“It is in the face-to-face with the impossible–the irreparable and the non-negotiable–that the possibility of forgiveness arises, and just when one feels one has reached the end of the road in making the last step, one finds oneself walking on, making the impossible step, turning aside, turning about, turning toward.  One truly forgives only when[…]

  Some of the Pharisees near him said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”  Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’  your sin remains.  –John 9:40-41  Those of us who are white Christians in America need to accept God’s[…]

  “My hope for Greensboro is that this horrific experience, this tragedy in the taking of five lives, can be transformed by the power of the Spirit, into a case where there is more generosity, and more justice, and more respect for the essence and the dignity of humankind.”  –Rev. Nelson Johnson Reverend Nelson Johnson[…]

Let me suggest that we consider forgiveness as a “way of being:’”  being with one another; being with the world; and being with ourselves. Such a way necessarily (1) impacts our ability to enter into the experiences of others (2) empowers us to offer hospitality and receive the “other” gratefully (3) equips us to make[…]

“The important thing is to have a strong center, not strong boundaries.”  –Kay Pranis

“So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  What God has joined together, let no one separate.” — Matthew 19:6 Freedom is essential to covenant; it is indispensable to the truth of love.   The familiar words, “What God has joined together ” are often invoked at weddings.  They are drawn from the 19th[…]

In his excellent piece, “The Process of Forgiveness in Marriage and the Family,” psychologist Dr. Paul W.Coleman offers an  important insight: “Often, a spouse may have to forgive a parent or grandparent before he or she can fully forgive his or her partner.  As a rule of thumb,the longer a marriage problem has existed despite[…]

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“He has sent me to proclaim sight to the blind.”–Luke 4:18 My friend Susan lived with her family on the African continent for a number of years.  She fondly remembers the way people in Botswana customarily greeted each other in the midst of daily life: “I see you!,” they would say, taking care to make[…]

“I knew that if I defined Conor by that one moment–as a murderer–I was defining my daughter as a murder victim.  And I could not allow that to happen.”  –Kate Grosmaire, mother of Ann In March 2010, a young man from Tallahassee, Florida, Conor McBride, shot his girlfriend Ann Grosmaire in the head.    Both[…]