Forgive the Good and Bad - Part 2

Over the last several days, I realized that promising to continue this brief chat about forgiveness was not such a great idea. I cannot explain what I feel about forgiveness with any kind of cogency without first bringing in the heavy weaponry of Kant’s Moral Imperative, Joseph Campbell’s ideas on the many myths of humanity and the modern notion of universal morality of Derek Parfit. But, promise is a promise...

The perception of right and wrong is, inarguably, relative. Historically, it seems that definitions of what is wrong and what is right are first developed by a small group consensus. They are further implanted into a larger group, tribe or a population with the help of some duress, punishment, and positive or negative reinforcement. In a very short time, they become values by which that population lives.

Even so, not all members of the group recognize the absolutes of those values. Some begin to act on their own perceptions of what is and what is not OK to do and attract the wrath of the majority. Next, follow the laws and the prescribed punishments for their infraction.

Just by looking at the Google News headlines, it is obvious that whatever you and I may consider right, someone in the world will consider wrong. While most of us will agree that beheading journalists with a knife is morally abhorrent, the radical Islamists consider it a high accomplishment.

What in the world does this have to do with forgiveness? I’ll get to that in a minute. But, first, I want to exclude certain items from requiring forgiveness. That would be unintentional actions like stepping on someone’s foot, spilling the coffee or breaking a nice vase. We only apologize for those to reinstate the fact that we didn’t do it on purpose.

Then, the forgiveness is only needed for purposefully hurtful acts that were carried out for a reason. But, since all rights and wrongs are relative, forgiveness is but a statement of disagreement with the other person’s ideas of right and wrong; or good and bad. Does it follow then, that forgiveness is nothing more than a simple judgment of Good and Evil as prescribed by whatever belief system we may find ourselves in?

And, does it further follow that, if we are able to release ourselves from the confines of those rigid belief systems, we would find that we have to forgive less and less? What would it be like to never have to forgive anyone for anything? What would it feel like to be unafraid of being “wronged”?

That would really be getting it “right”, won’t it?