All Comments (11)

correction:

A Gooner is but a Goonee Gooned and Gooning. Goonology 101.

Will someone please peel me a grape?

The just will get their reward in heaven.
The unjust will be get their's in hell.
The righteous get all they can here and now from goons.

Mad Love:

Oh and by the way, I did like you asked and looked up the word "goon". It lead me to a website called http://www.hoax-buster.org.

Is we talking about gooners or goonees?

Oh and by the way, I did like you asked and looked up the word "goon". It lead me to a website called www.hoax-buster.org.

BGONE, forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean your not going to 'press charges' and let justice happen. It just means that your going to put it behind you and get on with your life. I’m a big fan of justice. Hate, not so much.

Personally, I observe that too often presented these days as some magical thing that Christians are entitled to for things they may have done to people... in practice, too often a way for them to say, 'I'm Christian, you're spiritually inferior if you don't pretend I haven't done and am still doing what I want to be 'forgiven' for.

Too often it becomes some idea that if people obey the right people, they aren't accountab'e for what they do, often in the name of said religion, often at the expense of others, and often, too, even for doing things which harm no one in the first place.

A way of claiming to represent 'the divine judge,' say people are bad for no reason, then absolve onesself from making that judgement and or acting on it.

It's not good for one to cling to grudges....in the heart, at least. But observing this fact does not mean that we are immune to the effects of what we do. Or that 'forgiving' is always the answer.

Forgiveness is a valuable tool in our spiritual toolboxes... But it's not the only one... And too often it's used for all purposes by those who want to claim, 'I'm Christian, thus above reproach. You, on the other hand, will be accused of horrible things until you agree with me, at which point you'll be 'forgiven,' even if you never did anything wrong in the first place.

We see here certain people who want to think a Divine Judge has granted them *immunity.* It doesn't actually mean they're right on any given point. Or even in judging. Which was kinda supposed to be important in that world view for a *reason* in the first place.

Too often I see people touting 'Divine Forgiveness' as a way of saying, 'It's impossible to put things right without believing in my Judge.'

That, I think, doesn't free. It binds.

Mad Love:

You said, "I disagree. Forgiveness is for the benefit of the victim, not the guilty party. To keep hate in your own heart is to nurture a cancer on your own soul."

Brings to mind an old expression, "this is a non profit corporation. It wasn't planned that way but that is how it's turned out." I'm sure you're correct, the way what your statement represents was planned. But what is the reality?

Only the pope forgives his attackers, historically extremely new. To understand evangelical forgiveness just look at Mr Clinton or Rev Haggard. And if you can't get it from that try the undocumented aliens attitude among those Jesus freaks known as evangelicals. OJ Simpson? Anyone? Your president is going to hunt those terrorist down and bring them to justice. Condemnation is not how it was planned but how it's turned out.

Do you know anyone who forgives the 19 of 9-11-2001? Would Jesus forgive them? Should Jesus forgive them?

Your assignment - look up the word GOON.

PS Thank God the Bible is a proved hoax so gooniness be-gone and let common sense prevail on all occasions.

With all due respect, I think if you are going to use someone like the Dalia Lama’s sentiments on religion, you should at least give his own reasoned arguments for those sentiments. Yes, using your world view he seems to make no sense, but it would have been much more interesting to hear his own reasoning for his own views on religion.

" Yet compassion or empathy can keep us from confronting destructive behaviors in others. "

This is why the Dalai Lama also talks about compassion with wisdom. In the Buddhist tradition it is a person’s goal to honestly seek what is best for a person. That is what compassion is. But it is not only empathy, but empathy with wisdom.

" Finally, empathy for others can erode the important and healthy sense of an integrated self that everyone, women and men, children and adults, needs to function as a separate individual. "

Here you pretty much take the complete opposite view of the Dalai Lama. In fact, your mistaken position here is (according to the Buddhist tradition) at the very heart of every human problem you mention previously. All the violence, all the ignorance, all the selfishness is caused by the very sentiments you hold out to be healthful truths… that we are all separate individuals with an ‘integrated self’ seeking some form of relief from the people around us.

You could not take a less Buddhist position.

" I believe that the practice of peace and non-violence is the greatest religious lesson the Dalai Lama has to teach us all. "

This is such a passive aggressive way to end your article. You state the Dalai Lama’s sentiments, you tear them down without every giving the reasoning behind them, and then you throw him this meatless bone of conciliation.

Truly awful writing.

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite writes:

"Forgiveness cannot be separated from the need of the one who is perpetrating the violence to confess the wrong and change. Then and only then does forgiveness become possible and sometimes still it takes a very long time for people to let go of the hurt that has been done to them, the deep meaning of forgiveness."

I disagree. Forgiveness is for the benefit of the victim, not the guilty party. To keep hate in your own heart is to nurture a cancer on your own soul.

Great article. Too much hiding behind the religious-enduced, fake smile of "God is love" while intentionally hurting others, doing violence against their souls. Compassion with confrontation equals growth.

Miss Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite:

Aren't you saying that there's something terribly wrong with religion? The boy/girl scouts have more of the qualities of "love, compassion and forgiveness" than any religion.

Could it be so, http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul Is God or Devil behind religion? Only Devil would preach, "love, compassion and forgiveness" while practicing, "hate, cruelty and condemnation." Don't you agree?

Is it so that "unless we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior we are going to hell?" Makes perfect sense to me that the supernatural being in the ball of fire, the one that helped Moses recover from his downfall, the one that fathered Jesus and more, that supernatural being is Devil and not God at all. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, must be a duck.

The evidence is undeniable yet it is denied. Is denial of truth not in itself a lie? Would God lie? Can Devil help Himself?