Some years ago a minister friend of ours was called to the bedside of a parishioner. When he got to the hospital he was shocked to find the woman writhing in some kind of torment. As soon as they were alone she told him, "I think I've committed an unforgivable sin." Alarmed, he said right back, "There is no unforgivable sin." The tension went out of her and she collapsed in peace. A short time later, our friend heard, she was home.
This is the burden of guilt -- and the power of its resolution. While we may not end up hospitalized over a guilty conscience, we are all burdened to some degree or other by feelings that we have done something seriously wrong, or we live in a society that does. Think of Martin Luther King's lament in his famous Riverside Church sermon against the war in Vietnam that his own nation was "the greatest purveyor of violence" in the world. Consider the ever more appalling number of military personnel who are taking their own lives because, as David Swanson recently wrote in War is a Lie, those "who survive war are far more likely now to have been trained and conditioned to do things they cannot live with having done."
When we were invited by Richard Meyer to put together the book that's now called Beyond Forgiveness: Reflections on Atonement, we took to the project out of a conviction that, while we probably had our own problems to deal with, the society we are living in has a large problem of collective guilt, which is probably the biggest obstacle to our correcting course. In this sense, there is nothing more important to explore -- and effectively practice -- than atonement, which is the powerful combination of apology and making amends for the wrongs we've committed. We believed, and now do so even more, that many Americans are penned in by a degree of guilt that, absent any way to atone, leads them into denial and ultimately even the exacerbation of their destructive behaviors. When then-Vice-President George H.W. Bush was asked to comment on the fact that the U.S.S. Vincennes had shot down Iran Air 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 passengers, he famously said, "I don't care what the facts are; I will never apologize for the American people." Presidents with that surname were famous for not caring about facts -- and for carrying on violent policies as a consequence.
No American President, or anyone else for that matter, is going to release us from our collective involvement in these wrongs, the way our minister friend was able to release his parishioner. Rather, what we learned from the many and varied contributors to Beyond Forgiveness -- from legendary religion scholar Huston Smith, philosopher Jacob Needleman, to religious leaders Rabbi Michael Lerner, Rev. Heng Sure and Michael Bernard Beckwith, to activists Azim Khamisa and Diane Hennacy Powell -- that for atonement to happen we need to acknowledge that we have done something wrong, even if indirectly, and, more importantly, we need to get involved in some kind of concrete restitution. In this sense, atonement makes possible what Gurdjieff called "repairing the past" and in turn makes possible a much more enduring reconciliation. As the Vietnamese monks often tell returning U.S. soldiers who want to own and transcend their guilt for what they did in that country, "Change your karma through compassionate action." And compassion -- for both victims and perpetrators -- is at the very heart of atonement.
What does this mean for most of us, who have not fought wars or been "economic hit men" wreaking destruction in some less favored land? We think it means reach out to anyone. Preferably someone we've hurt; if not that, someone like or connected with such a person (the way soldiers who revisit Vietnam with Ed Tick and Kate Dahlstedt at Soldier's Heart set up schools or clinics); if not that, anyone. Make the world a better place -- which it then becomes for ourselves, of course, as well. It also means that we look at the revolutionary changes that are occurring across North Africa and in the Mideast in the light of collective responsibility. The cries from the streets in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are cries not only for change but for recognition of pain, as well as offers to "heal the past, make amends, and restore balance," as we say on our book cover.
Martin Luther King Jr. evidently paid the ultimate price for attempting to expose his country's destructiveness (and Private First Class Manning is at this point not far behind). We have neither the need nor the privilege of going this far. Turning away from our culture of vengeance and the vulgarity of the nation's popular media, we can and must learn all we can about the viable alternatives of nonviolence and atonement. In this way we can get involved on some project that can bring our family, our neighborhood and maybe the world some peace. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu famously said, there is no future without forgiveness; we might add there is no livable present without the possibility of repairing the past.
Michael Nagler is professor emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at University of California, Berkeley, and is president of the Metta Center for Nonviolence.
Phil Cousineau has written more than 25 books, including 'Beyond Forgiveness: Reflections on Atonement' (Jossey-Bass 2011) and has 15 documentary films, including the Academy Award-nominated Forever Activists.
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush: 'Forgive Us Our Trespasses': The Complexity of Forgiveness
YouTube - Beyond Forgiveness: Reflections on Atonement - Opening ...
Atonement, might be better served to stop the senseless killing of America today. Stop the Injustice of the economy.
Do we take account for the past as preparation or leave it behind?
Should we be bound to history that oftentimes repeats in arising crescendos the cruelties of each regime?
Should we be tethered to history such that we bury our children in it?
Or do we jettison the past in order to renew our commitment to love each other?
Some here will say that jettisoning the past is acting irresponsibly. But other will understand that this new found freedom renders us responsible for each other.
In a certain way guilt doesn't exist. I see it as a sort of fog to create an illusion of something between God and Satan.
It really isn't each other to whom we owe the apologies, for this assumes others are the judges. Ultimately it's ourselves. When we realize something is wrong and correct it what place is there for guilt?
I've had to tackle it one area at a time.
Is it live or is it Memorex? For drones it's all Memorex.
Fear is the beginning of wisdom? (yeah fear your enemies?)
Blessed are the meek(thanks for the land suckers)
blessed are the spiritually poor (not really, but if you say so)
Also, if people are going to erase, revise and edit history, how do you expect me or anyone else with a shred of common sense to forgive the actions of the past? How can I forgive something when history was distored by revisionists?
Revisionism is inexcuseable. As for people believing in sin, I consider sin to be self induced nonsense. Ill side with the atheists there, they may have at least a few great points.
Becoming the new person living 'In Christ' will take effort, sincere desire to be a better person, and doing Good, and being Good. With the Grace of God our prayers will become more effective, and our new person will emerge leaving behind what we no longer are. Trust in God.
For me need no priest, does not help heal the one we offended at all, does it? Easy cop out, to go to a priest, brings no shame on us, hiding behind a closed door, instead of going directly to the one we have truly offended. Like I break a neighbors window, the neighbor saw it, knows it, but I go to a priest to confess, never going instead to the neighbor directly, asking for forgiveness, sorry for doing so and offending them, causing them pain etc. I am sorry.
For the neighbor God dwells within him also. Thus the saying: What ever you do to the least of my brothers that you have done to ME. Jesus says, go and confess your sins to one another. Is God pleased when we go to others, for what we have done directly to God, himself? I believe no. for God said But you do not seek ME, ask ME, or knock at MY door. God is not dead, but eternal, everlasting. I have not offended the priest have I? But I have directly offended God. If I can offend God with out a priest, then I also can repent to God without a priest.
Its really strange. Its like Stockholm syndrome or something.
A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience. Not so with God, God has no short memory, and has a Clear conscience and knowing all truths. What we reap we will sow. God said Let your gold and silver save you now.
Are we not told in Holy Scripture the reason why, every great Empire on earth, fell, since the beginning of time. Was because they forgot God is first in all things, their greed, their wars, their jealousy? Ones own boasting, pride, vanity, egos, etc?
and it seems that for George H.W. Bush there wasn't even a past, since his denial won't allow him to record facts about what did indeed happen.
That seems to me to be a degree of impoverishment of 'the vision thing' that goes just a tad too far.
Almost like a god who creates the world and then goes on to forget that the living hell has become a part of it.
look around that self destruction is everywhere. self destruction is a gift from the universe but it does not feel or look like a gift does it. self destruction is not punishment but it looks and feels like it.
But then it is just about the same time the American Public has become Obsolete anyway. Marching of to China to feed his family
I recall one group counseling session where a young woman told us that she was admitting for the first time to anyone that she had used money her family had given her to pay the mortgage on the family home to buy herself a steady supply of narcotics--until the house was foreclosed on. She then ran from the room in tears and never came back.
That was unfortunate, because she would have heard similarly tragic stories from others in the group. That does not mean she would have allowed herself to be forgiven, but it does mean that she would have met others just as culpable as she was who hurt themselves and those they love. And she might have learned that even beyond forgiving, the hardest part is the forgetting.
We all carry the baggage of guilt, unless we are so numbed to life that we are catatonic. But life can go on. Time may not heal all wounds, but it sure helps. One philosopher tells us that the only sins that need forgiveness are the unforgiveable ones. That sounds like a formula until you think about it. Grief can heal us, if we have help moving through its stages. Scars remain. We endure. That's what it means to be strong.
Some how I think the CIA and Military would love to see some guy with a 30-06 take on the entire Armament of the USA
Their hearts would SOAR from their chest as they blew you apart