Forgive them for they don’t know

Most Christians know the rest of this title line. What many do not know is that this commandment, which was addressed to the Father of Jesus, also applies to everyone on the planet. It is the first and foremost key to world peace. The cause of violence is lack of forgiveness. We have the ignorance of others against them. They have our ignorance against us. The response of a godly person is always; “Come, let us reason together.” The answer of the wicked is; inconsiderate, selfish, imbecile; It’s time someone taught you a lesson. Expressions similar to those of a passenger are often heard in city traffic.

At Larry King Live on April 20, 2003, there was a panel of four religious authorities and one spiritualist. The theme was: “Seeking meaning in the aftermath of war.” Larry began with Deepak Chopra’s excellent response to Larry’s question, essentially: Why, despite spiritual leadership, do we repeatedly kill each other over the centuries? Deepak carefully responded that we institutionalized God’s messengers and forgot the message. He then gives the characteristics that people need to properly seek alternatives to war, such as love and compassion.

This area alone would have served the theme perfectly for the duration of the show. Larry changed the subject and asked Rabbi Kushner if the latest war in Iraq is a failure of diplomacy. The rabbi touched on the subject of this article in response. Only that the rabbi thought the problem was that unforgiveness was passed down from successive generations of people, which is the problem at his end. In fact, unforgiveness is an immediate and perpetual problem. This would also be a suitable topic in response to the agenda item. Larry changed the subject again. This seems to be his technique for keeping the show alive and interesting. He seems to have a number of questions to answer in the course of an often interrupted show. Twenty questions, click, click, click. As if the questions were always more important than the answers and an answer from one in five guests was enough for each question.

Roy Masters, in his book and record, How Your Mind Can Keep You Well, taught the importance of immediate forgiveness for personal health. In guided meditations he teaches us to look on the spot and respond to any attack or offense with firmness, kindness and patience. The idea is to program our subconscious to always respond this way. If the people of the world learned to do this, there would be no war. Instead, people respond automatically, in kind.

On The Larry King Show, Deepak would later explain how we are all victims of a long history of fight or flight response to challenge. We must overcome this long tradition with a determined effort to implement a deliberate and positive response. Roy Masters’ short-response message. We don’t focus on how we respond, we focus on how we want to respond and make a habit of it. It is simple. Works.

Immediate forgiveness grants instant release from emotional stress. The fight or flight response is not triggered, that no anger flashes and is built with the mental repetition of the event. One maintains personal peace. One preserves sanity. To treasure your anger is to bind yourself to its object. Taking up the challenge of punishing the wicked of the world requires unforgiveness. A president calls them evil as interchangeable words with the meaning of evil. It would be better if you made the distinction. Evil is simply a problem. A malefactor is a troublemaker. To protest with the “wrong” point of view. A president who repeats failed policies. The wicked are those who do evil for personal gain, be it money or some other external trap. The ambitious evil is perverse. The idea is to ignore the evil on our doorsteps, so we look beyond the oceans. It is magic and professional illusion.

You and I can spend some money on home security. We can build our house of brick. When the wolf comes huffing and puffing at our door, we can stay inside until he/she stays away. If he doesn’t go away for a long time, we become prisoners in our homes. We have other options. We know that if we feed the wolf well and often, he will let us walk the earth. We become clients of the wolf and pay for the protection of other wolves. We can also counter the threat of the wolf by traveling or defending our life and home with a superior force. we take up arms. The Wolves go elsewhere after a few well-placed warning shots. No damage done. One more option we have is to hunt down all the wolves so that no one is ever threatened by a wolf again. In the war on terror, the only good wolf is a dead wolf. But an unofficial breeding program ensures that they multiply faster than they destroy themselves. It will be the longest war in the world.

Deepak also pointed out that the United States is waging war on all sorts of things. He listed four declared wars, the drug war was lost, and all the undeclared and unpublicized wars. The war on the environment, on health, on the family, on the middle class, on the sick, on the poor, on the war veteran, on the prisoner. The list itself is endless. Not as long as we have professional politicians among us. Deepak’s point was to the war mentality, which implies that solving all social problems with a war is a serious case of narrow conscience. He could have been bold, speaking out of line and taking his point one step further. When a leader of a nation tells you; if I can’t do it my way, killing people is the next best thing, he’s lying. If you believe the lie, your conscience is at least as restricted as his. Is this what you would like his children to be when they grow up? When the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the pit. Teach that to your children.

One says this is World War III. Some say it is the Fourth World War. Another says it is the First World War, which never ends. We just have dead times here and there. Stop the fire. Cold wars between hot ones. If so, there is no such thing as a preemptive strike. We are picking up where we left off and Iraq is a perfect example.

We can go beyond forgiveness and we must. We can repent, even as Ronald Reagan told America at his first inauguration. Be truly sorry for the role we played in creating unforgiveness and stop creating it. If we must have a crisis to know unity, why not try nonviolent forgiveness responses? Why not find unity in separating from the foolish, destructive and self-destructive policy makers? And if we learn to say they are going to war or they send me to war? What if we stop saying we and identifying with unforgiveness? What happens if the relentless becomes the other? Why not join those who forgive first and ask questions later? Unforgiveness in America does not originate with the government. It is the popular (majority) form of this first town. The government is the global expression. When we forgive, we give more than the violent can take. The person who says he can’t forgive is really saying he won’t. Haven’t they done things his way long enough? It’s such a simple thing to change.