Four times a week in a sparse room not far from the Duke University
campus in Chapel Hill, N.C., a handful of people sit in a circle and pray for
peace.
They pray for Americans and others killed Sept. 11.
They pray for Afghanistans children, many of whom are
starving.
Four times a week in a sparse room not far from the Duke University
campus in Chapel Hill, N.C., a handful of people sit in a circle and pray for
peace.
They pray for Americans and others killed Sept. 11.
They pray for Afghanistans children, many of whom are
starving.
And, quietly, in moments of silence, they pray for Osama bin
Laden and the Taliban – convinced that as Christians they must pray for
their persecutors.
And forgive them.
That the group is so small and its prayers for the enemy so
private is evidence of how hard it is to broach the issue of forgiveness, much
less to put it into practice.
Although forgiveness is a central tenet of every major faith,
clerics and theologians say they need to do more to teach habits that would
help individuals let go of hatreds large and small and move toward reconciliation.
“Thats one of the things we dont talk about
that much – we dont really explore the concept,” said Lee Walsh
of Carrboro, N.C., a member of Chapel of the Cross Episcopal Church in Chapel
Hill.
Indeed, a committee at that church has been wrestling unsuccessfully
for about a year with how to offer adults a course on forgiveness in a way that
would allow them to explore their own hang-ups and not just their grievances
with others.
Terror attacks in the United States and war in Afghanistan
have spurred a flurry of forums on war and peace, justice and reconciliation.
Religious leaders across the spectrum have called on the United
States to spare civilians in the war on terrorism and to seek justice, not revenge.
However, the public discussion of forgiveness is just beginning.
In Washington, a recent tribute to South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu –
author of “No Future Without Forgiveness” – turned into a scholarly
look at forgiveness as a tool for resolving international conflicts. The weekly
magazine Christian Century asked if forgiveness is needed.
However, few clergy have broached forgiveness with congregates.
Is it too soon? Is the memory of terrorists crashing into the
World Trade Center, a Pennsylvania field and the Pentagon too fresh in a jittery
nations collective mind?
“I wouldnt want to jump too quickly to say, Oh,
lets forgive,” said Gregory Jones, dean of the Duke Divinity
School. “It would short-circuit issues of accountability and repentance
that are key ingredients in the issue of reconciliation.”
Donald W. Shriver Jr. agreed.
“The people who suffered the most from this need time
to grieve,” said Shriver, author of “An Ethic for Enemies: Forgiveness
in Politics” and president emeritus at Union Theological Seminary in New
York.
“Forgiveness has to be in our agenda but so does living
with this pain. Theres a trivialization of forgiveness if you rush into
it,” he explained.
Then there is the question of whom to forgive.
The direct perpetrators – the 19 hijackers – are
dead. Bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the terror attacks, and his al-Qaida
followers have not asked to be forgiven and do not seem likely to do so.
That poses a special challenge for the faithful. In their respective
Scriptures, Jews, Christians and Muslims are commanded to forgive their fellow
human beings. The word “forgive” appears 60 times in the Hebrew Bible,
71 times in the New Testament and 52 times in the Quran.
Jews and Muslims believe a prerequisite to forgiveness must
be repentance on the part of the wrongdoer. Judaism also holds that human beings
never can forgive murder, because only the victim can bestow forgiveness.
Christians are divided on the issue.
Some say their faith requires that repentance precede forgiveness;
others say forgiveness is mandatory.
“Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he
sins against me? Up to seven times?” the apostle Peter asks Jesus in Matthew
18:21.
Jesus answers, “I tell you not seven times but seventy-seven
times.”
(The New International Version and other modern translations
of the Bible say 77 times; the King James Version and New King James Version
say “seventy times seven,” or 490 times.)
All Christians recognize the biblical imperative to love their
enemies and to pray for those who persecute them. But many do not pray for opponents
within their own congregations, never mind formidable foes overseas, Christian
ethicists say.
Is it any wonder then, that even among the most faithful, there
is widespread support for military strikes against terrorists?
“We really dont think you have to manage it (the
terrorist situation) on religious terms,” said Theophus Smith, an Emory
University religion professor and a founder of Atlantas chapter of the
National Coalition Building Institute, a group devoted to resolving conflicts.
“What if Billy Graham called for a national day of prayer
calling on Osama bin Laden to disavow violence? The point is, if youre
trying to manage it religiously, you would try to do something like that.”
For their part, ethicists say prayer for the enemy can stimulate
change by encouraging people to tame their hatred and to consider the possibility
of future relationships.
“To pray for our enemy requires a recognition of their
humanity as a child of God,” Jones noted. “It also involves gestures
that create openings for that repentance and for a different relationship.”
Short of full-fledged forgiveness, Americas three major
faiths all view recent terror attacks as a good reason for some serious self-reflection.
“It is certainly a time for stepping back and understanding why Osama
bin Laden and other countries hate America,” said Rabbi Lucy Dinner of
Raleigh, NC”Then maybe we will find there are things we need to seek forgiveness
for.”
Muslims have used the attacks as a time of introspection as
well.
“Many Muslims have looked at themselves to make sure the shrill voice
of Osama bin Laden is not their voice,” said Ihsan Bagby, an international
relations professor at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC
“Muslims have asked themselves, Have we contributed in some way
to that hatred? Is that hatred reflected in our beliefs? I know there
has been a lot of reflection,” Bagby explained. (RNS)