Exploring Forgiveness

Foreword: Without Forgiveness There Is No Future

FOREWORD Without Forgiveness There Is No Future Archbishop Desmond Tutu Dear friends who are "exploring forgiveness" through this volume published by the University of Wisconsin Press, I am greeting you from South Mrica, this new South Mrica, this free, democratic South Africa. Forgiveness is one of the key ideas in this world. Forgiveness is not just some nebulous, vague idea that one can easily dismiss. It has to do with uniting people through practical politics. Without forgiveness there is no future. Of course, we here in South Mrica are a living example of how forgiveness may unite people. Our history makes this surprising in many ways. Our miracle almost certainly would not have happened without the willingness of people to forgive, exemplified spectacularly in the magnanimity ofNelson Mandela. His forgiveness still leaves the world gasping at the sheer wonder ofit, especially in light of his long imprisonment. Forgiveness is taking seriously the awfulness of what has happened when you are treated unfairly. It is opening the door for the other person to have a chance to begin again. Without forgiveness, resentment builds in us, a resentment which turns into hostility and anger. Hatred eats away at our well-being. In Mrica we have a word, Ubuntu, which is difficult to render in Western languages. It speaks about the essence of being human: that my humanity is caught up in your humanity because we say a person is a person through other persons. I am a person because I belong. The same is true for you. The solitary human being is a contradiction in terms. That is why God could say to Adam, "It is not good for man to be alone." No one can be fully human unless he or she relates to others in a fair, peaceful, and harmonious way. In our Mrican understanding, we set great store by communal peace and harmony. Anything that subverts this harmony is injurious, not just to the community, but to all of us, and therefore forgiveness is an absolute necessity for continued human existence. Forgiveness is not pretending that things are other than they are. Forgiveness is not cheap. It is facing the ghastliness ofwhat has happened and giving the other person the opportunity ofcoming out ofthat ghastly situation. When you say to me, "I am sorry," in my Christian understanding XlII xiv Foreword I am then constrained by the Gospel imperative to forgive. Yet, this is not the end of the story. You see, ifyou have stolen my pen and you say you are sorry, and I forgive you and you still retain my pen, then I must call into question the authenticity of your contrition. I must-as part of the process ofreconciliation, offorgiving, ofhealing, ofthe willingness to make good-appropriate restitution. The world is on the brink of disaster ifwe don't forgive, accept forgiveness, and reconcile. Forgiveness does not mean amnesia. Amnesia is a most dangerous thing, especially on a community, national, or international level. We must forgive, but almost always we should not forget that there were atrocities, because if we do, we are then likely to repeat those atrocities. Those who forgive and those who accept forgiveness must not forget in their reconciling. If we don't deal with our past adequately, it will return to haunt us. When something is unforgiven it has physical consequences for us. Unforgiven tension, unforgiven sin, actually has a deleterious impact on the person. So I pray that you will be richly blessed as you examine the ramifications offorgiveness for personal life, for community life, for national life. I hope you continue exploring forgiveness long after you are finished reading this book. For example, I hope that one day you will have the opportunity of going to Hiroshima and seeing the memorial that the Japanese have erected for the atrocity that was perpetrated on the feast of the transfiguration, August the 6th. They are saying that the world must remember what happened-we must all remember-so that we do not repeat it, so that it will not ever happen again to anyone. God bless you. Exploring Forgiveness ...