Forgiveness
Posted by Hil on September 23, 1997 at 23:49:30:
In response to Forgiveness, written by Marsha on September 23, 1997 at 21:34:33
] I agree.
] I do not believe in unconditional forgiveness for everything (but then I am not Christian). If you forgive someone he will think he could do it again with no problem and do it (I mean serious things, not insulting someone when mad). I.e. according to the doctrine of forgiveness and turning the other cheek, if A kills B, B's relatives forgive him, and also, so does the law-since no one brings a suit against him, and the whole idea of law becomes useless, since law is for punishing not forgiving. Then A goes and kills C, and so forth.
] If someone harmed someone I loved, I would definitely not forgive them. It is wrong to forgive excessively, since then the perpetrators know they are not punished and have nothing to fear. If you let people walk over you, they will.
No... I am not into punishment and retribution, hell and damnation. I believe in trying to understand and forgive, while keeping one's own sense of integrity. I am just not sure how sucessfully we can juggle those two aspects.
Posting followups to old messages is disabled; instead go to the main index and post a new message which mentions this one.
