[Peace-discuss] Forgiveness Weekend

[Phil Stinard]

Carl, do you really think you'd be satisfied with secondhand reports?  Why 
don't you go and listen for yourself?  Clifford Thornton provided a 
realistic humanist counterpoint to Bevel's religious extremism, and I have 
to say that it was great hearing a variety of viewpoints presented.  It was 
also nice seeing Bevel patiently listening to what Thornton had to say.  
Kudos to Aaron for setting this up.

As far as forgiveness goes, it's pretty clear that there were at least two 
aspects presented:  (1) Asking the state and society to forgive felons' 
mistakes and give them a chance at a job and housing, and (2) the felons 
asking society's forgiveness and changing their lives around.  There was a 
strong religious undercurrent in some of the speakers' presentation, but 
remember that the event was held in a church, and many of the people who 
spoke are ministers.

AWARE could do a better job of reaching out to the black community, and 
could do it without endorsing religious content, and by the same token, 
without belittling particular leaders.  It could be done by working on areas 
of agreed common interests.  You can't simply discard a group of people out 
of hand because you disagree with some of their viewpoints--otherwise, you'd 
discard everyone and never get anything done.  Personal objections to 
peoples' religious beliefs can be discussed privately on a one-on-one 
basis--I think it's the only way that you can effectively change someone's 
beliefs or at least make them see your point of view.

--Phil

>Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 15:06:13 -0600
>From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
>Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Forgiveness Weekend program schedule
>To: Randall Cotton <recotton at earthlink.net>
>Cc: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>Message-ID:
>	<Pine.SGI.4.10.10502181503570.801471-100000 at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
>Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
>
>I'll be interested in hearing, at the conclusion of the weekend, if people
>are any clearer on what forgiveness is being asked.  --CGE