 |
Forgiveness Can’t Heal Scars
|
Below is one of our free research papers on Forgiveness Can’t Heal Scars. If the term paper below is not exactly what you're looking for, you can search our essay database for other topics.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as “to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offence or debt”. I find forgiveness to be the act of finding inner peace for the mistakes you have made, but it must never be forgotten and used as a learning tool. In “The Sunflower”, Simon Wiesenthal confronts us, the reader, with a dilemma that has been plaguing him since the 1940’s. Simon Wiesenthal describes a German SS man who killed and tortured innocent Germans, wishes to escape his impending fate and receive forgiveness for the evil he has been a part of. This Nazi Soldier, Karl, is the dilemma for Simon. The question he puts forward to us in the book is, if we were in his position, would we forgive Karl? My answer is mutual. This is why.
There are several different reasons to forgive Karl, based on the responses. One is the Christian teaching that in order to be forgiven one only has to ask. Dennis Prager claims that the reason Christians with such ease is because "the belief that God loves everyone, no matter how evil, makes it impossible for a believing Christian to hate evil people and therefore difficult to fight them" (229). Buddhism is another religion that teaches to forgive, but Buddhists make an important distinction that you should never forget because forgetting would allow it to happen again. Buddhists teach to always have compassion for your fellow man and never to act violently towards another. Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist, explains: "T...
|