Author Archives: abfifer

Forgiveness that liberates after decades

April 15, 2019 – 12:38 pm

A woman named Kathy thought she had forgiven the high school classmates who had assaulted her when she was sixteen. Decades later, she realized she had more work to do. Kathy told her story to Nancy DeMoss Wohlgemuth in an episode that was broadcast today on Revive Our Hearts.  “One of the things that had […]

Posted in Peacemaking | Comments Off on Forgiveness that liberates after decades

Daughter’s Forgiveness Brings Soldier Peace

April 8, 2019 – 9:30 am

An American World War II soldier found peace when he met with the daughter of the Japanese soldier he had killed. The story ran on 60 Minutes last night, describing the battle on Attu, a remote Aleutian Island. After killing the Japanese soldier during battle, the American soldier realized they had much in common, and […]

Posted in Peacemaking | Comments Off on Daughter’s Forgiveness Brings Soldier Peace

Countries Can Apologize Too

March 29, 2019 – 8:09 am

Countries can apologize too. PRI’s The World did a story last night on what might be called “the national apology,” when a government apologizes. Australia has had a “Sorry Day,” May 26, for twenty years, to express its regret for mistreatment of Aboriginal people. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made several apologies, including just […]

Posted in Apologies | Comments Off on Countries Can Apologize Too

Stop Apologizing?

March 23, 2019 – 3:59 pm

As a follow-on to yesterday’s post about a speaker who tells women to stop saying they’re sorry, now there’s a book with a similarly arresting title, “Girl, Stop Apologizing.” Like Speaker Maya Janovic, Author Rachel Hollis isn’t really telling people/women/girls not to take responsibility for wrongs done to others; instead, she’s trying to empower women […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Stop Apologizing?

Over-Using “Sorry”

March 21, 2019 – 10:44 am

It’s helpful to explore the appropriate time to use the word “sorry.” In general, we don’t use it enough, in the sense that we are typically too slow to acknowledge responsibility for the harms we cause others. But “sorry” can be mis-used, and over-used. I blogged about this in December, citing an article noting that […]

Posted in Apologies | Comments Off on Over-Using “Sorry”