Forgiveness “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Forgiving is the key to get through life and continue being happy. You can't live in darkness and despise all your life.

5 Greatest Acts of Forgiveness
Fambul Tok

In 'Fambul Tok' there are many acts of forgiveness, including people who we're betrayed by their own family and friends.

  • To me, the story of Esther was the most absurd of them all. This poor 12 year old girl was raped by 15 men, one including her uncle. Her uncle was among those men raping her.
This is where all the Fambul Tok stories we're told, including Esther's horrifying story.

Esther told her story then asked her uncle to come up in front of everyone and say sorry. He came up and said sorry and said "he will do anything she wants him to do from now." She kindly accepted his apology and then the others continued with their stories.

Charleston, S.C. Church Shooting

Outside of the Charleston church.

The suspect for the shooting.

Dylann Roof was the murderer of these innocent people just praying to god at their local church. He was dead wrong for what he did and he knew it. There might have been something wrong in his head but it still didn't give him an excuse to kill 9 people in a church.

As he sat in front of the court and the families of those who we're killed, he admitted to committing these murders. But a different outcome then most thought came out. The people one by one we're saying "I forgive you."

The most interesting of them all was definitely Nadine Collier's response, daughter of Ethel Lance, 70. “I forgive you,” she said, “You took something very precious from me. I will never talk to her again. I will never, ever hold her again. But I forgive you. And have mercy on your soul.” It takes a lot to forgive that big of a crime, but somehow these strong people are doing it.

Domestic Violence - Ray Rice Case
Janay Rice defending her husband at a press conference.

This whole situation started on February 15th. Rice and his fiance we're arrested on what was known as a small altercation. But later videos we're released. (I won't show because it's kind of sad) In the video, Rice beat up his fiance pretty bad in the elevator of a casino. The NFL didn't take it very lightly as he was suspended and then later on cut from his team. But since then his wife has taken the fall with him and hasn't left his side. She says in interviews that she "[I] love[s] her husband. I support him. I want people to respect our privacy in this family matter."

Getting interviewed in their home.

Even though Janay clearly forgived him in a strong manner. It hasn't helped Ray at all. His fight for the NFL is still in process and it isn't looking any better. But he still has her by his side even though she should have left him alone in my opinion instead of forgiving him for his actions.

Cathy O'Daniel Killing
Ami White (All the way left) Linda White (Middle) Gary Brown (All the way right), Gary Brown killed Cathy O'Daniel then Linda and Ami White (Mom and Sister) forgave him.

It was one night their troubled daughter Cathy came home with a new guy she had met and planned on marrying. That night she went out with her man after they stopped in and talked to her parents, but never came back. What happened was these two 15 year old boys stole her car with her in it at a gas station. Then kid napped her, killed her, raped her and even stole money and kept her car. This thrilling story went on for a long time, with a series of trials. Gary Brown then admitted that when he was about to kill her was "I forgive you, and god will too." This news was so crazy to the mom and sister that at the end of their meeting together, they ended up hugging and taking pictures together. The strength it had to take them to do that was crazy, but they did it and that is a true sign of forgiveness.

Green River Killer
A famous woman killer, the Green River Killer admitted to killing up to 60 woman, but was only charged with 49 of them.

Gary Leon Ridgway was the "Green River Killer," he was famous for slaying woman. A lot of them lashed out and we're very angry, but when Robert Rule, the father of a teenage victim Jane Rule, came up he said “Mr. Ridgway . . . there are people here that hate you. I’m not one of them. You’ve made it difficult to live up to what I believe, and that is what God says to do, and that’s to forgive. You are forgiven, sir.” These words brought Ridgway to tears. Then forgiveness was given on both sides, you can see Ridgway regretted that one if any of them and the father faced the truth and got over it as much as he could.

Forgiving someone is the way to keep pushing forward when there's a problem. A lot of people think it's impossible to forgive but others don't as you can tell from the above articles. My advice to you is, forgive. This project has changed my view on forgiveness and now I will forgive more often.

Sources

http://www.fambultok.com/about/synopsis

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/06/19/i-forgive-you-relatives-of-charleston-church-victims-address-dylann-roof/?utm_term=.d807731d9faa

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/09/10/ray_rice_domestic_violence_janay_rice_is_standing_by_her_man_but_the_nfl.html

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/06/gary_brown_and_linda_white_he_killed_her_daughter_she_found_a_way_to_forgive.html

http://listverse.com/2013/10/31/10-extraordinary-examples-of-forgiveness/

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Created with images by Moondusty - "im sorry" • bykst - "rose background excuse me"

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