To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
~ Lewis B. Smedes
When we forgive evil we do not excuse it, we do not tolerate it, we do not smother it. We look the evil full in the face, call it what it is, let its horror shock and stun and enrage us, and only then do we forgive it.
If we say that monsters [people who do terrible evil] are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never have...they are given the power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those who suffered most. We give them power to condemn their victims to live forever with the hurting memory of their painful pasts. We give the monsters the last word.
Our society is pluralistic. We who accept the privilege of membership in that society agree to respect the people's right to live by their own religious precepts.
In a sinful world, no community can exist for long where nobody is ever held accountable: no teacher would grade a student's performance; no citizen would sit on a jury or call a failed leader to account.
The blood of Christ covers all of our sins, but each of us must do personal business with God in order to experience his forgiveness.
Our history is an inevitable component of our being. One thing only can release us from the grip of our history. That one thing is forgiveness.
It takes one person to forgive, it takes two people to be reunited.
