No Future Without Forgiveness

by Desmond Tutu

Humanly speaking, we would be inclined to say that those twenty-seven years were utter shameful waste; just think of all he could have contributed to the good of South Africa and the world. I don’t think so. Those twenty-seven years and all the suffering they entailed were the fires of the furnace that tempered his steel, that removed the dross. Perhaps without that suffering he would have been less able to be as compassionate and as magnanimous as he turned out to be.

When we asked him why he was so dedicated to reconciliation and to being willing to make concessions to his opponents, he did not hesitate to say that it had all been due to the influence and witness of the Christian churches.

That is some price to have to pay. Thus it is not entirely the case

Very heavy to consider the value of contrition of personal suffering and general infamy and shame as a path to allowing grace or at least lack of retribution. forgiveness cant demand any of it.

It is also not true that the granting of amnesty would encourage impunity because amnesty is granted only to those who plead guilty, who accept responsibility, for what they have done.

Our freedom has been bought at a very great price. But to compute the price properly, we should compare the high level of stability that we enjoy with the turmoil and upheaval that have so sadly characterized similar radical change

We acknowledge that you suffered a gross violation of your rights. Nothing can ever replace your loved one. But as a nation we are saying, we are sorry, we have opened the wounds of your suffering and sought to cleanse them; this reparation is as balm, an ointment, being poured over the wounds to assist in their healing.

memorials that would not alienate some but would have the capacity to contribute to the process of healing and reconciliation; that would give us memories that would bind us together after so long enduring things that were designed to tear us apart and instill hostility and disharmony.

Those in favor of civil nwar monuments should give this some thought.

But theology prevents us from doing this. Theology reminded me that, however diabolical the act, it did not turn the perpetrator into a demon.

The point is that, if perpetrators were to be despaired of as monsters and demons, then we were thereby letting accountability go out the window because we were then declaring that they were not moral agents to be held responsible for the deeds they had committed.

Those who think this opens the door for moral laxity have obviously never been in love, for love is much more demanding than law.

In a real sense we might add that even the supporters of apartheid were victims of the vicious system which they implemented and which they supported so enthusiastically. This is not an example for the morally earnest of ethical indifferentism. No, it flows from our fundamental concept of ubuntu. Our humanity was intertwined. The humanity of the perpetrator of apartheid’s atrocities was caught up and bound up in that of his victim whether he liked it or not. In the process of dehumanizing another, in inflicting untold harm and suffering, inexorably the perpetrator was being dehumanized as well.

becoming a bridge-building process.

Amazing that this is a goal.

it gave the commission a manageable task that could hopefully be accomplished within the time span allocated.

So practical for something so spiritual and important . Something Worth learning here

A gross violation is a gross violation whoever commits it and for whatever motive. Torture by a Nationalist is a gross violation. Torture by a member of the liberation movement is equally a gross violation of human rights.

just cause must be fought by just means; otherwise it may be badly vitiated.

was the most dehumanizing experience of my life.”

This testimony from a perp. Not just the claim of Tutu

in a real sense they have proved to be so. Yet in a very important sense they are not extraordinary, special, or remarkable if those words are taken to mean that they were an exception; that they were sui generis, that they were out of this world. Then the South African way of trying to deal with a divisive, traumatic, and awful past would not be useful as an example the world might care

the God who rises up from them is a God of mercy and compassion, a God who seeks not to punish, destroy, or put us to death, but a God who works unceasingly to help and heal us, rehabilitate and reconcile us, restore us to the richness and fullness of life for which we have been created. This, now, was the justice I wanted for this man who had taken my little girl.

but those persons who retain a vindictive mind-set ultimately give the offender another victim. Embittered, tormented, enslaved by the past, their quality of life is diminished.

Good description of the impact of bitterness

It is ultimately in our best interest that we become forgiving, repentant, reconciling, and reconciled people because without forgiveness, without reconciliation, we have no future.

apologizing for Jim Crow segregation in his church when a black was preaching, or the former Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu, going to the West Bank and apologizing for Jewish settlements among the Palestinians.

If only this could happen even now

We were clearly not on the same wavelength in this meeting and the dissenting commissioners made a written presentation, which in one paragraph questioned my integrity. I regarded the whole matter so seriously, as being likely to vitiate our whole work, that I said I could not work in an environment where my bona fides was attacked.

This type of low muttering about integrity and the mistrust it represents are malignant and definitely need to be corrected with all speed

Their values were seen as universally valid; everyone had to measure up to those Eurocentric values or be considered inferior, a maverick, odd, an outcast. These were unexamined assumptions shared by most whites and they were likely to be best preserved by the status quo that protected white vested interests so efficiently.

How does this compare to the concept of privilege used by many in race talks in the us? Seems the same sort of view

Now we know, of course, that the black reporters were telling it as it was. The editors would have angrily denied that they were being racist.

This is a fascinating insight. the tendency to soften because it cant be as bad as you say and because you have an agenda. of course people do have agendas and some abuse or distort. However the ruling view is ultimately more dismissive than it should be even while not strictly being racist. Racist system more than racist individual.

“Hey, fellow whites, wake up! You may indeed have lost political power, if you mean exclusive political control, but you have a heck of a lot of power still at your disposal.

We are deeply indebted to NGOs and faith communities, who have tried to step into this yawning breach.

“neutralizing” and “eliminating” people—which leaders of the apartheid government disingenuously wanted us to believe was really quite innocuous language, meaning nothing more sinister than “to detain” or “to ban.” Those who carried out these orders almost consistently understood them to mean to kill, murder, and assassinate.

Language manipulatuon is a real tool of oppression

that politicians deliberately phrased their instructions in such a way that they, the intellectual authors of security force atrocities, could transfer responsibility to their subordinates.

An important and undoubtedly common strategy to note for all those who act on behalf of bad governments

I would have denied it vigorously because I prided myself on being an exponent of black consciousness, but in a crisis something deeper had emerged: I had accepted a white definition of existence, that whites were somehow superior to and more competent than blacks.

This "brainwashing" is part of what makes it important to have extaordinary visibility for black accomplishments and value. This purpose can be lost on both black and white and it becomes competitive in nature.

the capacity to do better if they get out of the self-justifying mode,

Better people if they can recognize fault. however forgiveness comes before and in spite of whatever attitude they may hold. But that persOn misses out

In relations between individuals, if you ask another person for forgiveness you may be spurned; the one you have injured may refuse to forgive you. The risk is even greater if you are the injured party, wanting to offer forgiveness. The culprit may be arrogant, obdurate, or blind; not ready or willing to apologize or to ask for forgiveness. He or she thus cannot appropriate the forgiveness that is offered. Such rejection can jeopardize the whole enterprise.

Isnt it the lesson that whole people groups and governments are ultimately like these human relations but it must be the leaders who provide the vision for it and the example of it.

But if the process of forgiveness and healing is to succeed, ultimately acknowledgment by the culprit is indispensable—not

If you will repair the breach. Not required for forgiveness

U.S. ex-servicemen standing in front of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. One asks, “Have you forgiven

True forgiveness deals with the past, all of the past, to make the future possible.