black-america-should-stop-forgiving-white-racists

Dwayne…here is my pontification...(gotta watch it I have already used my ten dollar word for the day). I believe the forgiveness is a personal thing. I have seen the forgiveness from black people that the author is describing. I have also not seen the forgiveness that the author is describing. To blanketly say that I believe is a wrong path. I saw it in this church shooting from the families and was deeply moved by their willingness to forgive…I don’t know that I would be as willing to do so. I know that as a Christian I am supposed to but it would be extremely difficult to forgive the way they have. I saw it yesterday when the victims brother hugged the white police officer that was sentenced in his brothers murder…that moved me almost to tears to see that kind of forgiveness. But I also see in the Ferguson Missouri shooting, the Tamir Rice shooting, or the Eric Rice choking, for example, the anger expressed by the families. To say that black people forgive because of it being expected for white salvation I think is a wrong theory or thought process.
To add the 9/11 attacks and ISIS beheadings in the same story is apples and oranges. Two different discussions. BTW there were numerous calls to forgive these people on church billboards and from the pulpits…but there were also calls to not forgive and to hold those accountable and then carried it out. These were people that came after Americans…not black or white protestant or Jewish, rich or poor, they came after Americans…these attacks were not perpetrated and racially motivated by a nations past…not even in the same ballpark and is not Germaine to the topic.
Forgiveness is a personal thing…for some a religious thing to be given. It has to be in ones heart to be able to forgive. Doesn’t matter whether you are black or white or any other religion or belief. To say that it is a knee jerk and expected reaction is wrong. I also don’t believe it trivializes real black suffering. I think it takes a much stronger person to forgive than it does to have anger…of anything is shows how much stronger a person really is. Anger is quick….forgiveness is a cognitive thought process. I like Madea movies and in one of them she made a bold statement during one of the serious moments. She said something to the effect of you have to forgive them for what they did for you to heal and move on…it doesn’t matter to them if you forgive them or not but once you forgive you can begin to heal and move forward. If you don’t forgive you will harbor a hate inside of you that will make you sick and eat you alive and it is only hurting you. To label constant forgiveness on one class of people I think is wrong. There are numerous races and religions that knee jerk forgiveness because it is the “right thing” to do but are they really forgiving?
I am done pontificating now and I know people on here will disagree. I do think there is a huge racial divide and I am afraid it is getting worse but until we learn to forgive the past, notice I didn’t say forget, but truly from the heart forgive and come together out of love for all of our brothers and sisters we can never move forward.

Maj Marty Hogan Lt Col Charlie Brown 1stSgt Glenn Brackin
Cpl Craig Morton SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth COL Mikel J. Burroughs
LTC Stephen C. CPL Dave Hoover PO3 Bob McCord
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Sgt Wayne Wood PVT James Strait
SFC Jack Champion MSgt David Hoffman MSgt Stephen Council
SGT Elizabeth Scheck PO1 H Gene Lawrence SPC Jon O.
TSgt Joe C. 1SG Steven Imerman

I am going to refrain from comment as I consider"forgiveness" to be a personal decision

"For these Christians whose deep faith tradition holds forgiveness as a core principle, offering absolution to Roof is about relieving the burden of anger and pain of being victimized. In this regard, forgiveness functions as a kind of protest, a refusal to be reduced to victims. It sends the message to the killer that he may have hurt them, but they are the true victors because they have not been destroyed."

I believe the quote is partially correct and is one example of a by-product of forgiveness. More importantly, forgiveness is about not allowing someone else's hate to impact one's life. Carrying hate in your heart eats away at your soul - your spirit. It is not a black or white thing, it is a personal thing...on an individual level. That is where I believe the author gets it wrong.