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dave capozzi's avatar

Great stuff, Jeff!

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Flyfisherjo's avatar

The Christian churches in Canada were required to make reparations to the Indigenous people for all the harm they caused, individually and generationally, in the residential schools. The Protestant churches paid up. They sold valuable land and buildings in the downtown core of Toronto and paid their bills in full. They asked for forgiveness and created programs on education as well as created new worship materials that were inclusive and diverse.

Behind everyone’s backs, the Catholic Church went to the prime minister of the time (Harper) and arranged to be “forgiven” the debt because they could not get parishioners to raise more than $35K in the special offering at the end of church on one Sunday.😡🙄 Meanwhile, they refurbished the Toronto cathedral for over a million dollars. That’s when I walked away.

I have real issues (and have argued this many times) with the concept that if someone harms you, you just have to forgive them…period. I maintain, they need to ask for forgiveness and are required to demonstrate they will be changing their ways. Whether they are a priest, a family member, a friend or colleague, forgiveness is an empty gesture if the will to change the behaviour isn’t there. We all slip up, none of us are perfect, I am only talking about those who willfully continue to think they can be destructive, and continue to think they need only demand your forgiveness because “You are a Christian! You must forgive me.”

So reparations by all means, but the change of heart and behaviour is the most important thing because forgiveness cannot be healing without it.

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