FILM REVIEW
 

On May 14, 2009, the Nashville Conflict Resolution Center (NCRC) gathered volunteers together at the Institute for Conflict Management at Lipscomb University to view the 2007 award-winning documentary film, The Power of Forgiveness. More than 60 people came to see the awe-inspiring film, and to engage in discussion on this very important topic. NCRC invited special guest, Susan McBride, to talk about the role forgiveness plays in her work with prisoners and victims’ families. 

 

What is the nature of a forgiving person, and what limitations do we each place on forgiveness? These are some of the questions that The Power of Forgiveness prompted viewers to consider. Through a series of vignettes featuring Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, authors Thomas Moore and others, the film offered a multiplicity of perspectives on forgiveness, ranging from the scientific to the religious and spiritual. 

 

One common concern about forgiveness is that it condones actions of abuse and violence, and that the person offering forgiveness opens him/herself to continued abuse. Jeanette Enright, an educator teaching forgiveness to Catholic and Protestant children in public schools in Northern Ireland, responds to this concern in the film: “Through the lessons [with the children], we try very hard to help the children to become tough-minded but tender-hearted. So that through learning to forgive, they learn to identify when something is wrong, and they will call it wrong, but then they are able to have the internal transformation of letting go of the anger.”

 

Letting go of anger and allowing forgiveness can be very challenging, especially when we believe that the other person’s actions were absolutely wrong. Reverand James Forbes eloquently juxtaposes anger and forgiveness in the film: “At some point, there has to be the movement beyond the fixation that by my holding this [act of violence, abuse, slavery, genocide…] in my mind in some way, I am going to improve the situation or reverse the situation or show adequate atonement for the situation. These offenses can never be adequately atoned… it is not possible to achieve by vigilance in anger what the soul is longing for. What the soul wishes is peace.”

 

But Holocaust survivor and Nobel-prize winning author, Elie Wiesel, challenges Forbes’ view by stating that “Some persons do not deserve forgiveness…To be forgiven, the culprit must confess his crime and ask for forgiveness.” Wiesel encouraged the German President Johannes Rau in 2000 to apologize to the Jewish people in Israel and ask for forgiveness for the Holocaust. The film shows footage of President Rau’s apology speech to the Israeli Parliament, while the narrator reports that several Israeli legislators did not attend the event in protest.

 

How does one get to the place of forgiveness? Thich Nhat Hanh states, “Forgiveness will not be possible until compassion is born in your heart.” Others in the film concur that forgiveness helps unburden us from the deep pain within us: “…forgiveness allows us to let go of the pain in the memory. And if we let go of the pain in the memory, we can have the memory but it doesn’t control us.”   When we forgive another, it can also make space for that person to apologize to us, giving both parties the opportunity to share the benefits of forgiveness.

 

As a mediator, I believe that our primary task is to bring more peace to this world. Virtues like love, compassion, forgiveness and mercy – key ingredients in the recipe for peace – must be studied and put into practice in our own lives if we are to ask our mediation clients/participants to do the hard work of getting past anger in the mediation session (and beyond). After the film, guest speaker Susan McBride (formerly with the Office of Restorative Justice Ministeries of the United Methodist Church) described her long-term relationships with prisoners, their families, and families of the victims. A proponent of restorative and transformative justice, Susan spent years learning about the damage that crime sows on communities, as well as the transformation that Victim-Offender Mediation brings. Susan’s view of forgiveness is that it is a choice that every person makes on their own, and a process that may require continual practice. “We have all been a victim, and we’ve all been an offender,” Susan affirmed. Ultimately, if we are to become forgiving people, we must learn to love ourselves first, and then extend that love to others.

NCRC has a copy available of The Power of Forgiveness for anyone who wants to rent it for a 1-week period. The film may also be ordered through Journey Films - http://www.journeyfilms.com/ - or rented from Netflix or the public library. NCRC would like to thank all our volunteer & pro bono mediators who participate in our Victim Offender Mediation Program for Adults, now in its third year of operation. The Victim Offender Mediation program runs four days per week, Monday-Thursday. Professional mediators who are interested in volunteering in this program may contact the Executive Director at 615-291-6272.

 

By Tamara A. Losel, Executive Director of the Nashville Conflict Resolution Center