her son, Demetrius Hewlin, was killed in an Ohio high school. “Until you’ve walked in another person’s shoes, you don’t know what made him come to this point.”
The parents of a teen killed in a shooting at an Ohio high school cafeteria on Monday have forgiven their son’s suspected killer, saying it was “God’s will” that their boy was taken from them in the morning rampage.
Phyllis Ferguson, the mother of Chardon High School shooting victim Demetrius Hewlin, told ABC News that if she had the chance to talk to suspected gunman T.J. Lane, “I would tell him I forgive him because, a lot of times, they don’t know what they’re doing. That’s all I’d say.”
A Healthy and Prosperous Heart: The Power of Forgiveness and Letting Go
Nelson Mandela’s words reveal a powerful truth, “Harboring resentment is like drinking poison, expecting if will kill your enemies.” Ongoing studies show that lack of forgiveness has a negative impact on our bodies, resulting in chronic health problems and diminished quality of life.
Rehashing old hurts, past wrongs, regrets can have a negative and toxic effect on all systems in the body, but particularly the heart. We wear down our cardiovascular system by replaying the toxic tapes and stories from our past, wreaking havoc on ourselves, our bodies, in innumerable ways, increasing our heart rate, blood pressure, while flooding our bodies with stress hormones that linger, creating an unhealthy inner environment of discomfort and disease.
Do yourself a favor. Focus your time and energy on cultivating a practice of forgiveness. Read the full story.
Forgiveness: Finding the Gift in the Wound
Huffington Post. Marina Cantacuzino, founder of The Forgiveness Project in London, reports on a recent talk by Azim Khamisa, a Sufi Muslim from Kenya who lost his son to murder on an American street 17 years ago. His heart-felt sense of forgiveness has led him to speak “in front of a million young people,” as a way to reduce violence and increase forgiveness. According to Khamisa, “I reached the conclusion that there were victims at both ends of the gun.” The full story is here.
Mr. Khamisa’s story also is featured in the award-winning documentary film, The Power of Forgiveness. Watch a short video clip of Dr. Robert Enright, who was also featured in that documentary, talking about justice, forgiveness and mercy.
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.”
Schools Need Forgiveness Education to Combat Bullying
It was reported in the Huffington Post that a student who shot five other students at Chardon High School in Ohio yesterday had been bullied in the past by others. Full story here.
Being bullied, of course, in no way condones murder. At the same time, we need to be more aware of this silent torture that students undergo in being bullied. It is possible that if he could have begun forgiving those who had hurt him, he would not have turned that rage onto others.
The International Forgiveness Institute, Inc. recommends two kinds of forgiveness interventions in schools:
1) For those who have been bullied in schools so that their anger will not turn to rage, depression, or even self-hatred. We were talking with a student from Korea recently and she related to us that there are many suicides in Korea by those who have been bullied in school.
2) For those who bully in school. These students usually have been treated cruelly by others (outside of school or in school) and this is one reason why they bully. If they can forgive those who have been deeply unjust to them, their motivation to bully will reduce or be eliminated.
