“I wanted to hate you, but my faith tells me no. I wanted to remain angry and bitter, but my view of life won’t let me.” After the last statement was made by the victims’ friends and loved ones, Roof, who never made eye contact with those who addressed him, offered a short and chilling closing statement in response. “I still feel like I had to do it,” the unremorseful killer said.6 As this horrific and maddening account reveals, forgiving from the heart often does not provide emotional closure to the forgiver. In cases where the perpetrator shows no remorse, those injured by his actions are
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