"We Already Forgive Him" - What Does That Mean? (page 4)

Ucantnome

How do you understand forgiveness?

i'm not sure.

Hold Me-Thrill Me

Declaring forgiveness brings comfort to many grieving Christians. They are leaving things in God's hands.

Why that should be dissected as if it is something abnormal is in itself troubling.

Let people be who they are.

Frank

cofty

I think what has irritated me about this is that it isn't authentic.

Christians respond to events the way they are expected to react. JWs do the same.

I remember when a friend of mine was killed in a farm accident leaving behind a wife and four teenage children. The church reacted like it was all part of god's plan in some way we couldn't understand. It was total bullshit. Nobody was being authentic. I remember standing at the graveside and thinking "this is just wrong. It's unfair and there is no good thing about it". It was the start of my waking up from the delusion of faith.

Here we have adult children of a murder victim saying they already forgive the murderer of their parent less than 24 hours after the event. The murderer is still filled with hate and has expressed no regret.

There is nothing authentic about this. It is a pre-programmed reaction. They are performing for the watching world.

Losing my faith made me authentic. Sometimes that means I am less "nice" than I once was. But now I am not afraid to observe my real feelings about things. Faith comes with a facade.

breakfast of champions

I haven't read all four pages of to thread, so hopefully I'm not repeating someone else's two cents. . . . . .

I don't believe in forgiveness, at least not in the Christian sense.

It's a "one-size-fits-all" type of nonsense.

Car cuts in front of me in the morning commute: I forgive you.

You are a Ministerial Servant who molested three children: I forgive you.

You cheated me out of my change when I paid for lunch: I forgive you.

You shot my dearest loved one to death: I forgive you.

I actually feel no need to forgive over any of these things, but I'm not going to jump all over someone for a bad move on the highway or that you made the wrong change at the deli.

The problem is that religions treat all of these "sins" as the same thing.

Any rational person should realize they aren't.

GrreatTeacher

"Faith comes with a facade."

^^^This!

I've been coming to a similar conclusion lately. And it can become such a habit that you even do it without faith being involved. You can put on a facade in your community as well.

Witnesses don't have the habit of authenticity.

Laika

How do we know they're not being authentic? Has anyone asked the children what they mean by forgiveness?

Phizzy

Cofty said " I remember standing at the graveside and thinking "this is just wrong. It's unfair and there is no good thing about it".

I think that is what goes through the minds of believers too, more often than not, on such occasions.

I wonder if this Cognitive Dissonance causes believers to grieve longer and harder than those of us who face reality, it seems so to me from a very small sample of acquaintances that I have observed.

This is not to totally dismiss the "comfort" that some sort of Faith, or faith, may bring over the years, a comfort that we non-believers do not benefit from. The warm blanket of unreality.

Ucantnome

Christians respond to events the way they are expected to react.

I didn't find this when a relative of mine died. There was a variety of responses to the death. I was closer to the person than most of the other relatives. My brother and I are both Christian and it affected my brother a lot more than myself. I didn't feel expected to react in a certain way.

I had a discussion with a theologian a while ago regarding forgiving and found my view was different than his. Maybe this was just that I was wrong or maybe it was because I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. I found it difficult to be forgiving of someone who doesn't want my forgiveness. I felt I should accommodate their wishes.

cofty

Ucantnome - I would be interested in your thoughts on what forgiveness means. If you have time have a read at the comments above.

Ucantnome

Cofty

yes I will try and read the comments later today.

The children of one of yesterday's shooting have told the media that they have already forgiven the killer for what he did.

In the discussion I had with the theologian I explained that my reaction probably wouldn't have been like these children and I saw forgiveness tied very much to repentance. The theologian is a very bright man and i'm not so bright.

"We Already Forgive Him" - What Does That Mean?

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